LEADING THE NON-ALCOHOLIC CRAFT-BEER CHARGE IN SAN DIEGO
Athletic Brewing and Two Roots Brewing are changing the game
“Athletic emerged from an authentic need in my life. I wanted great non-alcoholic beer but couldn’t f ind any on the market.” Bill Shufelt • Teamed up with John Walker to create Athletic Brewing
There’s long been a stigma attached to non-alcoholic beer. Most products in the category are bland takes on German-style lagers, which are veritably indistinguishable from one another.
The stagnant category has never seen much innovation, but a crop of new-school non-alcoholic breweries are changing the game by applying a craft-beer approach. And the two most award-winning of those revolutionary operations — Athletic Brewing and Two Roots Brewing — are right here in San Diego.
Bicoastal Athleticism
Athletic Brewing was founded in 2017 in Stratford, Conn., as the brainchild of Bill Shufelt, who hadn’t initially intended on leading the non-alcoholic beer uprising. All he’d originally wanted was a decent non-alcoholic ale or lager option.
“When I was working in finance, I had an incredibly demanding schedule, and it became clear that alcohol wasn’t compatible with my goals and what I wanted to achieve professionally or personally,” says Shufelt. “All of the non-alcoholic beverage choices were the stuff you’d find on the kids’ menu, and none of the non-alcoholic beers offered the true craft-beer flavor profile that I loved. Athletic emerged from an authentic need in my life. I wanted great non-alcoholic beer but couldn’t find any on the market.”
After teaming up with co-founder and head brewer John Walker — who accepted Shufelt’s proposition to go into business after more than 200 other brewing professionals turned him down — the pair spent years conducting research and homebrewing prototypes. This, despite the fact friends, family and market data were telling them there was zero demand for non-alcoholic beer. The duo contended that there was no demand for the non-alcoholic beer that was available, believing their eventual products — ales and lagers of American, English and German origin, ranging from light to dark, malty to hoppy — would rejuvenate the segment.
They were correct. When opening Athletic’s Stratford brewery and taproom, Shufelt and Walker thought it would take at least five years to outgrow their capacity, but they did it in under a year. By year two, they were at the point where they desperately needed to expand to meet product demand. When determining where to establish their second manufacturing facility, they decided to do so in an area where the majority of their customers were located: the West Coast.
In March 2020, Athletic purchased an 80,000-square-foot building on Trade Street in Miramar. Formerly a pilot-brewery, barrel and packaging warehouse for Ballast Point Brewing, it was well suited for the company, allowing it to hit the ground running. Today, that facility is capable of producing as much as 150,000 barrels of beer annually — as much as the Stratford brewery and a second Connecticut brewery, which is currently under construction. It is also home
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