After more than a year of design and construction, AleSmith Brewing Company has opened the doors to its brand new, 25,000-square-foot tasting room at 9990 AleSmith Court in San Diego’s Miramar neighborhood. This highly anticipated project comes at the tail end of the award-winning craft brewery’s twentieth year in business. The largest tasting room in San Diego County, the indoor/outdoor space is filled with unique features, including a zigzagging bar giving way to a trio of massive copper tap towers and a view of a custom-built, two-story brewhouse behind glass panes stylishly frosted over with AleSmith’s anvil logo.
“Our twentieth year has been momentous with us moving into a much larger facility that will allow us to increase our production ten-fold, but the biggest thrill for us in this process is being able to provide a world-class place to share our beer with the fans who played such a vital role in making AleSmith what it has become,” says owner and CEO Peter Zien. “Just like with our beers, we were meticulous in the conceptualization of every aspect of our new tasting room. We wanted it to be an extension of what we are - a group of devout artists sharing a common respect and appreciation of the brewer’s art for all to enjoy.”
To put the immensity of the new space in perspective, AleSmith’s original tasting room comprised 750 square feet of purely interior space and featured a single set of 15 taps. The new venue is equipped with 60 taps, dispensing roughly two-dozen beers with about 20,000 square feet of interior space and 5,000 square feet available within an outdoor beer garden. The latter is anchored by a contemporary fire pit and accented by drought-resistant plant-life. The exterior space is bordered by a steel rail bar allowing for access to food trucks and other on-site edible vendors. But this is just the beginning of AleSmith's expansion. The aforementioned features represent the completion of Phase 1 of this project. Future phases will include the addition of a beer garden bar, upstairs mezzanine area, company store, private event space and a museum honoring the memory of San Diego Padres great Tony Gwynn, built in association with the Hall of Famer’s family and non-profit, the Tony and Alicia Gwynn (TAG) Foundation. Phases 2 and 3 of this ongoing project are scheduled to be completed in 2016.
Started in 1995, AleSmith has been recognized by consumers and critics alike as one of the world’s foremost craft brewing companies behind accolades that include medals won at prestigious national and international beer competitions as well as being named Small Brewing Company of the Year at the Great American Beer Festival. For more information, visit alesmith.com.
