Since debuting in 2012, Belching Beaver Brewery has maintained little-brewery-that-could status, despite no longer being a little brewery. Distributed in 13 states and 13 countries, the North County brewing company produces 43,000 barrels a year and has regularly upped its brewing capabilities and distribution footprint while adding satellite venues such as its downtown Vista Tavern and Grill brewpub. Belching Beaver is preparing to expand again, and it will come as a result of the largest real-estate purchase in its history. The company is currently in escrow to acquire the 20,000-square-foot building abutting the south side of its headquarters in Oceanside.
“This was a big one for us, and I literally had to put all other expansion ideas on hold to make sure this one happens,” says Belching Beaver owner Tom Vogel. “There is no other building that would work for us. We can literally bust through the walls and make our building one congruent space. This will allow us to move the bottling line and the canning line off the brew pad, freeing up more space for brewing expansion.”
The purchase price of the property is $3.6 million. Vogel had hoped to acquire the building for some time and the current operator’s desire to move his business to Arizona created an opportunity. Vogel says the new space will increase the total square-footage of the company’s HQ campus to just under 70,000 square feet.
Once Belching Beaver moves in and connects the two buildings, an existing cold box will be moved to the new space where another cooler purchased from Latitude 33 Brewing’s former Vista brewery will also be sited. Moving the canning and bottling lines to the annexed building will allow for creation of a pathway leading from brewing to packaging to shipping, while freeing up enough space for installation of three or four 240-barrel fermenters.
Vogel hopes to increase production by 15% in 2021 to service new territories. Belching Beaver recently began distributing beer to Texas and is close to entering the Colorado market. New Mexico and Illinois are also in the company’s sights. It seems almost counterintuitive for a beermaking operation to be advancing in the midst of a global pandemic, but the appeal of the company’s canned and bottled products has helped Belching Beaver do more than simply tread water in the age of COVID-19 despite facing the same shrunken demand for kegs the entire industry has had to contend with. The company was up an impressive 23% in 2020.
“Despite losing draft, we actually hung in last year and ended up much higher than I had projected,” says Vogel. In a Voices of San Diego Beer guest-article published last September, he noted that Belching Beaver prefers to purchase its venues rather than lease space. That practice is once again paying off for the company. “Our current building almost doubled in equity and rates are low, so all those items look good from a financial perspective.”.
When asked what factors have been key to keeping the company healthy enough to make this purchase, Vogel notes the amount of patio space the company has been able to utilize for outdoor service at its aforementioned Tavern and Grill as well as its Pub980 location in Vista, and participation in the County of San Diego’s Great Plates’ meal delivery service for senior citizens unable to leave home due to COVID-19. But mostly it comes down to widespread demand for packaged beer. “At the end of the day, it’s been distribution sales; growth that all breweries I know are experiencing.”
While Vogel temporarily put other expansion plans on hold to double the size of Belching Beaver’s HQ, he is already back to work on one, looking at potential sites in which to install a smaller version of the Vista Tavern and Grill. If all goes well, such an expansion could occur as soon as this summer, but the ever-ambitious owner says it’s too soon to say. For now, says Vogel, “Fingers crossed.”
Belching Beaver Brewery’s headquarters is located at 1334 Rocky Point Drive in Oceanside