Green Flash Brewing Company

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Green Flash Brewing Co. was founded in 2002 by Mike and Lisa Hinkley in Vista, California. The brewery was initially a small operation, brewing just a few styles of beer, but it quickly grew in popularity, and by 2014, it had become one of the largest breweries in San Diego County.
Green Flash. Taste Enlightenment.
Mike Hinkley was a former accountant before he became the proud owner of Green Flash, but he hated his accounting job and as a result, he quit after a few years and bought a pub instead. When Hinkley was running his pub, he enjoyed introducing his favourite craft beers on tap, including Sierra Nevada and Anchor Steam, and his pub eventually became a craft beer bar.

Soon, Hinkley and his wife started to think that it’d be really cool to have their own products on the shelves of their bar (or even on tap) for their neighbours and customers to drink. After seeing the success of their pub, Hinkley and his wife decided to open a craft brewery of their own, and Green Flash Brewing Co. was born!
You may be wondering, why “Green Flash”? Part legend, part luck - the elusive green flash is a San Diego sensation. The optical phenomenon occurs occasionally at sunset or sunrise, and will remain briefly visible for about two seconds. Besides being an aesthetically pleasing burst of brilliant green light that greets the sun as it rises and sets, the green flash is also a magical moment that signals the start and end of an extraordinary day.

Green Flash’s innovative brews

Green Flash Brewing Co. is known for its bold, hop-forward beers, including its flagship beer, West Coast IPA. In 2003, Hinkley realised that people largely categorised the IPA into two main styles - East Coast and West Coast IPA. This inspired Hinkley to attempt at creating the benchmark of what a West Coast IPA is - and he succeeded!

Green Flash’s legendary IPA changed the landscape for beer for the next decade and also inspired generations of West Coast-style IPAs. Green Flash West Coast IPA was first brewed in 2005 with 6 bold and aggressive Pacific Northwest hops: Simcoe, Columbus, Citra, Cascade, and Centennial. These provide bright citrus aromatics like grapefruit and lemon zest with a backbone of pine and resin.
From then on, Green Flash was known as an innovator and it proceeded to create the first Belgian IPA in the country - Le Freak. The hybrid ale features the convergence of a Belgian-style Trippel and an American Imperial IPA. With intense flavours of orange marmalade and citrus fruit pith, this legendary beer will entice you from the very first sip.

Green Flash today

Despite the brewery’s overwhelming success, Green Flash had faced its multitude of struggles in the past. In 2010, Lisa Hinkley was diagnosed with breast cancer, but continued helping the brewery with its major expansion and packaging redesign as focusing on work helped her take her mind off the severity of her situation. Fortunately, Lisa recovered after months of chemotherapy and surgery and got a clean bill of health from her physicians.
In 2014, Green Flash acquired Alpine Beer Company, but the partnership eventually went south. 4 years later, Green Flash Brewing Co. was sold to a group of investors, faced financial difficulties, and was forced to close its Virginia Beach and Poway, California locations. In 2021, SweetWater Brewery - the 11th largest craft brewery in America - acquired Green Flash and Alpine, thus saving Green Flash from going under.

Today, Green Flash continues to focus on innovation and good quality beers, and we are excited to see what the brewery will come up with next!
 

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