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Step by step, Hinkley was determined to build a national beer company. “He looked at me like, ‘Anchor? We’re going to be much bigger than that,’” the brewer said. In 2016, Number 37.Ī former brewer recalled congratulating Hinkley on the increasing sales, remarking that it could eventually rival San Francisco’s Anchor. In 2014, Green Flash crossed a symbolic barrier, appearing for the first time on the list of the nation’s 50 largest craft breweries, debuting at Number 48. In 2011, the company left its small Vista brewery for a massive Mira Mesa plant, giving it a seven-fold increase in production capacity. Years of profitable, steady growth followed. His West Coast IPA and Le Freak, the latter a Belgian-style tripel/American-style imperial IPA hybrid, won fans and awards. The brand’s rise followed the 2004 hiring of a veteran brewer, Chuck Silva, with a portfolio of distinctive recipes.
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“We were in the red for a long time,” Pam Palisoul said, “maybe three years before we were breaking even. Opening in Vista in 2002, the brewery initially struggled. The Blairs and Palisouls were the original investors in Green Flash. “Martin said he would finance whatever Mike wanted to do in the future,” Pam Palisoul said, “because of his go-get-edness.” “He was a bartender for us,” said Martin Blair, who owns the restaurant with his wife, Cindy.īlair told his friends, Pam and Phillip Palisoul, that this hire combined a passion for beer with an impressive work ethic. One of his stops was the Kansas City Barbecue. “Let’s not pretend that this guy was Hitler.”Ī Navy veteran, Hinkley bounced around after leaving the service. “The guy at Enron was hated less than Hinkley,” said Scot Blair, owner of Hamilton’s Tavern and South Park Brewing Co. Today, it’s hard to remember that Mike Hinkley was once a popular leader of San Diego’s craft beer community. See the boom of San Diego craft beer » Rise and fall “It was a real family thing and a lot of families are dysfunctional. “Just to have that completely wiped away, I feel betrayed, I feel stupid and I feel a whole range of things - and I feel that for others who invested,” said Palisoul, whose 155,000 shares were once valued at nearly $7 million. Hinkley was that guy - until March 30, when the Comerica Bank’s stepped in and turned Green Flash stock into worthless paper. “My husband always said you find the guy with the passion and you put your money on that guy.” “People invested in Green Flash and Mike Hinkley,” said Pam Palisoul, one of the earliest investors. Yet Green Flash’s fall was also rooted in its unique culture, which relied on a small circle of investors, friends and relatives with almost boundless faith in the founder.