It was financed by wealthy locals including John D. Spreckels and quickly became the largest manufacturing enterprise in the county.
It operated on a large scale; in 1906 it added a state-of-the-art, 100-ton compressor for refrigeration.
[1] At first the company delivered kegs of beer in horse-drawn wagons; by 1914 it had switched to motor vehicles.
[2] The brewery delivered 140,000 barrels a year, locally to saloons and hotel bars, as well as out of town by rail,[3] shipping beer as far as San Francisco and Arizona.
It continued in operation until 1942, when it was displaced by the U.S. Navy's Naval Base San Diego.