A U.S. Navy (USN) vet has taken over the site that housed North Park’s nanobrewery Home Brewing for the past 10 years. A student of the UCSD Brewing Certificate program and graduate of MiraCosta College’s BrewTech program, Eric Bridges is combining his passion for process-driven brewing and the storied history of the USN’s non-commissioned leaders: Chief Petty Officers (CPO). Bridges retired as a senior chief, then proceeded to devote more time to homebrewing, a pursuit he embarked in while deployed on the USS Anchorage in 2014. Now, he’ll be making beer on Home Brewing’s one-barrel system while he awaits the arrival and installation of a five-barrel brewhouse. The fruits of that fermentation will stock the taps of his business, El Cid Brewing. Named for the U.S. Naval Academy’s goat mascot, which was gifted to the university by CPO’s from the USS New York in 1893, the operation will be steeped in hops, grain, yeast, military history and esprit de corps.
How did the idea for El Cid come about and how long have you been working on it?
It dates back to 2016 or 2017 when I started to fantasize about making the jump from homebrewing to professional brewing, but I started to seriously pursue this idea about July or August of last year. I had provided some homebrew kegs to a friend of mine for a fantasy football draft, and an idea for beer catering popped into my mind. After I found out how not-so-legal my idea was, I felt it was the right time for me to make the leap from my garage to a commercial space to go pro. I have been retired from the service for a few years, my kids are almost grown and I own a house here, so if there was ever a right time to make this dream a reality, this was it.
Where did you consider building El Cid and how did you decide on the Home Brewing Co. location?
I had looked all over the place, from El Cajon, Kearny Mesa, Chula Vista, National City and so on to find a space to brew in, but always came up short for one reason or another. Earlier this year, I linked up with my partner, Terry Kellar, whom I met in our UCSD Brewing Certificate class on yeast at White Labs. He had similar goals, so we paired up to double our efforts. We have been meeting almost every week for the past six months to plan on how to get started in the industry. As for the Home Brewing site, I had been a customer of the business for years. The week after they closed down, I swung by to see if they were selling any more things like bins or hardware, and I noticed the for-lease sign on the building. I called that afternoon, but the agency was already negotiating with someone else. I followed up the next week, just to see if the deal had gone through, and I was informed the had accepted terms. After heading back to the drawing board, the very next day, I got a call from the broker, who said the prospective tenant backed out at the last minute. He asked if I was still interested and I responded with something like ‘Does a bear doo-doo in the woods”. I really lucked out, and fortunately, since I had been a customer at HBC, [the previous owner] George Thornton was gracious enough to help me transfer his license to our LLC, greatly speeding up the timeline for us to open.
What is El Cid’s design motif and what styles of beer can we expect when you open?
El Cid will focus much of its theme around the Navy and the chief petty offers that serve in it. The main focus will be on that of Naval history and the camaraderie that is rooted by those who serve aboard ships. The imagery will be that of crusty old sailors with beards who are smoking cigars and so on…the cool stuff. The core styles of beer we will offer will line up with this theme. We’ll have a “khaki pale ale” called Ask the Chief, an Irish red ale called Red Chevrons, an American lager called General Order 409, and a West Coast IPA brewed with Citra, Mosaic and Simcoe called Knifehand. I just won a medal at the National Homebrew Competition for that last one. We’ll also have a Mexican lager, strawberry hefeweizen, hazy IPA, double IPA and green-apple hard seltzer.
What are your aspirations for the business?
In five years, I would hope we are at least in one more location, preferably on Third Avenue in Chula Vista. I would also like to open in Temecula or somewhere else in South Riverside County where there is a large Navy community. In 10 years, I would like to see us open in other Navy-centric, fleet concentration areas, such as Ventura; Bremerton, Washington; Pearl Harbor, Hawaii; San Antonio, Texas; Jacksonville Beach, Florida; Virginia Beach, Virginia and even Yokosuka, Japan. We are also looking at having a production facility in the near future to accommodate statewide and eventually nationwide distribution in cans and kegs. I am not sure how I am going to accomplish these goals yet, but I do see utilizing some kind of franchising model for retired Navy chiefs who want to own a business rather than work a regular nine-to-five after retirement.
When do you plan to open El Cid to the public?
We intend to soft-open on August 5 at 4 p.m. and be open Friday-to-Sunday until we can increase our capacity with our upcoming five-barrel system. It will also allow us to work the kinks out of our business model since, undoubtedly, there will be some growing pains for myself and Terry. We are going to have a grand opening celebration on April 1, 2023 with the significance of that date being the 130th birthday of the chief petty officer.