Ballast Point Brewing Company is an American

brewery A brewery or brewing company is a business that makes and sells beer. The place at which beer is commercially made is either called a brewery or a beerhouse, where distinct sets of brewing equipment are called plant. The commercial brewing of b ...

founded in 1996 by Jack White in

San Diego San Diego ( , ) is a city on the Pacific coast of Southern California, adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a population of over 1.4 million, it is the List of United States cities by population, eighth-most populous city in t ...

, California. Ballast Point Brewing Co. started in the back of Home Brew Mart, a homebrew supply store White founded in 1992. As of 2015, it was the second largest brewer in

San Diego County San Diego County (), officially the County of San Diego, is a county in the southwest corner of the U.S. state of California, north to its border with Mexico. As of the 2020 census, the population was 3,298,634; it is the second-most populous ...

and the 17th largest brewery in the country based on sales volume. The company's main production facility is in Miramar. It also has brewery locations in San Diego's

Little Italy Little Italy is the catch-all name for an ethnic enclave populated primarily by Italians or people of Italian ancestry, usually in an Urban area, urban neighborhood. The concept of "Little Italy" holds many different aspects of the Italian cul ...

and

Scripps Ranch Scripps Ranch is a community of San Diego, California, in the northeastern part of the city. It is located east of Interstate 15, north of Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, and west of Poway. Its ZIP Code is 92131. Scripps Ranch is an inland bed ...

neighborhoods, as well as its original Home Brew Mart location in San Diego's Linda Vista neighborhood. In 2017, Ballast Point opened its first East Coast brewing facility in Daleville, Virginia, near Roanoke. Ballast Point was also the first

microdistillery A microdistillery is a small, often boutique-style distillery established to produce beverage grade spirit alcohol in relatively small quantities, usually done in single batches (as opposed to larger distillers' continuous distilling process). W ...

in San Diego since

Prohibition Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption of alcoholic b ...

. The brewery was sold to

Constellation Brands Constellation Brands, Inc. is an American producer and marketer of beer, wine, and spirits. A ''Fortune'' 500 company, Constellation is the largest beer import company in the US, measured by sales, and has the third-largest market share (7.4 pe ...

for $1 billion in 2015. Its distillery business was spun off to a new company, Cutwater Spirits, in 2017 and subsequently purchased by Anheuser-Busch in 2019. In December 2019, Chicago-based brewery Kings and Convicts announced it was buying Ballast Point from Constellation for undisclosed terms.

History

Founder Jack White developed a taste for beer in college. He and his college roommate Pete A’Hearn began home brewing in their apartment at

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school then known as the southern branch of the C ...

. They found they had trouble obtaining the various supplies and ingredients they wanted, and had no access to other home brewers to share ideas with. In 1992, White opened Home Brew Mart in San Diego, selling the supplies and ingredients needed by home brewers. The shop also became a place where home brewers could communicate and share ideas with each other. Many of Home Brew Mart's customers went on to found breweries of their own, and the store has been credited with helping to launch San Diego County's reputation as a craft beer mecca. While White ran Home Brew Mart and dreamed of starting his own brewery, A'Hearn went off to the

University of California, Davis The University of California, Davis (UC Davis, UCD, or Davis) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Davis, California, United States. It is the northernmost of the ten campuses of the University ...

to get a master brewer's certificate. He became the company's founding brewmaster; however, he left the company soon after the launch of the brewery and became a science teacher. The two hired Yuseff Cherney, an award-winning home brewer, as Home Brew Mart's first employee. A'Hearn and Cherney developed a “back room” brewery behind the shop, and in 1996, Ballast Point Brewing was born. The company takes its name from Ballast Point, a historically important site on

San Diego Bay San Diego Bay is a natural harbor and deepwater port in San Diego County, California, near the Mexico–United States border. The bay, which is long and wide, is the third largest of the three large, protected natural bays on California's of ...

Point Loma Point Loma ( Spanish: ''Punta de la Loma'', meaning "Hill Point"; Kumeyaay: ''Amat Kunyily'', meaning "Black Earth") is a seaside community in San Diego, California, United States. Geographically it is a hilly peninsula that is bordered on the ...

