USA, CA: Athletic Brewing takes over Ballast Point Brewing’s headquarters in San Diego

The largest producer of non-alcoholic beer in the United States, Athletic Brewing, has taken over Ballast Point Brewing’s headquarters in San Diego, the Washington Beer Blog reported on June 14.

The 107,000-square-foot facility is the largest production brewery in San Diego County.

According to the San Diego Beer News, rumors have circulated for weeks. The deal is now official and Athletic is taking over the facility; however, it is not acquiring Ballast Point Brewing, which is owned by Illinois-based Kings and Convicts.

The deal will see Athletic Brewing take over the facility’s 300-barrel and 150-barrel brewhouses, cellar, packaging line, QA lab, and business offices. The bar and restaurant part of the business will continue to operate as a Ballast Point venue for at least the next 18 months, the San Diego Beer News reports. That will be the extent of Ballast Point’s presence at the facility.

Reportedly, Ballast Point’s beers will be brewed on a contract basis by an undisclosed brewing partner. One thing is clear, that partner is not Athletic Brewing, which says it intends to spend the next 18 months updating and converting the facility into a state-of-the-art NA brewing facility.

In 2015, Ballast Point Brewing was famously purchased by Constellation Brands (maker of Corona, Modelo, and Pacifico) for a reported $1 billion. The exact terms of the deal were never entirely clear, but it didn’t matter. A few years later, in 2019, Constellation Brands sold Ballast Point to Kings and Convicts for $41 million.

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