Mission Brewery Building - Finally There's Beer

The imposing red brick Mission Brewing building located along I-5, just north of downtown San Diego, has teased beer drinkers for years.  A large sign at the top of the building announces "Mission Brewing," but no beer has been brewed here since before Prohibition.  I think a brewery was scheduled to open in the building in the late 1980s but it never happened.  It has been an office building since.  Until now.

The Beer Rovette saw on TV that beer is being brewed at the old brewery, and I set to work to get the story.  Here is a link to the local TV show, Then and Now, that gives a history of the building and explains about the new beer being brewed.  But here is where it gets confusing.  The brewer at the Mission Brewing building is New English Brewing Co., a recent addition to San Diego's list of brewers.  San Diego has another brewer named Mission Brewing that is named after the original Mission Brewery, but it brews its beers in Chula Vista.

New English describes its move to the Mission Brewing Plaza building here.  It expects to have a tasting room open sometime in March.  Here is the quote from the News section of New English's website:

The old brewery at the Mission Brewery Plaza has been expertly reconditioned by Clint Stromberg of Stromberg Tanks International. Clint will be brewing beer there under the name "5 Points Brewing" and New English will also be brewing on-site. We fired up the kettle for the first batch of "Brewers Special Brown Ale" on January 8th and have been steadily brewing up batch after batch and working through teething issues since. Almost all remaining issues are behind us and there will be a tasting room opening at the brewery sometime in March (with luck)

I had New English's ESB last year and thought it not too bad.  I drive by this building several times a day, and I'm looking forward to hitting the tasting room.  I am curious to learn more about 5 Points Brewing.