I first heard of them from local sour-beer brewer Peter Perrecone. At the time, he was heading 100% wild ale operation Toolbox Brewing Company in Vista, and had just caught wind that another outfit was looking to go that route in San Diego. The name of the future interest—California Wild Ales. I reached out to the company for more info, but it was too early for an interview. And while the business doesn’t figure to be open any sooner than August, things are starting to speed up and take shape.
California Wild Ales’ goal is to work exclusively with wild yeast and bacteria. Brettanomyces will be present in every beer the company produces and the entire line of brews will be sour and/or funky. The business, billed as San Diego’s first “all-wild-ale blendery”, will be located in a 2,000-square-foot, temperature-controlled warehouse in Sorrento Valley. Within that structure there will be a temperature-controlled bottle-conditioning room.
To bring their lofty plans to fruition, California Wild Ales’ crew will enlist the services of Sorrento Valley neighbors at New English Brewing Company. Brewmaster Simon Lacey and company will produce wort (unfermented beer) for California Wild Ales, which the blender will then funnel into used wine barrels. From there, the beer will age before the contents of multiple barrels are blended together to produce a finished product that is to California Wild Ales’ taste.
The company’s home-base will be rather rustic—a production facility lined with barrels, but aesthetics aren’t the focus. There won’t be a tasting room to start. California Wild Ales aims to be open one day per month strictly for the purpose of distributing its ales. But this may not always be the case. The business’ founders would eventually like to install a sampling space and perhaps grow into a brewpub operation. It all depends on growth, as does establishment of multiple barrel-aging warehouses.