SAN DIEGO—Named after a super robust New Zealand hop, Green Flash Brewing Co. announces the national debut of Green Bullet, a triple IPA that the brewery will release in September, with availability through December.   It was after exploring New Zealand hops when Chuck first developed the beer to commemorate the brewery’s 9^th anniversary in 2011.   Green Bullet has since developed a cult-like following reminiscent of another Green Flash knockout, Palate Wrecker™.  The buzz and accolades for Green Bullet have prompted Green Flash to introduce this distinctly well-balanced triple IPA nationally in bottle and on draft.

“While looking for new and unique hops for our 9th Anniversary brew, I turned my focus to New Zealand and discovered a hop called Green Bullet,” explains Chuck. “Given Green Bullet’s brightly floral, piney, pungent, and spicy characteristics, it seemed almost tailor-made for Green Flash. Further exploration in the region lead me to discover the fruity Pacific Gem hop.  With a balanced blend of two New Zealand hops, Green Bullet is an extremely well-rounded and quaffable triple IPA.”

“Our fans flipped over Green Bullet, when it was our 9th Anniversary ale,” says Green Flash Co-Founder and CEO, Mike Hinkley.  “We have made a few small draft batches since 2011 to serve in the tasting room and it is always a big hit.  This fall, Green Bullet will be available in bottles for the first time and everyone is eager to get their hands on some, myself included!”

Green Bullet is full bodied with a soft pine and citrus hoppiness upfront, tropical notes of mango and pineapple, and a moderately aggressive dry and bitter finish.  It is a remarkably well-balanced for such a potent brew at 10.1% ABV, 100 IBUs. Green Bullet™ will be available in 4-packs of 12oz bottles, 22-ozers and on draft nationally beginning in September, with availability through the end of 2013.

SAN DIEGO—This month, Green Flash Brewing Co. is installing 6 new 250 barrel fermenters, bringing the San Diego brewery to 100% production capacity, about 100,000 annual barrels.  Additional production increases will come from a second brewery in Virginia Beach, Virginia, currently in planning.  Green Flash has steadily increased production capacity ahead of demand since completing the initial build out of its state of the art San Diego facility in 2011. After re-watching Suds County USA, a 2012 documentary chronicling the timeline of San Diego’s craft beer explosion, Green Flash Co-Founder and CEO, Mike Hinkley was again struck by the “all-hands-on-deck” spirit of craft beer’s earliest pioneers. Mike had recently heard that Pat McIlhenney of Alpine Beer Co. was looking for a contract brewer, so that he could make enough beer to raise capital to expand operations.  Mike immediately called Pat and offered to brew kegged beer for Alpine at Green Flash.

Mike presented the terms of the “non-contract” to Pat:  Green Flash will not make a profit on the beer, only recover its costs, and only brew the beer when it does not interfere with meeting orders for Green Flash.  The timing of the arrival of the new tanks, fit Alpine’s timing perfectly and the price could not be beat.  So the only thing left was the hand shake.

“We are not contract brewing, we’re just helping Pat accomplish his goals of building a new brewery.” emphasizes Co-Founder and CEO, Mike Hinkley.  “We have no interest in contract brewing and I cannot think of another scenario that would prompt me to make that call.  San Diego’s craft beer scene was built on a foundation of community, with brewers helping each other to succeed. We benefited greatly from help and advice of other breweries, including Alpine, while getting started. I am very proud to be able to help Pat and Alpine.”

Green Flash is brewing only kegged beer for Alpine.  Alpine is finalizing plans to work with Cold Springs in Minnesota to produce canned beer.  These combined efforts will allow Alpine to produce about 5,000 barrels annually – an increase of about 200%

“I have known Pat for over 15 years as a brewer in San Diego and we work well together,” explains Chuck Silva, Brewmaster at Green Flash.  “Because we brew similar styles, I know this arrangement is a great fit which will make it easy for our teams to work together. While Green Flash will not benefit financially from the arrangement, I think our production team will reap the rewards from this as a learning opportunity.”

