Co-founder & CEO, Prodigy Brewing Company
The name Prodigy Brewing Company has been floating through San Diego beer rumor streams since 2012. And over the past year, some of the fledgling brewery’s beers have been flowing through taps at some of San Diego’s finer craft-beer bars. Still, a great deal of fuzziness and misinformation exists where this business is concerned. So, we went straight to the source, co-founder Howell Gillogly—a homebrewer of 23 years who convinced the long-time head brewer for San Diego Brewing Company—to change course and embark on a new next chapter—to clear things up about where Prodigy is located and when its beers will be easier to find and more regularly available.
You had a brewing facility in Grantville. What happened to that spot?
In August of 2015, we started looking for a new home for the brewery, since the Grantville building was sold out from under us. We had to completely suspend brewing, tear down the brewery operations and have all hands on deck (three of us) out and about looking for a new brewery home. The move went as well as can be expected when dealing with massive 30-barrel fermenters. Prodigy left the old building on December 31.
Where are you now?
We found a new home up in San Marcos, not too far from Rip Current Brewing Company. Once we’re done with all the build-out and setting up our hardware, we can begin brewing once again. As of today, we’ve installed the electric systems, glycol lines and top-treated the floors. We are so close to moving the tanks in!
Your beers have been spotted throughout San Diego. Where all have they been served?
Last May, June and July we canvassed the entire 30th Street corridor with a new 7.5% IPA called CitraLicious. [Head brewer] Dean Rouleau wanted me to do a huge marketing push, but I took a different route and simply let the beer sell itself. I told Dean that his world-class beer was enough and it did just that! It completely blew up the scene with 15.5-gallon kegs blowing out in as as little as 24 hours, so I’ll take that as a win. Ian Black, the owner of Toronado, was so stoked with CitraLicious that he asked for three kegs per week. I was happy to oblige! A big kudus came when Lee Chase, the owner of Blind Lady Ale House and Tiger! Tiger! Tavern, tried a pint and said, “Simply awesome. I want more of this for my locations.” We poured CitraLicious at [these and other top spots]…CitraLicious began showing up on Untapped. It was really cool to see so many people logging in and rating this beer, so much in fact that our little brewery gained a total ranking higher than some of the more established breweries. Again, this is all the work of Dean, which led me to create a new tag line “born to do this”.
And now you’re looking for additional venues?
Our current project, outside of the build-out, is looking for external tasting rooms. We’ve decided that having two-to-four tasting rooms across San Diego County will be the best solution for getting the beer to the public and offer us the best margins. The artist’s rendering (at right) is a brand-new development on South Cedros Avenue in Solana Beach. This space hasn’t been built-out yet, but the developer is very keen on having a brewery tasting room. We’ve seen the renderings and floorplans, and it would be a beautiful 2,500-to-3,000 square-foot room. We are also looking for locations in North Park, possibly at a recently vacated coffee-shop. Dean and I would really like to be in North Park, so that’s the current focus. We also had some conversations with the City of Chula Vista, but what we were shown wasn’t the best locations for us. It was west of Interstate 5. We want to be in a main business district.
When can people expect to see Prodigy beers available in greater quantities?
I hope to have beer out in the market by the start of May via self-distribution to our very loyal accounts. Tasting room build-outs are going to take some time, and I’ll keep everyone up-to-date via Prodigy’s Facebook page.