OUR STORY

Northern Pine is a Marine veteran owned and operated brewery and one of the primary reasons we started Northern Pine was to have a direct way and a space where we could be involved in and support our community. Over the years we have been able to work with and support many charitable organizations within the military community and beyond and have been able to host many community events but working with Operation Restorations will allow us to be able to help on a scale larger than anything we could have dreamed of. 

 

The idea to start Northern Pine came after co-founder and Marine Veteran, Aaron Ortega wanted to do something for his military community after a tragic accident occurred in 2012. At the time Aaron Ortega was working as a civilian contractor on base with friend and Marine Veteran Bobby Parsons. During a training operation near Yuma, AZ two helicopters collided and all seven Marines on board the two flights perished. The Marines were from HMLA-469, the squadron Aaron and Bobby were working for at the time and they were getting ready to go on deployment. Having served and lost fellow Marines himself, Aaron knew how a tragedy like this hits home and how hard it would be to boost morale going into the deployment and so he came up with the idea to brew a beer for the squadron. Aaron was an avid homebrewer taught by Bobby Parsons and the two teamed up with friend, Levi Shajlio to brew a beer for the men and women of HMLA-469 before they were deployed. After discovering the squadron was more than twice the size they expected, an elaborate home brewing plan was created for the beer. While shopping for supplies (and looking for a bulk discount) the group stopped at Mother Earth Brewing's homebrew supply store in Vista, CA and unknowingly started to talk to the owner, Dan Love, about the project. Understanding the complexities of brewing a batch of that size on homebrew systems and wanting to support the effort, Dan Love offered his professional brew house and to donate all ingredients, right there onsite. Because of this offer, the group was able to brew a much larger batch than anticipated which not only got a beer into every Marine's hands of HMLA-469 but also to friends and family around the world. The beer was named "Homage" in honor of the fallen, brewed with ingredients inspired by the Marine's hometowns, and a custom label was created with 7 stars, one for each Marine. Due to being able to brew on a professional scale, there was also enough beer leftover to host an event at Mother Earth for friends and family. Word got out about the event and Mother Earth's taproom was packed with hundreds of people from the community and in turn a lot of beer was sold with proceeds going towards funeral costs and shadow boxes to display the fallen Marine's medals and honors. It was at this event that Aaron, Bobby, and Aaron's wife, Anne decided to start a brewery of their own where special events like this would forever have a home. 

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When the team decided to start building a brewery of their own, they knew they wanted to give back through their beer, but they also wanted their beer and their brewery to represent them. It was quickly decided that the brewery had to be focused around the outdoors. Aaron and Anne grew up in the Northwest and Bobby grew up in upstate New York, and all are avid outdoorsmen. They wanted to bring what they love most about their upbringings to Southern California and that is what inspired the name and the concept of Northern Pine Brewing. “There are so many elements from home that people would love and appreciate here in Oceanside, and we are excited to bring those to people through Northern Pine Brewing” – Aaron Ortega.

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