Background
In 2009, Mike Hess relocated his financial services office into an industrial park along Miramar Road. At that point he had 15 years of home brewing experience under his belt. This new industrial office was chosen because of an 800 ft² garage that was originally procured to hold his home brewing setup. Mike searched for information on starting a small brewery and could not find an all-inclusive source. As a result, he did his own research and wrote Hess Brewing Odyssey, a chronicle of a brewery start up process. In July of 2010, after 8 months of building a 1.6 bbl. brew house from scratch, the Mike Hess Brewing brand was born and opened to the public. Demand increased and so did production, but Mike could not keep up with demand.
Early in 2012, Mike, his wife and brother began creation of their 30 bbl. North Park brewery, opening in August of 2013. This became their main brewing facility and the addition of a canning line allowed for more Mike Hess Brewing beer to pop up around the state. In November of 2015 an Ocean Beach tasting room was opened just blocks from Dog Beach.
The fourth Mike Hess Brewing site opened in Walnut Creek in 2018. Mike and his brother Greg grew up in Walnut Creek and still have a lot of family in the area. The tasting room is small but boasts a large unique outdoor seating area that is pet friendly. And finally, early in 2019 the fifth tasting room opened on the shores of Imperial Beach. This is the brewery’s first location with food, collaboration with Gerry Torres, who opened City Tacos in North Park. They are currently in phase one with a more elaborate outside patio area in the works.
Experience
After not finding a parking spot around Dog Beach, we did find one in front of Mike Hess Brewing in Ocean Beach. On this early Saturday afternoon, there were a few other patrons and 22 different handles to choose from. We have been enjoying canned Mike Hess beer for some time, but it was great to be able to try some new varieties. It was also fun to sit along the open windows watching the activities of Ocean Beach. It is certainly in our plans to check out the brewing facility in North Park that boasts a walkway over the brewing equipment in the basement.
No nearby lodging noted. We did not research lodging around the other four locations. Only the location at Imperial Beach offers food onsite.
https://www.mikehessbrewing.com/
