The Bureau's sensors register a spike in pumpkin, marshmallow fluff and spooky can names over the 619 area code. Earthlings call this October. We call it research.
This year’s crop of San Diego Halloween beers reads like a haunted candy aisle that has been dry-hopped. The list below comes from the San Diego Beer News “What’s Tapping” roundup for Oct. 22, 2026, and covers the spooky-named and seasonal pours that caught our antennae. It includes a sour stuffed with candy, a cursed seltzer, two graveyard-ready hop bombs, a pumpkin stout and a poison apple Berliner weisse.
San Diego Halloween beers at a glance
| Beer | Brewery | Style / ABV |
|---|---|---|
| Tasty Graves | Harland Brewing | Fruit punch-inspired sour ale, 5% |
| Probably Cursed | Harland Brewing | Hard seltzer, 5% |
| Horrific Horrors | North Park Beer Co. | Triple dry-hopped hazy double IPA, 8.5% |
| Graveyard Quintet | North Park Beer Co. | Double dry-hopped West Coast pale ale, 5% |
| Magna Cucuribita | Mike Hess Brewing | Pumpkin stout, 7.2% |
| Poison Apple | Barley & Sword Brewing | Berliner-style weisse, 3.1% |
Harland Brewing’s San Diego Halloween beers: candy in a can, and a curse
San Diego Beer News says Harland is “getting into the Halloween spirit” with Tasty Graves. It’s a fruit punch-inspired sour ale with cherry, cherry hard candy, pineapple, pineapple gummy bears, orange gummies, candied lemon and marshmallow fluff, at 5% ABV. The Bureau counted seven sweet things in that list and had to lie down. Of all the San Diego Halloween beers on the list, it is the most over the top.
Its companion is Probably Cursed, a 5% hard seltzer with hard green apple candy, lemon and lime. The listing puts both at Harland’s taprooms in Scripps Ranch, 4S Ranch, Pacific Beach, Bay Park and South Park.
North Park Beer Co.: hops from beyond the grave
Among the hoppier San Diego Halloween beers, North Park Beer Co. has two pours with spooky names. Horrific Horrors is a triple dry-hopped hazy double IPA at 8.5%, so it’s a monster in strength as well as in name. Graveyard Quintet is a double dry-hopped West Coast pale ale at a more sessionable 5%. The roundup lists North Park, Bankers Hill and Pacific Beach for the brewery.
Mike Hess Brewing: a pumpkin stout
Mike Hess Brewing’s Magna Cucuribita is a pumpkin stout at 7.2%, and it’s the darkest of these San Diego Halloween beers. A quick note on spelling: San Diego Beer News prints it “Cucuribita,” while the botanical genus for pumpkins is Cucurbita. We’ve used the source’s spelling, since we haven’t seen the brewery’s own label. The listing covers Hess locations in North Park, Downtown, Ocean Beach, Imperial Beach and Alpine.
Barley & Sword: Poison Apple
For something light, Barley & Sword Brewing has Poison Apple, a Berliner-style weisse at just 3.1%. At that strength, it’s the fairy-tale apple you can actually finish. The roundup lists it for the brewery’s Escondido and North Park locations.
Where (and when) to find these San Diego Halloween beers
The roundup gives no tap dates or end dates. These are “what’s tapping” listings, and draft lines in October move faster than a werewolf at moonrise. Before you head out, check each brewery’s social media or taproom list to confirm what’s pouring. Locations are as San Diego Beer News listed them, and not every beer may be at every taproom.
And yes, Belching Beaver’s lime-spiked lager is back for Dia de los Muertos season too. Rather than repeat ourselves, here’s our Dia de los Deftones lager write-up from Oct. 17.
The Bureau’s trick-or-treat route
- For the sweet tooth: Tasty Graves, if marshmallow fluff in a sour sounds like a dare you want to take.
- For hopheads: Horrific Horrors at 8.5%, followed by Graveyard Quintet as the lighter, more sensible option.
- For stout people: Magna Cucuribita, which is about as autumnal as a style gets.
- For the designated driver’s first beer: Poison Apple at 3.1%.
That’s the 2026 ghoul list of San Diego Halloween beers we spotted. If your local taproom has a spooky pour we missed, the Bureau’s probes are open.
Transmission ends. Beware the full moon, and the fluff.
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