Amplified Ale Works will launch a crowdfunding campaign on Friday, Jan. 17 as well as announce its plans to open a production facility in the city of Lemon Grove in San Diego County. This crowdfunding campaign, operated through WeFunder, provides fans of Amplified an opportunity to invest in the future of one of their favorite breweries, as well as giving Lemon Grove residents a chance to invest in their community. “We’re looking to open up to our fans, the craft beer community, local music supporters, and Lemon Grove residents the opportunity to have a true investment in a business they can also have an emotional investment in,” said Alex Pierson, owner of Amplified Ale Works, which has an ocean-view location in Pacific Beach at 4150 Mission Blvd. Amplified Ale Works has garnered fans for the past decade, first as the celebrated SDSU-adjacent eatery, California Kebab, which opened in 2009. In 2012, California Kebab launched Amplified Ale Works as an in-house nano brewing operation in its current Pacific Beach location. With the popularity of its beer among the Pacific Beach community, they dropped the California Kebab name to focus on the Amplified brand. In 2016, Amplified Ale Works was an original adopter of the HG Fenton Brewery Igniter program in Miramar, where the small brewery was able to triple its production and grow the Amplified beer portfolio. Today, Amplified operates two full restaurants, two music venues, and a seven-barrel production facility in Miramar. With the addition of their newest location in East Village in 2018, as well as the increased demand to take over tap space at local bars, the brewery has once again found itself in a position poised for growth. Amplified has laid his sights on the historic Sonka Brothers General Store building in the city of Lemon Grove. Most recently the building housed The Lemon Grove Bakery, but as a production facility for Amplified Ale Works, it is anticipated to have a capacity of up to 10,000 barrels annually, roughly five times Amplified’s current production level. This growth in production can fulfill the needs of future Amplified beer garden locations, as well as increase the allocation for canning and outside sales accounts. To fund the venture, Amplified will launch a campaign with the crowdfunding service, WeFunder. WeFunder connects start-ups with investors online, allowing non-accredited investors to invest capital in entrepreneurial ventures. Unlike other crowdfunding platforms such as Kickstarter that provide purely incentives in exchange for money, WeFunder is a platform for SEC-governed investment opportunities. “We wanted to offer a real way for our fans and community to be a part of what they have helped create over the past decade and be an integral part of our future as well,” said Pierson. The move to crowdfund is a decided action by Amplified to avoid a traditional investment process. Amplified views the campaign as a way to not only expand their growing business but reward those stakeholders who have allowed them to grow. In the campaign, Pierson is clear with Amplified’s intentions to adopt an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) within the next five years, providing equity and shares of the business too long term employees. Amplified’s brewpubs boast a California-themed, Mediterranean-inspired and vegan friendly-food menu with Gluten-reduced in-house beers across multiple locations. The WeFunder campaign may be found at wefunder.com/amplified.ale.works.