Green Flash will brew three of Alpine’s most popular offerings:  Hoppy Birthday, Nelson and Duet to spec, hops and other ingredients provided by Alpine. Green Flash will be ready to brew as soon as the latest cellar expansion is complete. They will brew Alpine beers for approximately one year, brewing a rotation of 250 barrel batches of these three Alpine beers.  Chuck and Pat will work closely with the brewing team at Green Flash to ensure these beers are brewed to spec, and White Labs will ensure each release is consistent to Alpine’s formulations with lab testing prior to distribution.

“Having Mike Hinkley call with his most generous offer to help is overwhelming and came as a beautiful surprise,” says Pat McIlhenney from Alpine Beer Co. “The quality and craftsmanship Chuck and crew bring to their beers gives me the greatest confidence we will be able to seamlessly introduce a greater supply of our highly sought after beers. I am humbled by Mike’s generosity.”

Beer will be packaged in Alpine’s kegs and Alpine will be managing their own distribution. Finalizing compliance and other necessary legalities is currently in process, and there is no timetable in place –starting in September at the earliest. However, the Brewers met yesterday evening over a beer to finalize next steps, sealing their agreement with a handshake and another round. Just like old times.

About Alpine Beer Company

Alpine Beer Company was founded in 1999 by contracting with AleSmith Brewing Company for their award winning McIlhenney’s Irish Red. Located in the eastern part of San Diego County, this family owned and operated brewery opened in 2002 in their little home town of Alpine. Since that time we have offered over thirty different brews, some barrel aged beers, multiple IPA’s and unique lagers to name a few. A tiny pub was opened in 2010 and offers a delicious barbeque themed menu.

About Green Flash Brewing Co.

Green Flash Brewing Co., is located in San Diego, California, and was founded in 2002 by Mike and Lisa Hinkley.  Brewmaster, Chuck Silva, leads brewing operations. Green Flash is an award-winning brewer of fine, hand-crafted ales, and specializes in brewing assertive and distinctive beers, such as the nationally acclaimed West Coast I.P.A.: an award-winning beer whose wide acceptance has helped define a category.  Green Flash brews a wide variety of beer styles that are available on draft and in bottles as well as a growing lineup of seasonal and special offerings, including several barrel-aged beers, throughout the year.  Please visit the Green Flash website www.greenflashbrew.com for more information.

Chuck Silva of Green Flash Brewing Co.

All About Beer: What is it about the San Diego beer community? Ten years ago, even though a lot of the major players were in place, it wasn’t on fire the way it is now.

CS: I think the fun thing that makes San Diego unique, compared to other awesome metropolitan craft beer hot spots, is that San Diego offers more diversity of beer styles. There’s a lot more Belgian styles, innovative new styles, not just hoppy beers. We have great hoppy beers here, for sure, but we’re not so narrowly focused.

Compared with San Diego, in LA, people who want to get into the industry seem to face more of an uphill struggle, even though there are very good places there. It’s hard to see how the two places can be so different.

LA is a whole different scene. Everything’s so “what’s hot and what’s not.” Brewpubs are restaurants first, and so LA, being so fickle—what have you done lately?—a brewpub might be hot for a couple of weeks, but what’s next? It’s hard to build a loyal audience. That’s just how I feel about LA. It’s not personal; it’s just an observation.

It’s my impression that Green Flash was one of the earlier companies, not to brew Belgian styles, but to put a Belgian twist on American beers. Is that accurate?

To some degree, yes. The original focus at Green Flash was high-end craft session beers. That all changed once we made West Coast IPA. It redefined the benchmark West Coast IPA style. There were already a lot of great IPAs out there, so we had to make the beer extravagant.

Our introduction to Belgian beers was our third-anniversary beer. We did a Belgian tripel, which is still in our line-up. That was more a traditional abbey tripel. Then I saw Belgian breweries were inspired by the hops that we’d been using on the West Coast in particular, with beers like Houblon Chouffe. So I looked at that and thought if they can put a Belgian flavor and American hops together, I can do that my own way. I started playing around. We used our imperial IPA wort and fermented it with our house yeast and a Belgian Trappist yeast, dry hopped with several American hops. That’s how we got Le Freak.