A licensing requirement is what led entrepreneurial duo Alex Pierson and JC Hill to plunk a three-barrel brewery into their second-story Pacific Beach eatery in 2012. Rather than a standard beer-and-wine-license, the spot housing the spinoff location of their SDSU-borne California Kebab could only have a Type 23, meaning brewing would need to take place on-site. Seeing as how their only fermentation experience was banging out occasional homebrews in a garage that doubled as a band practice space, they brought on former Ballast Point Brewing product Cy Henley, who designed myriad house beers while mentoring Hill. Two years later, the latter moved to Monterey to launch what became the wildly successful Alvarado Street Brewery, while Pierson worked on advancing their PB passion project, an operation with a name loosely referencing the jam-prone auto-storage space they started out in, Amplified Ale Works. In 2016, the business expanded, becoming one of the initial tenants at H.G. Fenton’s Brewery Igniter facility in Miramar. With increased manufacturing capabilities, Pierson charged forward, taking over a 3,000-square-foot bar and restaurant bordering East Village’s Fault Line Park. Along the way, Amplified opened a “Backstage” taproom on the first floor of the complex housing its PB homebase, and opened a psychedelic subterranean entertainment venue called the Acid Vault in the basement of its East Village venue. It was a lot, but it was all working, creating a solid foundation for Pierson as he took a big swing, securing a 4,900-square-foot former bakery in Lemon Grove to serve as Amplified’s new headquarters. Planned to include an expansive beer garden and enough cellar space to allow the company to more than double its production capacity, the project represented the next chapter for the growing business, but the COVID-19 pandemic derailed it and Amplified’s future. Four years later, the operation has been consolidated to the point where all that remains is its OG upstairs PB perch, which was recently put on the market. It wasn’t something Pierson wanted to do, but despite having forged lasting memories and accomplished a great deal over the past dozen years, he says the time is right to move on. Before he heads off into the sunset, we caught up with him for one last conversation about the past as well as his future.
What made this the right time to close the book on Amplified Ale Works?
The decision to close Amplified has not come lightly as I have struggled with it for some time, but unfortunately, time has not improved operating conditions. COVID put our long-term business plans into a bit of a death spiral that I have been trying to manage our way out of the last few years with limited success. The fact that our lease in PB has been month-to-month through COVID has made making any significant investment in the business and future planning nearly impossible. Business challenges aside, this is also a bit of a personal choice as well, as I have a growing family with two young kids at home, so my priorities have certainly shifted in recent years. I’m not one to give up easily, so I’ve been trying to find a path forward, but the deteriorating operating environment this past year made it abundantly clear there just isn’t a road to success for us these days with just a single location.
How did the pandemic shift you from expansion to consolidation seemingly overnight?
Everybody in this industry has a terrible COVID story about how it dramatically impacted their business, and we’re certainly no different. But we did have particularly awful timing in the sense that we had given notice to our brewing landlord in Miramar and were in escrow purchasing a building to move our production to when the shutdown occurred in March 2020. We had raised equity at a healthy valuation, our bank loan was approved and we were moving on renovation plans when COVID froze everything. We ultimately decided to walk away from the deal rather than try and complete it in the throes of the initial lockdown. That was a critical decision and kind of the turning point for the business moving forward. Since then, it has been a slow wind down as it’s become increasingly clear there really isn’t a path forward.
What has it been like navigating the past four uncertain and challenging years?
In a nutshell, brutal, and certainly the most challenging I’ve seen since first coming into the restaurant industry in 2009. We have shut down and restarted operations multiple times over the last few years, finally shutting down brewing production permanently in February of 2022. While we have had some notable successes in recent years, they have been in pivots away from beer, such as the great run of our cocktail speakeasy, the Acid Vault, until we sold that location in March of 2023.
What have been the biggest achievements and most gratifying experiences for you over Amplified’s lifespan?
Winning a gold medal at the World Beer Cup for our Whammy Bar Wheat in 2016 was a definite highlight and achievement for our brew team, including our Director of Brewing Operations Jeff Campbell. A gold medal at San Diego International Beer Competition in 2021 for our hazy IPA Stratacaster was also a particularly meaningful award as we had spent a lot of time fine-tuning that recipe and were quite proud of that beer. The PB Pathways project was particularly close to my heart and a cool collaboration we did with Karl Strauss Brewing. I was a board member of non-profit beautifulPB and we created a donation-based beer concept that raised thousands of dollars for meaningful improvements to local bike paths in Pacific Beach. Karl Strauss Brewaster Paul Segura and I got to work on a few dozen R&D recipes for the project over the years that resulted in some fantastic beers and a lot of fun. Our beer collaborations with bands were also some of the most memorable and enjoyable experiences at Amplified. Some that stand out include The Sure Fire Soul Ensemble, Reel Big Fish, Red City Radio, Low Volts, DFMK, Mdrn Hstry, MakeWar, Electric Mud and The Routine. Creating the official Motorhead beer and having the release party at the Rainbow Bar in Hollywood was also a memorable one.
What do you foresee for yourself in your life after Amplified?
I’m not 100% sure. I do know I’ll be spending that much more time at my other home away from home, Morley Field, handling the operations of the disc golf course and continuing to see a lot of brewery industry friends on their days off. And I’ll continue hosting the annual San Diego Beer Week Fling, the 16th edition of which takes place today. I look forward to still being adjacent to the craft-beer industry.
Will there be any events people can plan to attend before Amplified closes?
We will be having our 12th anniversary party starting at 2 p.m. on Saturday, November 9 with a DJ spinning vinyl, raffle prizes, beer and food specials and discounted sales of merchandise. And our last day of business is currently planned to be Saturday, November 23.
Amplified Ale Works is located at 4150 Mission Boulevard, Suite 208 in Pacific Beach