After a tumultuous couple of years, Ballast Point’s Home Brew Mart is preparing to reopen in Linda Vista, located at 5401 Linda Vista Road.
Since 2015, Ballast Point Brewing has experienced several owner changes, starting with Constellation Brands taking over the company that year. After only four years and significant financial losses, the parent company sold the business to Kings & Convicts Brewing. Then, last month, Ballast Point Brewing Company announced that it would cease brewing operations at its Miramar headquarters, allowing Athletic Brewing Company to use the 107,000-square-foot space.
Now, it appears even more changes are on the way for the brand. Former employee Jim Johnson, who served as general manager of Home Brew Mart from 2015 to 2021, has purchased the Linda Vista location and plans to reopen after slight renovations, first reported by San Diego Beer News. During this time with the company, Johnson implemented several key changes and helped the company manage its way through the pandemic. Now, Johnson and his team plan to reopen the newly designed Home Brew Mart on June 1.
Customers can expect a smaller space when it opens, shrinking from 8,500 square feet to about 4,250 square feet. The smaller space will feature an 11-tap panel at a separate tasting bar behind the store, while the tasting room will be removed to install taps inside the store itself. The scaled-down model is a nod to the old days of Home Brew Mart. Today, Ballast Point’s locations in Downtown Disney in Anaheim, Long Beach, and San Diego’s Little Italy and Miramar are owned by local hospitality firm RMD Group.
“Home Brew Mart is important to San Diego,” Johnson tells SD Beer News. “It’s important to me. It’s my connection to humble people doing great things. It has given me and my family of friends a way to inform our work with our passion. Imagine every name that ever existed on the payroll at Home Brew Mart and every aspiring brewer who frequented the store, then think about what breweries they founded and led. What would the capital of craft look like without the acorn that grew the oak?”
