In-progress brewery count up to 48

When I catch wind of a new brewery project, I feel a jolt of electricity shoot through me. I realize this speaks to the near-obsessive depth of my craft beer enthusiasm, but it is what it is. Over the past two weeks, I’ve felt like a subject of electro-shock therapy — there are so many new brewery projects in San Diego County. My current tally of viable prospects is up to a whopping 48, and I’ve learned of seven in the past 15 days alone! Admittedly, I don’t know much about them just yet, but here is what has come to my attention.

Chula Vista has a pair of operations in the works. The first is brand new project named for the region it will inhabit—Otay Lakes Brewing Company. The other is a second go-round for Doug Chase of Bay Bridge Brewing, which locals will remember as the company that operated The Brew House at Eastlake for several years before going out of business in 2012.

El Cajon, which is celebrating the return of a working brewhouse within its city limits with the recent opening of URBN St. Brewing Co., is on pace to have two breweries with the future arrival of Promethean Brewery. Division 23 Brewing recently became a full-fledged member of the California Craft Brewers Association and is slated to enter the brewery-dense Miramar area spring of next year. Meanwhile, Bay City Brewing Co. has its sights set on San Diego’s Midway District.

Up north, it appears the Harney Sushi chain may be looking to get into the beer biz by opening Harney Brewing Company. And Ebullition Brew Works has a notice up on a San Marcos storefront located only a couple miles from future neighbors Port Brewing Company / The Lost Abbey, Dos Desperados Brewery, San Marcos Brewery & Grill and Rip Current Brewing Company.

Expect more information on these businesses in the coming months. And if any of the people behind these companies are reading this, feel free to contact me. Cheers to the ever-expanding San Diego beer scene.