Cameron Ball describes his La Mesa business, Helix Brewing, as a “small powerhouse” and says he enjoys flying under the radar, but a repercussion that enjoyable anonymity is the fact most local beer fans have no idea about his passion project within a passion project: Sourworx. An all-barrel-aged operation offering visitors 10-to-12 sour beers of all ilks, it’s a bit of a rarity in IPA-obsessed San Diego, in line with the likes of California Wild Ales and The Lost Abbey in terms of consistent quantity and variety of tart, oak-matured stock. While other local breweries have pared back their barrel-aging programs, Ball has upped his number of barrels year after year and experienced zero trouble selling every bit of his sour creations from the comfort of his own tasting room. Intrigued by this phenomenon, we booked some time with the East County entrepreneur to discuss how Sourworx started and how it’s advanced over the years.
When did the idea for Sourworx come about?
Sourworx as an idea started before Helix poured its first beers after I realized beer as an art can be expressed much further than the highly sought-after San Diego hoppy ales and crushable lagers. I dabbled in sour beer fermentation as a homebrewer, but never had the space or brewing capacity to age sour beer in oak barrels. Once Helix was operational, I flew to Sacramento with one of my best buddies, rented the biggest U-Haul available, drove it to Western Square in Sacramento to buy barrel racks, then headed to Picchetti Winery in Cupertino to load 30 wine barrels. The trip was epic. I got a crash course in barrel-management from Picchetti’s winemaker, then drove to Firestone Walker in Paso Robles to visit a college buddy and tour the massive expansion that was occurring there, then landed in my old college stomping grounds in San Luis Obispo. The drive the next day was supposed to take me all the way to Helix, but after a post-hike stop at High St Deli followed by pints at Doc’s Cellar—the place I purchased my first homebrew kit—then more pints at Figueroa Mountain and a rad tour of Firestone Walker’s Barrrelworks facility in Buellton, I was in no shape to drive home. It all made me want to further push the boundaries of Helix and set my brewery apart from the other 100 or so in San Diego at the time. I needed a brand that expressed exactly what this new passion was and what I was working on, and Sourworx fit that expression. So, after finally making it to Helix on the third day and unloading 30 wine barrels, I went straight to work brewing two base beers, a wheat-based golden ale and an oat-based red ale, filled six wine barrels with each of them straight out of the brewhouse, added Saccharomyces, Brettanomyces, Lactobacillus and Pediococcus to each barrel, strapped some blowoff hoses to the bungs while fermentation went wild and then set the barrels aside for hibernation. Three years later, our golden sour, Walking Through Windows, and our sour red, Coincidence of Epic Proportions, were liberated to the taps!
How did you intermingle sour-beer production at your brewery?
Helix started with 2,000 square feet of indoor space to house a 10-barrel brewhouse, fermenters, brite tanks, kegs, cold storage, a keg washer and a tasting room. It was tight! When I was designing and building Helix, I thought I would need to buy more tanks and larger tanks to follow the developed path to becoming a production brewery and making enough beer for bars and restaurants. Fortunately, all of Helix’s beer was being consumed on premise and I found myself spending time thinking about creative directions to push Helix rather than hunting out the next sales call to get beer on at a retail account. For me, that meant sour-beer production. I kept acquiring wine barrels from Picchetti every summer and aging more sour beer where I had originally planned to land 20- and 30-barrel fermenters. I used my engineering background and other techniques to keep from experiencing contamination issues with our clean beer, until the fall of 2017 when I completed drawings and obtained permits from the City of La Mesa for a complete buildout of a building adjacent to the brewery. The following February, I hit go with the pen to lease that 3,000-square-foot space and commenced a quick eight-month buildout while maintaining full production operations as the sole brewer at Helix. It was crazy. I was crazy. I am still crazy. But I love sharing beers and creating smiles with friends, which is what motivated me and got me to the finish line. In October 2018, Sourworx opened with 12 sour beers on tap, each having been aged in oak anywhere from one-to-three years.
What were Sourworx’s initial beer offerings?
Helix opened with 12 barrel-fermented beers on tap, ranging from golden, red and dark sours, some with fruit and some without. It was a way for me enter with a full spectrum of sours. We are on the second, third and fourth generations of the initial barrels that produced those first offerings. Some of the barrels give life to other beers. For example, Two Emotions is a sour that is fermented and aged with raspberries. When that beer reached maturity and was racked into the serving tank, a new base sour beer was brewed and racked into the barrels without cleaning it. These already inoculated oak-soaked raspberry barrels age for a couple years and make Old Delusions, which is reminiscent of raspberries even though no fruit is added. This is done with other fruited beers as well and the offerings are growing with many different fruits and post-fruited barrels.
What are some Sourworx beers that have been particularly well received?
Everyone loved Betting on Stars, which was a spontaneously fermented dark sour beer. We took an unrinsed Port-wine barrel, racked warm wort into it and covered the bunghole with a paper towel while it slowly cooled. After two days, fermentation began and I placed a bung on it to keep bugs out. I wish I could remake this rare beer. Another solid standout is Tropical Funerals, a golden sour that comes from barrels that previously had a passionfruit sour in it called Future Futures. The yeast and bacteria are working so harmoniously that each generation of reused barrel surpasses the previous. One would think there was copious amounts of passionfruit added to these barrels, but all the flavors are coming through fermentation. We do something similarly with Old Delusions, a sour that comes from barrels which previously housed a raspberry sour called Two Emotions. It’s a fun leap-frog approach of reusing barrels.
How has Sourworx grown over the years?
We currently have 176 wine barrels filled with sour beer. The barrels fit with the workable cellaring space while still allowing enough seating in the tasting room. Sourworx has been growing each year with more fans seeking us out for sour beers. We have never advertised our beers, nor have we packaged any of our sours. Everyone who comes through the door was referred by a friend, which is special to us. Lately, we have been implementing more fruit to the lineup and experimenting with different fermentation methods, but these experiments take years, so don’t hold your breath.