In July, news surfaced that Alpine Beer Co.’s founding family, the McIlhenneys, wanted to start a new brewing company in the pair of suites where their previous interest was born. Fans of Alpine’s much-beloved beers instantly rejoiced, and not just in San Diego County. Founder and original Brewmaster Pat McIlhenney was inundated with calls from around the country and across the Atlantic. All this, despite the fact the McIlhenneys still needed to gain sole occupancy of their former space and its brewing equipment from Mira Mesa-based Green Flash Brewing, which purchased Alpine Beer from the family in 2014. Pat and his son, former Alpine Head Brewer Shawn McIlhenney, have been hard at work on those initiatives and successful on both fronts.
On October 1, the family taped an ABC (California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control) posting to its window announcing Mcilhenney Brewing. That sign will remain up until the day before Halloween. Pat says things are in the government’s hands currently but he and his family will be ready to go as soon as they get the green light, thanks to Shawn having come out on top of a recent online auction to acquire Alpine Beer’s brewing equipment and various other items from Green Flash and The Alpine Beer Company Pub bar and restaurant. That venue is located down the street from the brewery on Tavern Road. Pat says Green Flash will maintain ownership of the pub and intends to reopen it at a later date with revised menu offerings.
Originally, Pat had been in negotiations with a representative of Green Flash to purchase the brewing equipment outright. He says that, after turning down an initial offer from the company, he later acquiesced, agreeing to the dollar amount presented, but was then told the items would instead be auctioned off. He says, in the end, his family ended up securing the items they wanted for less than the offer he reluctantly agreed to.
Both Pat and Shawn are ready to move beyond this phase and into the part that they love: brewing. Shawn has already started, and his father is chomping at the bit to join him. “I am super-excited about getting back in the beer-brewing business,” says Pat. “I still have a passion for the craft and spent a lot of time learning about making good beer, so I’m happy about being able to use that knowledge again.”
The timeline for Mcilhenney Brewing’s opening is uncertain where agency approvals are concerned, but time will be needed for the family to take care of items such as cleaning and revamping its suites, establishing vendors, ordering kegs and supplies and finishing up a company logo. Plus, any debut would be free of much fanfare in the near future due to the pandemic, and Pat, who lives in Vancouver, Washington, with his wife, Val, has a bit of geography to deal with.
But once open, Mcilhenney Brewing’s beer list figures to be varied. “We will have a couple of lagers, some IPAs, pale ales, stouts and specialty one-offs. I might even try to make a good Nelson Sauvin rye IPA,” quips Pat, who is well known for Nelson, a rye-infused IPA that is wildly popular with hop heads and was widely responsible for the popularization of New Zealand’s now most sought-after varietal. “We are fortunate that we know the brewing system, so getting going once we get the go-ahead shouldn’t take very long…and a good IPA takes less than a month to make.”
Mcilhenney Brewing will be located at 2351 and 2363 Alpine Boulevard in Alpine