As previously reported, a company with Orange County roots—Barrel & Stave Brewing—will be touching down in San Diego County care of the Co-Lab Vista incubator project. That collective will see three brewery interests sharing a single brewhouse and cold-box space while selling their wares via connected yet separately managed retail counters. Barrel & Stave’s beermaking will be overseen by Director of Brewery Operations, Chris Banker, a well-known North County homebrewer with numerous awards to his name. His creations will be sold at the Co-Lab’s indoor-outdoor tasting room, the Barrel & Stave Pour House in Fullerton, and a second Pour House location that will be installed in the space that formerly housed the popular Old Town Vista Mother Earth Brew Co. Tap House, which closed after eight years in business earlier this year.
“When I used to go there, it was a great gathering spot for people in the Vista community and everyone seemed to know each other,” says Barrel & Stave Owner Chris White (not to be confused with the White Labs owner of the same name), who is also co-founder and President of San Marcos’ Wild Barrel Brewing. “It was a cool spot. When this space went on the market, I remembered how popular it was and saw it as an opportunity to recreate that space’s glory days when Mother Earth helped build a downtown community from what was practically nothing.”
White intends to occupy the new spot for a long time to come. Barrel & Stave is purchasing the building, which also includes another former Mother Earth Brew Co. venue, a combination eatery and bottle shop that went by the name Mother’s Provisions. That space will be converted into a spot that can accommodate private parties and group meetings, but that will take place as part of phase two of the project. Phase one will focus on getting the main tasting room up and running as quickly as possible.
In doing so, White doesn’t see a need to change much. He intends to keep the bar as it is, while changing the seating configuration and installing an air-conditioning system for the warmer months. He’s also reviving a relationship Mother Earth had with cattycorner coal-fired pizza place, URBN. Their menu will be available for delivery to the tasting room, including personal-sized pizzas (which URBN doesn’t currently offer) that will help Barrel & Stave meet current COVID-19 regulations mandating a “bona fide meal” be purchased in tandem with beer at brewery-owned venues.
The tasting room is equipped with 40 taps. As expected, they will dispense Barrel & Stave beer, which will include West Coast IPAs, stouts, hazy IPAs, lagers and some other unique styles early on, with assorted, longer-term barrel-aged beer projects down the line. But they will also provide something in scarce supply in San Diego County.
“I noticed there’s a lack of beers that are not distributed here from Northern California. I’m talking about the smaller, hyped breweries like Alvarado Street Brewery, Cellarmaker Brewing, Faction Brewing, Humble Sea Brewing, Moksa Brewing and The Rare Barrel,” says White. “I wanted to create an environment where we can bring fresh, exciting products to North County from some of the best of the best in California. And we won’t just have beer. There’ll be keg wine, hard seltzers, kombucha and ciders.” Barrel & Stave’s Pour House will also offer ales and lagers from local San Diego County operations as well as to-go beer and wine in cans.
White had considered opening a second OC Pour House, but says it was important to site the project in North County instead. A big reason for that are the people he’s rounded up for his team, starting with Banker, who has historically been reluctant to go pro. He found an ideal opportunity to run Barrel & Stave’s creative program on a part-time basis, along with an experienced team to bring his creations to the masses. He plans to start with a solid core selection from his extensive experience and also tap his connections with San Diego’s passionate homebrewers to showcase their ideas to the public with a variety of pro-am collaborations.
White also has a pair of popular veterans in the North County beer scene lined up to lead the hospitality aspects of the Pour House and Co-Lab. Rounding out his squad are co-founder Steve Thomas and Director of Operations Todd Johnson, who will oversee all of the company’s locations.
The new Pour House is located just four miles from the Co-Lab, and figures to open ahead of the collective. White hopes to have the doors to the Pour House open before the year is out but says the latest it will debut to the public is January of next year.
Barrel & Stave’s Old Town tasting room will be located at 206 Main Street in Vista