The large number of local brewing companies opened by homebrewers over the past decade-plus has provided something for hobbyists getting into recreational fermentation to aspire to. When Anthony Tallman and Derek Van Leeuwen took up homebrewing eight years ago, they did so with the intention to someday open their very own commercial brewery. But it wasn’t until sharing a beer with friend Matthew Zirpolo at Culture Brewing Company three years back that the business-plan took shape. The trio has taken different paths to where they now stand—on the precipice of making their dream a reality—and all those roads led them to coastal North County, the future home of Burgeon Beer Company (6350 Yarrow Drive, Suite C, Carlsbad).
Located in an industrial park just west of Pizza Port’s Bressi Ranch brewpub and production facility, Burgeon is tentatively scheduled to commence brewing on a 15-barrel Premier Stainless rig in October, followed by a December tasting-room opening. In the meantime, Tallman will continue in his role as head brewer at Vista’s Back Street Brewery. He has held that position for more than two years after stints at Stone Brewing and Rough Draft Brewing Company. While with the latter, he helped earn a gold and silver medal at the 2013 L.A. International Beer Competition plus a bronze at the 2013 San Diego International Beer Festival. He will serve as head brewer at Burgeon and be assisted by Van Leeuwen.
The trio (who have known each other since high school) spent a year searching for locations, initially intending to site Burgeon in a retail location in downtown Vista or coastal Oceanside. They eventually selected their 10,000-square-foot Carlsbad facility after several buildings in the aforementioned regions fell through, deciding an industrial site was what they needed to get the business off the ground in the near future. The tasting-room will take up a fifth of the entire space and be built out of cedar slabs from a property in Julian belonging to one of Burgeon’s investors. In terms of beer, Tallman and company hope to produce a wide variety of styles, including pale ales, IPAs, hoppy and imperial pale lagers, a rye-infused amber, nut brown and Belgian-style ales (possibly including lesser-seen styles, grisette and singel). A barrel-aging program will also be instituted from the get-go.