The deal is expected to be completed this year and will be financed with cash and debt, Victor, New York-based Constellation said Monday in a statement.
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Constellation is the third-largest producer and marketer of beer for the U.S. market.
Ballast was founded in 1996 by a group of home brewers, and has grown to four San Diego brewing facilities and 40 different types of beer, San Diego 6 news partner KGTV reports.
“Ballast Point has certainly been a key driver of that growth”, Sands said. The 19-year old brewery made headlines last month as one of the first craft breweries in Southern California to file for an initial public offering, joining the likes of Boston Beer and Kona brewer Craft Brew Alliance.
This is the second big San Diego brewery to go big this year; Saint Archer sold to MillerCoors in September. That was followed by L.A.’s largest craft brewer, Golden Road Brewing, being sold to Anheuser-Busch InBev. The Brewers Association, which represents more than 3,000 craft brewers nationwide, estimates that the craft beer industry will account for 20 percent of the country’s $100 billion beer market by 2020. It had already branched into craft beers, teaming up with celebrity chef Rick Bayless and local craft brewery Two Brothers to launch Tocayo Hominy White Ale, a Belgian White-style beer, earlier this year.
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Ballast Point will continue to operate as a standalone company with its existing management team and employees running the day-to-day operations. Constellation may be best known as the owner of Corona, but the company also boasts several popular wines including Ravenswood and Robert Mondavi as well Svedka Vodka in its barn of brands.
