{"id":10379,"date":"2015-03-06T12:51:59","date_gmt":"2015-03-06T20:51:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/?p=10379"},"modified":"2015-03-06T13:16:16","modified_gmt":"2015-03-06T21:16:16","slug":"free-fall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/2015\/03\/06\/free-fall\/","title":{"rendered":"Free Fall"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Ray<\/a>
Ray Astamendi<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

“We’re getting the band back together,” says Ray Astamendi, owner and brewmaster of Fall Brewing Co.<\/a> Ray and his team of merry misfits fell on the northern end of 30th Street on the northern edge of North Park, opening the brewery late 2014. During his time at Mission Brewery, Ray won two GABF medals in 2007 for El Camino IPA (Bronze: Category 44, India Style Pale Ale) and El Amigo Light (Gold: Category 23 M\u00fcnchner (Munich) Style Helles). Ray has worked for several other breweries in town, including Saint Archer<\/a>. After leaving St. Archer, Ray scoured SD looking for a location to start his own brewery. His departures from previous breweries has not always been smooth. \u201cIn life, we fall from grace many times. No matter how many times we fall, we must get back up.\u201d Fall Brewing is the first time Ray is completely in control. \u201cI\u2019ve never had the ability to play and experiment. We\u2019re answering to no-one nor any conventional wisdom. We\u2019re into beer, and we\u2019re making what we like.\u201d Ray is working to impress the discerning beer drinker.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s not alone. The other bandmates? Dave Lively and Mike Mellow.<\/p>\n

Dave Lively, a talented graphic designer, has created album covers<\/a> for local bands The Heartaches + Rocket From the Crypt<\/a> to National acts such as Jack Johnson + G. Love and Special Sauce. In the local beer world, he\u2019s responsible for the cool visual stylings of Livewire<\/a>, The Casbah, The Station and Starlight<\/a> \u2013 and has designed for both with Mission Brewery + Saint Archer. He\u2019s now the \u201cCreative Bad Ass\u201d<\/a> at Fall.<\/p>\n

Mike Mellow is a skilled beer salesman that has worked for Ballast Point, Mission Brewery<\/a>, Saint Archer and Mike Hess. Armed with years of beer slinging experience for some of the best in the local beer business, Mike’s excited to be part of the small, 7-human strong Fall.<\/p>\n

As a trio, Astamendi, Lively and Mellow worked together at both Mission and Saint Archer.\u00a0Hence, “getting the band back together.”<\/p>\n

After signing the lease in January 2013, build out commenced that May and lasted until 15 minutes after the City of San Diego code inspector left the building in just before November 2014\u2019s Beer Week. \u201cWe took the tape off the windows and people started trickling in,\u201d Ray recalls. Their first beers have been well received, with standouts including Plenty for All Pilsner, 2AM Bike Ride Stout and Spirit of \u201877 IPA. Making good beer right out of the gate is tough for a new brewery, and Fall\u2019s beers have started out great. They’re also improving.<\/p>\n

The aesthetics are cool, too. The bar area is being slowly taken over by SoCal punk band posters, including many from Dave Lively\u2019s stash. \u201cWe created a space we wanted to exist in,\u201d he explains. \u201cIn creating the brand, I wanted a classic, positive theme: the harder you fall, the better you get.\u201d<\/p>\n

Plans are in the works to begin packaging in the future. For now, the focus is on developing the beer while modestly earning tap handles at bars. \u201cWe have over 52 draft accounts,\u201d says Mellow. \u201cWe want to keep the level low and manageable at first, so we\u2019re being picky.\u201d Fall has enjoyed huge support from the Uptown beer community, with handles at Small Bar, Tiger!Tiger!, Blind Lady, Live Wire, Hamilton\u2019s and Monkey Paw.<\/p>\n

Events are going to be a focus as well for the new brewery. Already, a hot-dog competition was held between Fathom Bistro and Carnitas Snack Shack. Keep an eye on their events page<\/a> for more info.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“We’re getting the band back together,” says Ray Astamendi, owner and brewmaster of Fall Brewing Co. Ray and his team of merry misfits fell on the northern end of 30th Street on the northern edge of North Park, opening the brewery late 2014. During his time at Mission Brewery, Ray won two GABF medals in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[154,1225,147,1055,876,1354,827,467,180,779,1226,457,333,451,15,881,1356,1254,224,1357,506],"class_list":{"0":"post-10379","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-san-diego-beer-beverage-news","7":"tag-30th-street","8":"tag-ballast-point-brewing-co","9":"tag-blind-lady-ale-house","10":"tag-carnitas-snack-shack","11":"tag-dave-lively","12":"tag-fall-brewing-co","13":"tag-fathom-bistro-bait-tackle","14":"tag-great-american-beer-festival","15":"tag-hamiltons-tavern","16":"tag-live-wire","17":"tag-mike-hess-brewing-co","18":"tag-mike-mellow","19":"tag-mission-brewery","20":"tag-monkey-paw","21":"tag-north-park","22":"tag-ray-astamendi","23":"tag-rocket-from-the-crypt","24":"tag-saint-archer-brewing-co","25":"tag-small-bar","26":"tag-starlight","27":"tag-tigertiger","28":"entry","29":"has-post-thumbnail"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","wps_subtitle":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pdtr4y-2Hp","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10379","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10379"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10379\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}