Two San Diego Breweries Will Make Beer in Europe Now

Two prominent San Diego breweries will soon be feeding Europe's increasing thirst for American craft beer. Green Flash Brewing Co. just announced a partnership with Brewery St-Feuillien that has the Belgium-based brewery now making, bottling and shipping the San Diego brewery's signature brew, West Coast IPA®; the first batch of Belgian-made Green Flash beer is already on its way across Europe.

The breweries' relationship first began in 2010, with their first 'Friendship Brew' collaboration; over the past year, Green Flash's brew master Chuck Silva has been traveling to Belgium to oversee the production of West Coast IPA, which is being made identically to the San Diego-brewed version, except the European beer is being bottle-conditioned. A rep for Green Flash tells Eater that West Coast IPA is the focus of the expansion and that there are no current plans to produce other flagship beers.

And over the weekend, Stone Brewing Co. finally made good on its long-discussed desire to plant a flag in Europe.

The tenth-ranked brewing company in the U.S., according to sales volume, still hasn't announced the location of its East Coast brewery, but it will now make history as the first American craft brewer to operate its own facility in Europe, specifically Berlin.

Scheduled to open by early 2016, Stone Brewing Co.'s new German stronghold will encompass a Stone Brewing World Bistro & Gardens restaurant and outdoor space, a Stone Company Store and a brewery and packaging hall that will produce year-round and special-release beers. The company is putting in $25 million to renovate the site, a former Berlin gasworks plant, but they're also doing a little crowd-funding, launching an Indiegogo campaign to raise an additional $1 million or more through the release of new beer line dubbed "Stone Groundbreaking Collaborations".
· Green Flash Brewing Co. [Official Site]
· Stone Brewing Co. [Official Site]