San Diego, one of the country’s craft beer capitals, is getting a taste of Memphis craft beer starting this week.
Wiseacre Brewing Co. announced today that it’s adding San Diego to its footprint through craft beer distributor Brown Bag Beverage. It’s the Memphis brewery’s first foray into the state of California.
Wiseacre beer is now available in 21 states, plus the District of Columbia.
The expansion comes a week shy of Wiseacre’s 10th anniversary. Brothers Davin and Kellan Bartosch founded the brewery on Broad Avenue in Memphis in 2013, and have since added a second, larger location in Downtown Memphis.
Wiseacre expects to brew close to 30,000 barrels of beer this year, about 10% growth over 2022. Tiny Bomb American Pilsner, the brewery’s flagship beer and the 4th best-selling craft pilsner in the country, will account for about 13,000-14,000 barrels of that.
Kellan Bartosch told Memphis Beer Blog that the brewery’s expansion to San Diego is in line with Wiseacre’s vision of working with distributors that understand Wiseacre and see value in Tiny Bomb.
“It’s not necessarily all-out aggression to grow as much as we can, all the time. Distributors are going to be the ones that are selling our beer on a daily basis. So they’ve got to want the beer and see value in having that in their portfolio,” Bartosch said.
San Diego is likely the last new market for Wiseacre this year, though Bartosch said the brewery is already thinking about growth opportunities for next year.
Wiseacre is introducing its beers in San Diego at events starting tonight.
- Tuesday, Aug. 22: Pretzels & Pints, 3812 Ray St.
- Wednesday, Aug. 23: Common Theory, 4805 Convoy St.
- Thursday, Aug, 24: Best Pizza & Brew, 9172 Mira Mesa Blvd.