“Little Bird Brewing is a rebrand of Thorn Street Brewery, which was the inspiration for Thorn Brewing, but not the same company or ownership as Thorn Brewing Company, but it does have the same founders.”
Confused? It’s OK if you are. Even when Dan Carrico, a co-founder of the triad of beery enterprises listed above takes the time to explain the delineation between them, it’s, well…a lot! Thus the need to dive beyond the company line to help the public understand where Carrico and his crew are today and what their North Park venue, Little Bird Brewing, truly is. For that, let’s go straight to the source.
“Thorn Street Brewery, which is now Little Bird Brewing, is owned by myself, Dennis O’Connor and Eric O’Connor, who are not related,” says Carrico. Thorn Street Brewery opened in 2013 as a North Park operation serving almost all of its beer across the bar at the split-level taproom on the street it was named for. The business built a fast following, inspiring its owners to expand their operation, open a production-brewing arm called Thorn Brewing and get the company’s beers into wide distribution. “When we decided to do Thorn, we raised close to $3 million from a collection of about 20 investors, each having between 1-20% ownership in the business.”
Thorn Brewing’s production brewery headquarters came online in Barrio Logan in 2017. That 10,500-square-foot facility functioned for seven years, until last September when Latitude Brewing, the parent company of 13-year-old, Vista-born Latitude 33 Brewing, purchased Thorn Brewing’s brand rights. That allowed Latitude to take over the company and production of its beverages. Thorn beers are now produced on a contract-basis and the Barrio Logan brewery has since been shut down.
No longer associated with Thorn Brewing, but still owners of Thorn Street Brewery, Carrico and company decided to change the name of their original location so as not to be in violation of their brand-licensing agreement with Latitude. This May, they rebranded as Little Bird and have since put up new exterior signage, changed up their logo and branding online, and renamed a number of fan-favorite beers while introducing other ales and lagers featuring avian handles.
“The name Little Bird is a nod to the park we are just a few blocks from. It is another place where neighbors get together to celebrate each other and being together,” says Carrico. “We actually wanted to go by the name Bird Park Brewing, but North Park Beer Co. has a beer called Bird Park Pilsner, and we were concerned there may have been confusion had we gone with that name.”
Little Bird’s owners are also in the process of remodeling their nest, putting on a new coat of paint while adding upholstered booth seating in the back bar area and bringing back stool seating at the front bar that was taken away during the pandemic. The goal is to lean even further into the space’s domestic design to make the space more comfortable.
But what Little Bird’s founders are most excited about is the throwback style of freedom they will once again have when it comes to making beer.
“When we were brewing beers for Thorn Brewing, we always had to keep the cost of goods for everything we produced in mind because the margins are so thin in the distribution model,” says Carrico. “Going back to the model of selling everything we make over the counter, we have more flexibility. All of our IPAs are getting more hops. I just created a seltzer using all-natural flavors instead of artificial flavors. Also, when making smaller batches, it is less risky to try new techniques. There is a big difference between dumping a seven-barrel batch of beer and dumping a 120-barrel batch of beer.”
Little Bird Brewing is located at 3176 Thorn Street in North Park