Many are the offspring who owe a great deal to their parents for helping shape them into the individuals they eventually become. Count Charlie and Tommy Gordon among them. Their father attained cool-dad status long ago by being an early adopter of craft beer, the type of guy to not only enjoy West Coast IPAs before they were ubiquitous but consider opening a brewery where he could make his own hop-bombs.
That affection for beer and entrepreneurism carried over to his sons, who learned to homebrew in college, going on to attend the Brewtech Program at Mira Costa College’s Technology Career Institute. Upon completing that Master Brewers Association of the Americas-certified program, the fraternal pair went about the work of making dear old dad’s long-held dream come true, pouring their passion and resources into Blue Fire Brewing. That operation soft-opened in northwest San Marcos on Independence Day weekend, but its official grand-opening festivities will take place this weekend.
The Gordons, who have spent the past two-plus months laying low to dial in their processes before officially debuting to the public, credit the aforementioned Brewtech Program with preparing him and his brother for the myriad challenges they faced getting their brewery off the ground. His praise of goes beyond the classroom and its in-house brewery to instructor Mike Stevenson, who is also the head brewer for Carlsbad business, Culver Beer Co. After deciding to open a brewery, the duo went to him for advice.
“Mike and his business partner, Ben Fairweather, personally did much of the build-out at Culver, so their advice on our own build-out process, which we did a lot of ourselves, was invaluable,” says Tommy. “Mike’s teaching style allowed us to cut through to the important aspects of the different processes involved in crafting beer and focus on the end results we were aiming to achieve.”
The Gordons’ five-barrel brew system feeds into a trio of 10-barrel tanks as well as three one-barrel fermenters, allowing the brothers to try out a wealth of recipe ideas and maintain a good deal of variety on the beer board. Blue Fire’s menu currently includes an easy-drinking Motueka-hopped lager, C-hopped West Coast IPA, El Dorado-hopped hazy IPA, juicy IPA, session red IPA, porter and a pair of brown ales fermented with different yeast strains (Voss Kveik and California Ale). As for what’s next, that has as much to do with the patrons as the producers.
“We aren’t coming into this with rigid beliefs of what or how we need to brew. We believe the consumer—our neighbors—will guide what styles we focus on,” says Tommy. “We hope to have a balanced tap list that will please everyone. If you come to Blue Fire and don’t see a brew you find appealing, let us know!”
Capable of seating around 50 indoors and equipped with plenty of shaded picnic tables outside, Blue Fire’s tasting room is currently the only place to get the company’s beers. While the Gordons aim to remain a small neighborhood brewery, producing only around 200 barrels annually, they do hope to self-distribute in the near future. When they do, they will focus on supplying kegs to accounts in their immediate area.
But first, the family will turn the page from its lengthy soft-open period. Blue Fire’s grand-opening festivities will take place on Friday and Saturday, September 24 and 25, and feature two new-release beers: an IPA brewed with wheat, oats and local white sage then dry-hopped with Centennial and Comet hops, and a strong blonde ale that won praise as a small-batch creation earlier this year.
Blue Fire’s hours of operation are 3 to 8 p.m., Tuesday through Thursday, 3 to 9 p.m. on Fridays, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays, and 3 to 7 p.m. on Mondays.
Blue Fire Brewing is located at 2892 South Santa Fe Avenue, Suite 107, in San Marcos