Ballast Point Brewing Company
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| Location | San Diego, California | ||||||||||||||
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| Opened | 1996 | ||||||||||||||
| Key people | Jack White (founder), Marty Birkel (president) | ||||||||||||||
| Owned by | Constellation Brands | ||||||||||||||
| Website | ballastpoint.com | ||||||||||||||
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Ballast Point Brewing & Spirits Company is an American brewery founded in 1996 by Jack White in San Diego, 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 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 and Scripps Ranch neighborhoods, as well as its original Home Brew Mart location in San Diego's Linda Vista neighborhood.
Ballast Point was also the first microdistillery in San Diego since Prohibition. Following the sale of the brewery to Constellation Brands, the distillery will spin off to a new company named Cutwater Spirits.
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. 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 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 in Point Loma.
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