After three months of publicly shopping the Monkey Paw brand and brewery, CBC Brewing Company (CBC) abruptly closed the East Village business yesterday. A report in the U-T published at 5:10 p.m. gave nostalgic drinkers less than six hours to grab their final pint(s), while some staff were also caught off-guard earlier in the day.
CBC had announced the purchase of Monkey Paw from Hamilton’s Tavern and South Park Brewing owner Scot Blair in July of 2017.
In August of 2011, Blair opened Monkey Paw with characteristic counter-culture mentality and the goals of pushing the brewing envelope, while simultaneously honoring staid and less-popular styles. Monkey Paw was the first post-Prohibition brewery in San Diego to can their beer (in 2012), and a long list of house beers coincided with awards earned at top-tier competitions the Great American Beer Festival (GABF) and World Beer Cup. The majority of those medaling beers were brewed by Cosimo Sorrentino, Monkey Paw’s longtime head brewer who left the business in 2016.
Differences of opinion between Blair and CBC led to a split that includes an ongoing lawsuit filed by Blair, against CBC, for money he alleges the company owes him.
Requests for information from CBC and Blair went unanswered by time of posting.
Since acquiring Monkey Paw, CBC shifted the brewpub tap list largely to CBC-backed brands, which includes SouthNorte, a cross-border operation helmed by former head brewer Ryan Brooks that launched last September.
CBC marketed SouthNorte as an independent startup that they’d invested in. “SouthNorte is not an offshoot of Coronado,” a CBC spokesperson said in 2017, referring to wording West Coaster used in GABF coverage. “It’s its own brewing company that Ryan started. Yes there are CBC people involved, but it’s not an offshoot.”
Until just recently, all of SouthNorte’s beers were brewed and distributed via CBC’s Bay Park production facility, and the current plan is for core beers to continue being produced there. This Friday, SouthNorte’s 10-barrel Tijuana brewery at the Telefónica Gastro Park hosts its grand opening.
Could the Monkey Paw space evolve into a SouthNorte brewpub? SouthNorte has indicated that they are looking for a permanent San Diego home, outside of CBC Bay Park, but it’s unclear if the East Village brewpub would be the right fit.
Meanwhile, the fate of another, unopened, CBC brewpub is also up in the air. In early 2017, CBC announced plans to open in the new Bikeway Village development of Imperial Beach, but those plans are currently on hold.
– Brandon Hernández with additional reporting by Ryan Lamb and Gonzalo J. Quintero, Ed.D.