San Diego Beer: Green Flash Brewing
Green Flash is one of San Diego’s premier craft breweries. The company has made some effort to expand nationally. However, its flagship location is its headquarters in Mira Mesa.
WEBSITE: https://www.greenflashbrew.com/
Green Flash was established in 2002 in Vista, north of San Diego. They moved to their current Mira Mesa headquarters in 2011. This is a 44,000 square foot brewery with one of the largest tasting rooms in San Diego.
The Mira Mesa/Miramar area has become an extremely popular area for independent breweries. This is a suburban/industrial area with many office parks and warehouses. Other nearby breweries include AleSmith, Ballast Point and Gravity Heights.
Unfortunately, Green Flash has been in the news for its business struggles. The company went on an aggressive national expansion. They bought the Alpine Beer Company, a brewery in Europe and opened a brewery in Virginia.
In 2018, Green Flash faced financial collapse. They had to cut back on national distribution and closed the Virginia location. Many people were under the impression that Green Flash went out of business. However, as this San Diego Magazine article makes clear they have successfully restructured.
Much of the change went to focusing on Green Flash’s San Diego roots. This includes explaining what their very San Diego name means.
A green flash is a brief flash of green light at sunset over the Pacific Ocean. It is hard to observe because it only occurs under the right atmospheric conditions. I have personally seen it about a dozen times.
Green Flash’s tagline now says “Keep your Eyes on the Horizon.” Their marketing material and labeling now describes a green flash as:
Part legend, part luck, the elusive green flash is a San Diego sensation. But, to us, it’s more than a burst of brilliant green light as the sun sets into the sea—it’s a magical moment that signals the end of an extraordinary day and the start of an epic night on the horizon.
The Mira Mesa facility remains unchanged by the restructuring. This is a large tasting room perfect for families. It has three major areas. The main tasting room is in the warehouse behind the entry area. The entry area is mainly for parties and large groups. Outside has tables, games and Green Flash’s own food truck.
The main tasting room features a huge selection of beers. I mainly knew Green Flash for their IPAs, especially the West Coast IPA. However, they have all kinds of different beers. You can order 4 ounce tasters, get beer by the pint or get beer to go in kegs and growlers. A price of a pint has increased but still goes for a reasonable $6. There is also a gift shop and brewery tours.
When it comes to actual beers, we defer to the experts. The comprehensive website Craft Beer in San Diego gave the Green Flash tasting room a lukewarm review. However, the main complaint was lack of seating not the beer. We have never had a problem with seating but could see this being an issue if it was crowded.
There are quite a few large breweries in the Mira Mesa/Miramar area. These breweries tend tom have more family-friendly tasting rooms than more urban areas like North Park. On the downside, you need to drive between locations. Thankfully ride services like Uber are perfect for this.
Green Flash may no longer be focused on national growth, but they are a strong San Diego beer brand.
