USA, CA: Beachwood Brewing sells its flagship location to a new brewery

The popular Long Beach brewery, Beachwood Brewing, has sold its flagship downtown location to master brewer Ian McCall of ISM Brewing, who was an original brewer at the downtown location, the Long Beach Post reported on October 11.

Beachwood announced its decision to sell in an Instagram post on October 11, adding that the move was part of a strategic plan to expand and diversify its operations. Beachwood’s specialty brewing production will be moved to its Huntington Beach facility. They opened a taproom in Huntington Beach several years ago and a pizza and beer restaurant there, which opened last December. But the company isn’t leaving Long Beach entirely, as it just opened a taproom at 2ND & PCH, and it has another taproom in Bixby Knolls.

In February, the downtown location closed its kitchen citing homelessness, continuous construction, and the lack of foot traffic as most office workers remained working from home. Co-owner Gabriel Gordon wrote a letter to the downtown Long Beach Alliance outlining concerns about the business’ struggles to continue staying open at that location. The brewery never reopened its kitchen, instead opting to host local food vendors and pop-ups such as Proudly Serving burgers and others.

The brewery opened in Long Beach more than 12 years ago and has consistently won accolades for its craft beer. Two of their beers won silver and bronze at the Great American Beer Festival this year.

“The great news is that we will be passing the torch to Ian McCall, a close friend, and an original brewer at our downtown brewpub,” the brewery said on Instagram. Gordon declined to comment further on the sale.

After leaving Beachwood in 2018, McCall went on to be the head brewer at Riip Beer, an award-winning brewer based in Huntington Beach.

“I am honored to be able to continue to brew world-class beer in this well-known, widely respected and time-tested facility,” McCall said on Instagram.

Information on the grand opening will be released in the coming weeks.

E-malt.com, the global information source for the brewing and malting industry professionals. The bi-weekly E-malt.com Newsletters feature latest industry news, statistics in graphs and tables, world barley and malt prices, and other relevant information. Click here to get full access to E-malt.com. If you are a Castle Malting client, you can get free access to E-malt.com website and publications. Contact us for more information at marketing@castlemalting.com .