. By 2004, Ballast Point had outgrown its back room location and moved into a larger production brewery in

. In September 2013, Ballast Point added a third location: a brewery, tasting room, and restaurant in San Diego's

neighborhood, which functions as the company's laboratory for research and development. By the end of 2013, Ballast Point had outgrown Scripps Ranch. In mid-2014, Ballast Point finished construction on a 107,000 square foot brewery in the Miramar area equipped to support the brewery's growth. Two large copper kettles discovered in a brewery in Lohr, Germany are the centerpiece of this new brewery headquarters, which also features a laboratory, tasting bar, and restaurant. In 2008, Ballast Point Spirits was founded, with Old Grove Gin as its first product released. The Ballast Point Spirits family eventually included 14 spirits, as well as 2 cocktail mixers: Bloody Mary and Mai Tai. Ballast-point-tasting-room-2016

White served as CEO from the company's inception in 1992 until 2015. In 2012 Jim Buechler became the company's president and general manager, and in June 2015 he became president and CEO, leaving White with the title of Founder. Cherney is the company's chief operations officer and head brewer. In October 2015 Ballast Point Brewing & Spirits Inc. filed an

initial public offering An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investm ...

of stock. This offering would make it the first of San Diego County's breweries to go public. However, on November 15, 2015,

announced it would acquire Ballast Point Brewing & Spirits for $1 billion. The acquisition, which was completed in December 2015, was financed with a combination of debt and cash. By July 2016, four of the founders of the company, including founder White, chief operating officer Cherney, and CEO Buechler, left the company to "pursue other interests". Marty Birkel was named the new president of the brewery. The departures reportedly stemmed from disputes with the new owner, Constellation Brands, over the status of Ballast Point's distilled spirits operation, which was not part of the sale. After leaving Ballast Point, White and Cherney moved the spirits operation to Cutwater Spirits, a new company they founded in 2017. In December 2019, it was announced that Chicago-based brewery Kings and Convicts was buying Ballast Point from Constellation for undisclosed terms, which industry observers estimate to be between $75 million and $200 million. Constellation was reportedly having trouble integrating the brand with their larger operations. At its peak under Constellation, Ballast Point's sales were at 431,000

barrels A barrel or cask is a hollow cylindrical container with a bulging center, longer than it is wide. They are traditionally made of wooden staves and bound by wooden or metal hoops. The word vat is often used for large containers for liquids ...

. At the time of the announcement, early estimates for 2019 were north of 200,000. Meanwhile, Ballast Point's trademark value had dropped over 90 percent from $223 million in January 2018 to $17 million in October 2019. In April 2024 Kings & Convicts Brewing has closed down Ballast Point Brewing’s Miramar-based brewery resulting in a series of staff lay offs. It is unclear if the beer is now produced as contract brew in third party breweries or within the former Saint Archers Facilities in Miramar. As of December 2019, they sold 16 different styles of beer.

East Coast expansion

On June 12, 2017, Ballast Point opened its new East Coast Brewery and Tap Room in Daleville, part of Virginia's

Roanoke Valley The Roanoke Valley ( ) in southwest Virginia is an area adjacent to and including the Roanoke River between the Blue Ridge Mountains to the east and the Appalachian Plateau to the west. The valley includes much of Roanoke County, as well as the ...

. The facility began producing beer in September 2017, with the first keg of Grapefruit Sculpin being sent to Virginia governor

Terry McAuliffe Terence Richard McAuliffe (born February 9, 1957) is an American businessman and politician who served as the List of governors of Virginia, 72nd governor of Virginia from 2014 to 2018. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democrat ...

Richmond Richmond most often refers to: * Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada * Richmond, California, a city in the United States * Richmond, London, a town in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, England * Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town ...

. On September 29, 2019, Constellation Brands closed the taproom and restaurant areas of the facility in Daleville, cutting 41 employees.

Awards

In 2010, Ballast Point won three gold medals for their beers, as well as the "Small Brewery Champion" award, at the

World Beer Cup The World Beer Cup is an international beer competition organized by the Brewers Association, a trade group A trade association, also known as an industry trade group, business association, sector association or industry body, is an organizatio ...

. In 2013 and 2014, Ballast Point's distillery arm was named the California Distillery of the Year two years in a row at the New York International Spirits Competition.

References

External links

* {{Official website, http://www.ballastpoint.com/
Ballast Point on Beeradvocate

Ballast Point on World Beer Cup 2010

Beer brewing companies based in San Diego County, California Companies established in 1996 Manufacturing companies based in San Diego 2015 mergers and acquisitions

History

East Coast expansion

Awards

See also

References

External links