Ballast Point Brewing Company brewmaster Aaron Justus and head brewer Brandon Green, who have both worked at the iconic San Diego brewery for a decade, will soon announce they are leaving the company to open their own brewery. East Village Brewing Company will be a 10 barrel, 1,000 square foot brewhouse with a 1,500 square-foot patio overlooking Petco Park.
"This has been in the works for several years," explained East Village Brewing Company co-founder Aaron Justus. "We are following our dreams and building a brewery custom to where we want it. We look forward to collaborating with Ballast Point in the future."
East Village Brewing Company will offer a lineup centered around hop-forward beers, as well as easy-drinking lagers and some sour brews. While there will be no food component, the brewery will partner with the 3 Park 12 restaurants and other neighborhood eateries to supply food to patrons.
"East Village Brewing will be a brewer's brewery," commented co-founder Brandon Green. "Every detail has been thought out. We were fortunate to have the positions we had in a large-growth brewery and this is our dream facility. We are super stoked!"
The long-awaited Park 12 apartment complex is located immediately across the street from Petco Park, and is comprised of one high-rise and three mid-rise buildings. The complex will ultimately include 371 luxury apartments in a 37-story tower and 347 units in one six and two-seven-story midrise buildings - for a total of 718 rental homes. The mixed-use complex will introduce a whole host of new dining and retail concepts in addition to East Village Brewing Company. The first restaurant tenant that signed on is Carmelita's, a casual Mexican restaurant chain that was first opened in Sacramento by Clemente Heredia 50 years before his son, Clemente Heredia Jr., expanded the concept to Southern California with two locations in Orange County. Also reportedly coming to Park 12 is a branch of Creamistry, a liquid nitrogen ice creamery based out of Irvine that already has two outposts in the San Diego area.
"We believe in the old adage 'you are what you eat,' continued Justus. "Beer is food, so it is imperative that we only source the highest quality, most wholesome ingredients, using organic whenever possible. We will not use artificial flavors, extracts or any other heavily processed foods, animal-based products, or GMO. Nor will we use any ingredient that has a name we cannot pronounce. You can rest assured that we did our due diligence vetting each ingredient. Sit back, relax, and sip with confidence!"
East Village Brewing Company aims to open by this fall at 201 Park Boulevard, Suite 101, in San Diego's East Village.
