Location is everything for Scott and Tessa Christian. When searching for a spot to open a brewery, the married couple wanted to select a site near their La Mesa home, but it wasn’t all about keeping their commute short. They wanted to live close enough to the community their business would call home so they could be involved, productive members within it. Narrowing their scope left them with prospective neighborhoods that had few, if any, breweries. This appealed to the Christians, who were interested in expanding craft-beer culture in an underserved area versus being just another brewery in a city flush with fermentation operations.
“We knew we wanted to be in La Mesa, Spring Valley or Lemon Grove. We enjoy visiting breweries and generally stick fairly close to home since we have a toddler,” says Scott. “It didn’t take long to realize how few breweries are in the area compared to other parts of the county, and we really felt like there needed to be more.”
In the end, the Christians selected a 2,100-square-foot former auto shop with an additional 2,100 square feet of outdoor space on Broadway in Lemon Grove. A community with just one brewery—three-year-old 13 Point Brewing—but a population of over 26,000, it has plenty of room for a new beer business. In early 2020, Amplified Ale Works thought the same thing. The Pacific Beach-based business had secured a 5,000-square-foot former bakery a stone’s throw from the iconic giant lemon, with plans to convert it into a manufacturing headquarters with an indoor tasting room and large outdoor patio, but the negative impacts of the pandemic forced ownership to abandon the project.
The Christians’ Sunny Grove Brewing is far smaller but plenty ambitious and on par with the neighborhood-geared brewery model that’s become so popular with craft-beer consumers over the past half-decade. Scott will brew on a three-barrel Premier Stainless system double-batching into a quintet of seven-barrel fermenters. An accomplished homebrewer of over 14 years, his accolades include numerous first-place ribbons from the San Diego County Fair.
“Coming from a homebrewing background, my MO has always been to brew what Tessa and I like to drink. That typically leads to lagers and sessionable beers of all styles, so we’ll start with that same MO at Sunny Grove,” says Scott. “We will, of course, have a variety of IPAs—clear and hazy—but also some delicious English, Irish, Scottish and German styles. We plan to have a variety so there will always be something new to try, but people will still be able to come and enjoy their usuals.”
Scott expects to brew around 250 barrels in Sunny Grove’s first full year, then slowly and steadily increase production year after year. The maximum amount of beer he can produce annually with his current setup is 700 barrels. That figure is based on 20% of production being lagers, which spend a longer time in tank. Bottom-fermenting styles slated for production include a Mexican-style lager and German-style pilsner. Sunny Grove’s initial assortment of ales will include American and hazy pale ales, West Coast and New England-style IPAs, an English-style mild, Scottish-style export and porter.
The Christians hope to have most of those beers pouring from their 20-tap system when they open. With an estimated four months of construction ahead of them, they figure Sunny Groves’ public debut will occur in fall. They expect to start out with a one-month soft-opening period before holding a grand-opening celebration. The couple has utilized this slow-and-safe approach for some time.
They first started thinking about opening a brewery over a decade ago, but got serious about it about four years ago. When it became clear they would make the jump, Scott enrolled in SDSU’s Business of Craft Beer Program, adding that certificate to his business degree from UCSD. While he will handle production, Tessa will put her 18 years of restaurant-management experience to use handling operations and the hospitality side of things.
When asked about their goals for Sunny Grove, Scott replies, “Our goal is to be a small neighborhood brewery that has a fun, inviting vibe that’ll make you want to bring your friends and family, and stay for a while.”
Sunny Grove Brewing will be located at 7345 Broadway in Lemon Grove