Can circling the wagons, bringing proven brands together and presenting their wares en masse create strength in numbers and increased fortitude for craft brewers to ride out a tough economy and challenging marketplace? That’s what the individuals behind nine-year-old San Diego-based beer concern, Mason Ale Works, and its financial partner, West Coast Ventures & Resources (WCVR), not only hope, but authentically believe.
In March, when we last we caught up with Mason Ale Works’ “head mason”, Grant Tondro, WCVR had just taken over a tasting room bordering Petco Park on a one-year pop-up basis and was converting it into a downtown outpost for Eppig Brewing. Tondro took over brand-management duties for that Vista-based business last November following a health scare for co-founder and former CEO Todd Warshaw, bringing the noted seven-year-old maker of German-style lagers and hoppy West Coast ales under Mason’s umbrella. Now both companies share production resources, and Tondro oversees the aforementioned East Village venue as well as Eppig’s popular six-year-old waterfront biergarten in Point Loma.
Tondro reports that joining forces has gone well for both brands, providing local visibility for Mason, the presence of which had previously been quite scarce locally despite being widely distributed out-of-state, while reinvigorating Eppig, which experienced financial hardship during the pandemic, one which proved difficult to overcome. This successful symbiosis has emboldened the group to bring on more brands in an attempt to revitalize them while building a strategic consortium leveraging shared resources to maximize overall revenue.
Tondro shared his evolving strategy while putting the finishing touches on the overhaul of a 2,000-square-foot venue in Scottsdale, Arizona, which formerly housed a smaller reimagining of his longtime beer-centric restaurant concept, Urge Gastropub. Launched in Rancho Bernardo in 2010, Urge grew to include several locations, but more importantly, birthed Mason Ale Works, a brand which has gone on to outlive its progenitor. Its remodeled Scottsdale satellite, which reopened last week, will soon bear Eppig’s name and serve beers from that company, Mason and another brand under the group’s management, Las Vegas-based Beer Zombies Brewing.
Soon that venue will also offer beers from Second Chance Beer Co., following an acquisition earlier this year. Founded in 2015 by award-winning veteran brewmaster Marty Mendiola and his wife, Virginia Morrison, Second Chance fell into instant disarray after attempts to renew the lease at its Carmel Mountain Ranch production facility were unsuccessful. Overnight, the company laid off nearly all of its employees, shuttered its North Park tasting room and moved to a contract-brewing model while openly shopping the brand. The Mason group took notice, seeing similar potential in Second Chance as he saw in Eppig, an established brand known for quality across styles for the better part of a decade.
House of Mason feels very fortunate to be able to assemble such an amazing group of beloved brands. This industry has changed dramatically in the post-COVID world, and by joining forces we are able to share resources across brands that we simply couldn’t afford as individuals.”
Grant Tondro, Head Mason, Mason Ale Works
Tondro says beers from all of the above local brands will all be on tap next month when the company reopens the tasting room at Eppig’s Vista headquarters. Opened in 2019, that large facility has been closed to the public since December, but should be open before July is out. In addition to the 1,500-square-foot tasting room, the facility also includes a 1,500-square-foot beer hall and a 1,200-square-foot outdoor area.
“We are looking for more brick-and-mortar spots, but we need successful ones versus simply having them for the sake of having them,” says Tondro. In his opinion, a big part of why Eppig’s Vista tasting room failed to generate the patronage necessary to support it was a lack of consumer inticers going beyond beer. “There were a couple of TVs and great beer, but in the current environment the location needs more. We’re going to try to do as much as we can to engage consumers there, adding ten 75-inch TVs, a pinball arcade, shuffleboard, Foosball and similar amenities. Some of those will go in the beer hall, and if all goes well, we can expand the tasting room into the second-level mezzanine that was previously used for can storage. The way we see it, this can turn into a really great home base for all of our brands.”
Less dire in nature but in line with WCVR’s strategies is a trio of other deals the group has masterminded involving San Diego-based beverage producers. The first is Shoots Beer, the ale-and-lager side of Shoots Fish & Beer. Founded in 2022 by Chris Slowey, the head of San Diego general contractor and project management firm CLTVT, its beers are produced on a contract basis by Miramar’s AleSmith Brewing and available at the company’s bar and restaurant in Carlsbad retail center, The Cottages on Roosevelt, a walk-up counter at the Oceanside location of local liquor chain, BottleCraft, inside Oceanside’s Tremont Collective, and its distribution network.
Tondro has also added 11-year-old spirits concern, Old Harbor Distilling. He was encouraged to take on that non-beer brand based on its line of award-winning, quality products, including vodka, gin and rum, as well as his long standing relationship with founder (and former Mike Hess Brewing staffer) Mike Skubic. Tondro sees untapped potential as far as particular styles of spirits Old Harbor has yet to produce, such as whiskey, as well as the fact the company has not delved into the thriving RTD (ready-to-drink) canned cocktail market.
Going beyond alcoholic beverages, the group has already begun working with Swell Soda. A local company offering “nostalgic” flavors, the company was founded seven years ago by Brett Burner, a career pastor and book publisher. Swell’s top accounts are all breweries, including AleSmith, Mike Hess and Stone Brewing, making this an easy way to diversify the growing portfolio and generate additional internal revenue while simply adding a non-alcoholic product from a different category onto his trucks.
“Our group is going to keep our eyes and ears open for opportunities that make sense and complement what each of these brands already brings to the table. We love working with our friends, and with this group we’ve put together, we have over a century of creative expertise and know-how that will help lift all of our brands,” says Tondro.
When asked if he intends to add to his suddenly robust family of brands, he replies, “We have done five brands and three tasting rooms in ten months. We continue to move fast, but we need to be sure we can justify our decisions. If the right brand is interested in working with us, we’re in.”
Eppig Brewing’s tasting rooms are located at 2817 Dickens Street in Point Loma, 795 J Street in downtown San Diego’s East Village and 1347 Keystone Way, Suite C Keystone Way in Vista