San Diego brewers have been innovating since at least 1989, when Karl Strauss Brewing Company opened the first craft brewery the region had seen in decades. And they haven’t stopped since. Leave it to food-and-drink-obsessed, science-and-industry-minded San Diegans to reinvent virtually every aspect of an ancient beverage, from marketing right down to microbes.

White Labs

Part laboratory, part production facility, part brewery, White Labs is the authoritative source on beer’s most enduringly mysterious ingredient—yeast. What began as a home brewer’s supply store has evolved into a leading institution on myriad strains of yeast and a global supplier of high-quality strains to macro-, micro-, and home brewers alike.

The 5th Ingredient

When he left Ballast Point to create his own company, engineer Pulkit Agrawal combined two quintessential San Diego trades: craft beer and tech. The 5th Ingredient’s slogan, “Big Data for Your Brewery,” sums up the capabilities of its proprietary software. By tracking over 100 data points, it helps brewers do everything from managing inventory and meeting production deadlines to complex challenges like predicting how different batches will turn out and minimizing inefficiencies.

Certificate Brewing

Classes in lager and ale are in session. UC San Diego Extension and San Diego State University count themselves among the higher education institutions that have launched certificate programs to prepare students to participate in the multi-billion-dollar industry, whether as brewers or as business minds.

Brewery Igniter

Homegrown real estate firm H.G. Fenton crafted a solution to the high entry cost of opening a brewery: turnkey spaces kitted out with brewing equipment and pour-ready tasting rooms. Their locations in North Park, Miramar, and Carlsbad have given seven startups a low-risk home, and three local neighborhoods their own new watering holes.

Tags: Business, craft beer, Food Data, Innovation