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Here’s a refreshing resolution: why not get fit by running for beer?

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New Beers’ Resolutions

This year, resolve to get in shape, one pint at a time. San Diego has at least two brewery-sponsored running clubs, blending good cardiovascular workouts with good craft beers.

Tonight, you can join the Thursday Beer Run Club, which meets 6:30 p.m. weekly at Eppig’s Brewing’s Waterfront Biergarten, 2817 Dickens St., San Diego. After a three-mile jog around Shelter Island, most athletes return to Eppig to re-hydrate.

There’s also the Mikkeller Running Club San Diego, which meets on the first Saturday of each month, at the brewery, 9366 Cabot Drive. The start time tends to vary, so check the club’s Facebook page, www.facebook.com/mrcsandiego.

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There’s a side-benefit, beside the obvious boost to your health. At Eppig, finishers are treated to $1 off the normal $7 pint price.

Most runners, noted brewery co-owner Stephanie Eppig, order a pilsner or another lager. “Something light and refreshing,” she said. “But now that it’s getting colder, a few people are switching over to stouts and schwarzbier.”

Where to Drink Next

This month, two much-anticipated brewpubs will debut in San Diego:

1. Gravity Heights, 9920 Pacific Heights Blvd. in Sorrento Mesa, has generated deafening levels of buzz for good reasons. The principals include Arturo Kassel, CEO of Whisknladle, and Charles “Skip” Virgilio, co-founder of AleSmith. Twenty-five years ago, Virgilio became the first local brewer to capture a Great American Beer Festival medal.

Since selling AleSmith in July 2002, Virgilio dropped from the commercial brewing ranks. He’ll soon return with a vengeance, rolling out 13 house-brewed beers when Gravity Heights opens. (The tentative date: Jan. 24.)

“It’s been really fun and exciting,” Virgilio said about his return. “When I started edging back into it, there was some nervousness and there’s still a little.”

His brewing team includes Tommy “T.K.” Kreamer, previously at Lost Abbey, and Mike Williams, formerly with Benchmark.

2. Joe Peach may sound like a native Californian, but his beers speak with a strong Kiwi accent.

“Pretty much everybody involved in the business is from New Zealand,” said Joe Peach, head brewer at Kairoa, 4601 Park Blvd. in University Heights.

OK, Joe, but your SoCal English? “I moved here when I was 10, so I pretty much lost my accent.”

Peach’s beers lean heavily on New Zealand’s tropical, juicy hop varieties and he’s partial to lagers. “One of our specialty beers is a New Zealand-style pilsner,” he said, “very similar to a Northern German pilsner but it uses all New Zealand hops. It’s slightly more bitter and has more of a citrus, lemon-lime character.”

The food, too, will have a Middle Earth flavor: pork sausage roll, green lipped mussels, meat pies and smoked lamb.

Still, Peach is well-grounded in the local beer scene. He’s brewed for Poway’s Lightning and San Diego’s Bitter Brothers.

At press time, Kairoa was awaiting its final inspection. If all goes well, the 24-tap, 10,500-square-foot establishment will open by month’s end.

Kings of Beer

If you can’t beat ‘em, brew ‘em? Dominic Engels, Stone’s CEO, noted that roughly three out of every four beers sold in the U.S. is a lager, while Stone has focused on ales — until now.

This month, Stone Tropic of Thunder Lager (5.8 percent alcohol by volume) is rolling out to all 50 states. I suspect this will please craft ale fans and mass-market lager lovers alike. The hops here — Citra, Mosaic and a newcomer, Cashmere — are sweet and full. There’s a spritz of pineapple on the nose, and layers of tea, melon and green grapes please the tongue. The finish offers a hint of new-mown grass.

TOT probably won’t replace any of Stone’s better-known ales, but it’s a welcome and different addition to the catalog.

The Coors Caucus

In a recent online video, prospective presidential candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) hoisted a Michelob Ultra.

Or, as she dubbed it, “the club soda of beer.”

This blip from the campaign trail — gawd, has it started already? — inspired Tom Acitelli to dash off an article for The Washington Post: “Why Elizabeth Warren — and Every Would-Be President — Prefers Macrobrews.” The author of “The Audacity of Hops: The History of America’s Craft Beer Revolution,” Acitelli indicates that voters are divided into craft beer and macro beer camps. (He plants San Diego County in the former.)

Do you agree? Read the whole essay at wapo.st/2CW95EP and share thoughts with Brewery Rowe (peter.rowe@sduniontribune.com).

Words to Drink By

“He was just annoyed because I told him the ale was too weak. I told him the true Highland brew requires an old boot to be added to the vat, and the final product strained through a well-worn undergarment.” — Frank Randall reveals his unique brewing technique in Diana Gabaldon’s “Outlander” (1994). Gabaldon’s 67th birthday is Friday.

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Twitter: @peterroweut

peter.rowe@sduniontribune.com

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