While it’s been remarkable to see local breweries employ copious amounts of ingenuity, sweat and elbow grease to weather the pandemic, a number of beer-making operations have closed their doors over the past 21 months. Some like Vista’s family-run Iron Fist Brewing and cult-favorites like Miramar’s Longship Brewery and Thunderhawk Alements, were big news, particularly for fans of those businesses, while others such as the third tenant of the former La Jolla Brew House space, CAVU Brewing, went out with nary a whisper.
Vista—which is second only to the much-larger City of San Diego in total number of breweries per municipality in the county—has quietly suffered heavy losses. Today, we will confirm the closures of three Vista interests that have shuttered in the COVID-19 era.
Beach Grease Beer Co. was always a bit of an enigma. The side-project of an automotive enthusiast and motorcycle guru burst on the scene in 2017, with logo-decorated vans delivering its gold IPA to accounts. This, despite the company having no brewing facility, brewhouse or cellar. Beach Grease’s beers were produced at Mission Brewery in downtown San Diego’s East Village, a practice that has become more pervasive in the years following.
Owner James Banuelos went on to take over the Vista brewery and tasting room vacated after defunct family op SpecHops Brewing went out of business. Though Beach Grease’s numbers were up come the start of 2020 and Banuelos had big plans for the brand, the pandemic shifted the company into survival mode. Beer sales continued, but not to the extent that the business could remain viable, forcing its closure. Beach Grease’s brewing system has since been sold to Mcilhenney Brewing in Alpine, where it is in heavy use.
Old Town Vista’s Wavelength Brewing hung on longer, lasting until October 28 of this year before owner Hans Haas pulled the plug on his seven-year-old space-themed brewery. In addition to brewing up sci-fi-themed beers, the business provided event programming involving science and astronomy education, making it a unique operation even in a county awash with breweries.
And one of the most asked-about Vista breweries over the past two years has been Indian Joe Brewing, which slowly faded out of its large, prominent brewery and two-story tasting room. At first, fans wondered if it was temporarily closed or out of business altogether. Following removal of signage and the emptying out of the space, customers and casual observers alike then wondered where they went and why.
Indian Joe originally debuted as a nano-brewery in a Vista industrial park in 2012. Celebrating co-founder Max Moran’s native-American heritage, the company produced avant-garde beers brewed with indigenous ingredients and playing off food-inspired flavor profiles. The company shut down its original operation in 2015, before reopening in a much-larger, 18,000-square-foot site located just off State Route 78 in 2016. That facility was equipped with a 15-barrel brewing system, an expansive cellar dwarfing its previous operation and a robust barrel-aging program.
Though the business had an admirable following and brought in a steady flow of patrons, a dispute with the property’s landlord—who was also an investor in the business—led to fallout and subsequent legal proceedings which have yet to conclude.
“We are deeply saddened that we closed Indian Joe. We truly appreciated and continue to appreciate all of our customers, employees, investors, family and beer-industry friends that have supported us in so many ways,” says Indian Joe co-founder Geri Lawson. “We are beyond blessed and grateful to have had the opportunities to be in your presence and spend time with each of you. Thank you so much for everything and we hope to see everyone again, one way or another.”
While diverse in their stories and circumstances, the above brewery operations have more in common than the fact they have gone out of business. The owners of all three hope to eventually revive their breweries, either in their former homes or at new facilities.
While he’s bidding farewell to downtown Vista, Haas says that when the time is right, he will explore options in other communities. “We hope to open again someday, once things settle down a bit more in the world,” says Haas. “The outpouring of support for us since we announced that we were closing was incredible and really helped solidify my determination to try again.”
Banuelos says he would entertain giving things another go, but says self-funding a second time will be challenging. And the Indian Joe team hopes to get back to the family business once they are beyond their current travails. So, with any luck this isn’t so much good-bye as, perhaps, see you later.