Last Thursday, I shared the news that Oceanside Ale Works would hold its last service two days later before closing its doors for good. That was the truth—but not the whole truth. That day, I reached out to co-owner Mark Purciel, who later in the day said there was more to the story, but he couldn’t share details until after January 8 due to a “court date.” That date has come and passed, providing Purciel the opportunity to legally disclose his side of the story, as well as the news that, while OAW may be finished, his tenure in the brewing industry is far from over.
To adequately tell this tale, we’ll need to go back to 2013 when an OAW double IPA, Dude, won gold in the Imperial India Pale Ale category at the San Diego International Beer Festival. This created a great deal of buzz, to the point where distributors and retail establishments were requesting the beer. The problem was, it had never been packaged. So, Purciel and company went to work getting the beer brewed and bottled stat. This included designing bottle art and getting it approved as rapidly as possible. The artwork ended up being a depiction of Purciel posing as The Dude from the film The Big Lebowski presented a la Barack Obama in the “hope posters” from his days as a presidential candidate.
It was a quick fix, and one that did not sit well with OAW’s other owner, Scott Thomas. It wasn’t the first time Thomas expressed dislike for a design decision. Purciel has taken the lead on the business’ marketing from the get-go, seldom developing concepts that worked for Thomas. But the Dude IPA label struck enough of a nerve that Thomas backed away from the business completely (despite the fact that, according to Purciel, Line 64 of their partnership agreement says there will be a beer with his likeness on it). It wasn’t until February of 2015 that he came back in the picture, virtually at least, sending an email from him and his wife to Purciel. According to its addressee, it stated the following:
“We (Scott Thomas and Dawn Thomas) believe in OAW but we do not have the passion. Our energies need to be focused on our children. We truly feel that stepping out of the business completely will give you the autonomy to do things.”
Upon receipt of this email, Purciel says he offered to buy the Thomases out at a sum that was more than three times their initial investment. Thomas called it insulting and proceeded to file a lawsuit against Purciel in December of that year. In the two years that have followed, Purciel says no buyout negotiations have been initiated by the Thomases or their lawyer, though that is what he’s wanted to focus on from the start. It came to the point where he felt his only choice was to close down the business, dissolve the partnership and move on to the next chapter. Given that Purciel owns the building in which OAW was housed, as well as a portion of the brewery equipment, he feels it will be relatively simple to let some necessary time pass then reopen, most likely under an entirely new name. That moniker may turn out to be Irrational Ales, as Purciel (a former math teacher of 17 years) already holds a trademark on it. He is currently in the process of selling assets, and has already selected a IDD Process & Packaging HEBS (high efficiency brewing system) brewhouse to usher him into the next chapter of his brewing career.