Some brewery owners’ dream is to get their beer into all the cool craft bars and be known by one and all within the San Diego brewing community. Then there are brewery owners like Steve Peterson. He’s just pleased to be part of the scene and even happier to have his beer in high-volume accounts that move it in large quantities; places like the airport and spots more tourists frequent than local beer nerds. He and his six-year-old 32 North Brewing fly a bit under the radar, but when Peterson, frustrated by ever-changing governmental regulations in the COVID-19 era, decided to test the market for his Miramar brewery and tasting room, he became quite popular among entrepreneurs looking for a place to site their concepts.
“Back in July, when we got told as an industry that we had to shut down again, it was a crusher. I decided I can’t keep doing this, guessing what’s going to happen next,” says Peterson. “I reached out to a friend of mine, Evan Weinberg at Seven Beverages. He’s a brewery broker and I told him I know he has people out there who are buying breweries, and that I was interested in walking down that road a little bit. It was kind of crazy. There was a lot of interest in the brewery as a whole and 32 North as a brand.”
Peterson ended up negotiating with a half-dozen groups. In the end, he opted to turn his facility over to a group of entrepreneurs with plans to install a pair of concepts in 32 North’s facility: New Motion Beverages and Embolden Beer Co. The former brand will focus on a portfolio of hard kombuchas, hard sparkling teas, hard seltzers and wellness-oriented low- and no-alcohol options, while the beer produced by the latter will put cocktail-inspired twists on traditional styles. Both ideas were birthed by friends and fellow Aztecs, Kyle Pool and Andy Sist, who fell hard for San Diego’s craft-beer scene. Admittedly, perhaps a bit too hard.
“Kyle and I were roommates after graduating SDSU and were just beginning our professional careers. Working all day and experiencing the craft-beer explosion of the 2010’s at night, we soon found ourselves to be…less than healthy,” says Sist, who serves as CMO while Pool fills the role of CEO. “After meeting the women who would later become our wives, we realized we needed to make some changes.”
Not long after this revelation, Pool and Sist discovered kombucha. While they appreciated its health benefits, the flavorful draw of local beer won out over “booch” and quickly derailed their health kick. So, they started homebrewing with aspirations of one day opening a craft-focused tasting room that offered the excitement of the San Diego beer scene and options that cater to people looking to foster a more healthful lifestyle. With their acquisition of 32 North’s facility, that time will be next week, when ownership is officially transferred over.
“The two brands, one tasting room concept has us all very excited,” says Sist. “Plus, the ability to have a full functional beverage line that can be enjoyed in a craft setting is both cutting-edge and, in our opinion, a necessary evolution for the scene.”
With beer having lost a significant percentage of market share to alternative beverages over the last few years—most notably hard seltzer—starting out with a business that offers beer along with other alcoholic beverages seems in keeping with current consumer trends and desires. Many brewing companies, both locally and nationally, have taken to producing their own hard seltzers to help their bottom lines.
Moving forward, brewing will be the charge of longtime Mission Brewery employees, Cody Morris and Andrew Kelly, who will fill the roles of director of brewery operations and head brewer, respectively. In addition to New Motion and Embolden beverages, they will contract brew beer for 32 North. Peterson intends to stay in the game, working closely with Morris and company to ensure beer consistency. That said, he is looking forward to taking a step back from a personal standpoint. And because he was never interested in being a big public face of a super-popular brewery, any distance won’t be noticed by the public. 32 North beers will find their way to the less-sexy yet highly reliable accounts that are its bread and butter, while newcomers to San Diego’s craft scene are able to take a crack at fulfilling their ambitions.
Sist and his team anticipate an early-October opening for the outdoor patio portion of the tasting room and “optimistically predict” a late-October or early-November grand opening to the public. When it debuts, expect a motif that includes a good deal of greenery and plant life, reflecting the wellness aspects of the New Motion Brand. The team is also planning to expand the aforementioned patio into a larger, more spread out space. It will be called The Garden @ New Motion, with the goal to fulfill locals’ affinity for al fresco imbibing.
32 North Brewing is located at 8655 Production Avenue, Suite A, in Miramar