In March, a four-year search for a new, larger home came to an end for Fall Brewing. With a maxed-out North Park brewery that was unable to meet demand for the company’s ales and lagers, owner Dave Lively was desperate to expand. Even so, he had no desire to build a brewery, something he knew would take at least two years for something of the size and scale he wanted. So he searched from Vista to Chula Vista for an existing space, but the inventory simply wasn’t there. Lively almost settled a few times, but in the end the spaces he came close on simply didn’t feel right, nor did they meet his minimum size requirement of 20,000 square feet. That is, until a Miramar business put its brewery and tasting room on the market.
In January 2022, Ballast Point Brewing’s parent company, Kings & Convicts Brewing, acquired the 57,000-square-foot production facility that had been home to Saint Archer Brewing for nine years, purchasing it from multinational conglomerate Molson Coors. The latter had just discontinued the underperforming Saint Archer brand and was happy to hand it off along with a satellite tasting room in Leucadia. In February, with the lease on both spots coming to an end, Kings & Convicts ownership decided to consolidate operations, moving production of its beers to Ballast Point’s Miramar facility and accepting offers on the former Saint Archer locations.
By March, both were in new hands, with the satellite venue being taken over by Miramar-based Duck Foot Brewing and the brewery getting snatched up by Fall. In addition to exceeding the company’s square-footage requirements, coming equipped with a 40-barrel brewhouse and a cellar that can support production of between 75,000 and 100,000 barrels of beer per year, Lively has a history there, having served as art director from 2010 to 2012, during the Saint Archer’s formative years. (He opened Fall two years after departing the company.) That familiarity with the space informed his sweeping revamp of the tasting room, which will open to the public tomorrow, Saturday, August 12 at 11 a.m.
Fall’s established rock-concert motif survived the move to Miramar intact and is amplified by aesthetic callbacks to the company’s South Park taproom, The Golden Rhino Room. Fall’s new tasting room includes jade leather banquettes and multicolored circa-1960 glass light fixtures hanging from a wooden pergola. The latter eliminates the warehouse feel of the building’s tall ceilings. That feature, as well as a wall which has been installed to separate the brewery from the tasting room while providing clear views into the production area, shrink the room considerably, creating a cozy sense of intimacy that was important to Lively, who was spearheaded design of the tasting room.
We felt the space was too big and we wanted to make it warmer and more comforting. Also, I wanted to create something unique to Miramar; something new for the neighborhood that it didn’t already have.”
Dave Lively, Owner, Fall Brewing
Once completed, the tasting room’s coziness will extend into a space called “The Devil Cat”. Situated beyond an ornate set of onyx doors sporting gold handles and lion’s heads, the low-ceilinged room will have its own four-tap bar, banquette seating and a fireplace. It will primarily be utilized for private events, while the tasting room, a sizeable outdoor deck and the parking lot will host large-scale events such as festivals. Perhaps a “Fall Fest” come autumn (AKA: fall).
While Lively was happy to land a turnkey facility that met his needs, he was just as excited about another asset that came with the building, former Saint Archer and Kings & Convicts brewer Brian Kim. He knows the ins and outs of the new location and has been instrumental in helping his new colleagues hit the ground running. The maximum annual output of Fall’s flagship brewery in North Park was 5,500 to 6,000 barrels. The company is currently on pace to produce 12,000 to 15,000 barrels in its first 12 months at the Miramar facility and will likely eye 20,000 to 25,000 barrels a year following that. On top of that, they have also begun contract brewing for other beer companies.
In addition to the main brewhouse, Fall also inherited a five-barrel pilot system that they’ve put to use filling up the Miramar tasting room’s 30 taps, brewing a wide array of small-batch beers, including an English-style extra special bitter (ESB), Italian-style pilsner and double dry-hopped West Coast IPA, as Kim puts it, “because we’re in San Diego.” Next up from the pilot brewery will be several German-style beers that will hit the menu just in time for Oktoberfest season.
Armed with the means to not only produce much more beer, but also can on a regular basis—something Fall was unable to do in North Park—the company will work towards expanding its distribution footprint. Their plan is to initially focus on Los Angeles and Orange Counties, while also servicing accounts in San Diego County that they weren’t able to supply as adequately as they would have liked over the years and working with larger retailers they were previously too small to team with.
But that is all in the future. For now, they are excited to welcome people into their new “world headquarters”. Fall Brewing’s new tasting room will be open daily from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Management says they will adjust the hours based on customer trends once they have enough information to analyze.
Fall Brewing’s headquarters is located at 9550 Distribution Avenue in Miramar