Brewery Igniter Bringing New Beer Hubs to Miramar & North Park

A brewery's journey from conception to launch can often be agonizingly slow and fraught with financial woes, and frustratingly, some never even make it out of the starting gate. Enter San Diego developer H.G. Fenton Company, whose new Brewery Igniter project aims to shorten a brewery's opening timeline and ensure that its beer actually makes it into your glass.

Starting with two 1,625-square-foot suites in one of its Miramar-area complexes, H.G. Fenton partnered with local supplier Premier Stainless to equip each space with a seven barrel brewhouse and all the fundamentals that a brewery start-up would need; there's even an annexed area for a tasting room and bar. Breweries will lease the facility on a short-term basis until they outgrow its production capacity or have the option to renew.

A Miramar tenant making is local debut is the new Pure Project Brewing. First founded in Costa Rica by San Diego-transplants Jesse Pine and his wife Agi, the project became too unwieldy and costly to get off the ground so the pair decided to bring the concept back to San Diego, where they've partnered with Mat Robar and brewmaster Winslow Sawyer, who last brewed at Colorado's Boulder Creek Brewery.

Even though the brewery is now based in San Diego, it will still carry through some of the original core elements first developed in Costa Rica. Sawyer is adept at making sours, so expect a barrel program plus seasonal small-batch beers infused with local and exotic ingredients, from fruit to spices and coffee. Pure Project hopes to start brewing in December with its industrial-meets-Costa Rican jungle tasting room, stocked with 10 to 14 house beers, open by January 1.

Amplified Ale Works is moving into the adjacent space, which it will use to increase production of its core beers and expand the capacity of its existing Pacific Beach brewpub.

The Miramar outpost of Brewery Igniter is just the first of many that H.G. Fenton hopes to develop in San Diego and beyond. Commercial property manager Jacqueline Oliver tells Eater that she has a long list of new and existing breweries interested in the next location in North Park at 4307 Ohio Street and El Cajon. The company has submitted permitting to turn the former strip club into a cluster of three brewery/tasting room spaces, which will each be 1,800 to 2,200-square-feet and hold 10 barrel brew systems.