Alpine Beer Company, Alpine, CA

In 1984 Pat McIlhenney, as many brewery owners, started homebrewing for fun on his off hours from firefighting. In the early 1990’s, Pat began working at a homebrew supply and attended brewing classes at UC Davis. In the late 1990’s a couple friends opened AleSmith Brewing and Pat volunteered time learning all he could. After a few years Pat contracted with AleSmith to produce some Alpine beers. That is when McIlhenney’s Irish Red & Pure Hoppiness made their debut. Over the next two years, Pat and his wife Val worked toward their next goal opening their own brewery in Alpine. In 2000 Pat and Val purchased some brewing equipment and went looking for a building in Alpine. In 2002 Alpine Beer Company opened and Pat created their third beer, an American Wheat Ale called Willy and followed up with Mandarin Nectar, Alpine Ale, and Captain Stout. Soon after opening, their son Shawn, began his brewing career. After a few years Shawn officially took on the role of “Head Brewer”  and took Alpine into the world of barrel aged sours with Ichabod. In 2009, Pat was presented with the opportunity to expand and purchased more brewing equipment from Green Flash. In 2013, Pat and Green Flash agreed to produce some Alpine beer at Green Flash’ new facility in Mira Mesa and Alpine immediately obtained distribution throughout California. A year later the two joined forces and Alpine beer can now be found throughout the country.