English Ale’s New Brewer-Owner Talks Brew Philosophy and Hops

April 8, 2025—A local legend has reached its endpoint. Which sets the table for a new beginning.

English Ales, a strong candidate for any Mount Rushmore of Monterey Bay craft beer given its pioneering role in the area, has sold to a buyer with both compelling beer abilities and local heritage to steward the Marina-based brewery into its next chapter.

While brewer Mark Francis, with support of his wife Jocelyn, took over April 1, the time to celebrate the change publicly flows this Friday, April 11—”happy hour and beyond,” per EA’s IG post—at the timeless neighborhood pub next to English Ale’s brewing facility on Reindollar Avenue in Marina. An English Ales tap room closed last October and there are no plans to reopen it.

 A coming-out-party-of-sorts follows when Francis mans the taps at Pacfic Grove’s Good Old Days May 4-5.

To say EA founder and longtime brewer Peter Blackwell, his wife/business partner Rosemary and daughter/general manager Karen Blackwell-Harrison have earned a day off would err toward understatement.

Peter been at the craft for nearly 70 years, which earns an involuntary “Wow” from me when he says it out loud.

“That’s what I said,” he replies. “Only a little stronger than that. And my wife’s been at it 64 years! It’s time that we’re able to sit down and relax—to get up in the morning and wonder what we want to do. We’ve never had that opportunity to find out.”

He then makes the point that will have local craft fans, English Ale’s loyal legion of mug clubbers included, looking forward rather than back.

“Mark’s a young guy with fresh ideas and energy, which was us a while back,” Blackwell says. “Overall he will be better for the company than we would be. Our best years are behind us.”

Francis returns to the Monterey Bay Area from Avalon, the principal city on Santa Catalina Island, where he worked as brewmaster for Catalina Island Brew House, and his wife is assistant city manager. (Before Avalon, Joselyn worked for the city Pacific Grove for eight years.)

His area connections run thick: He grew up around Monterey Peninsula, attended San Benancio Middle School, and graduated from Monterey High, before eventually going on to teach social studies and coach volleyball at Greenfield High School in South Monterey County.

Edible spoke at length with Francis about his vision for EA 2.0.

It ranged from metaphysical to practical, touching on the pub’s mug club and prickly pear-black sage beer in between, and included these highlights.

On island beer life:

It’s a unique and special experience, being the only brewer on the island. I inherited six recipes, from a brewery that was 20 years old, and kept the linchpins of what the previous brewer did, and added my own recipes. It was fun—and different—being a brewer down there. 

On taking the reins at English Ales:

I’m ready for a real challenge. And it It sounds cheesy, but what really draws me is the community around English Ales. On Catalina Island, you have high tourist volume, and a small amount of locals who believe in your beer. English Ales is an institution around here, and its mug club is the best one. 

On English Ales’ strong tap presence around the area.

We’re maintaining as many accounts as we possibly can, because it keeps us out there, and it’s an important part of the business. The vision for our growth involves expanded wholesale and improving the spot in Marina, with broader reach and notoriety, including doing events like Good Old Days. 

On civic connectivity: 

It sounds cliché, but my wife loves being in local government and serving the community, and when I was a teacher in Greenfield, that kind of service was important to me. Now I serve my community in a different way. I still love teaching and educating, and that’s a fun part of brewing—describing what makes a beer unique, for instance, scratches my teacher itch. We also have a lot of teachers and school personnel friends, so we live vicariously through their stories. 

On the metaphysical part of brewing beer: 

Philosophically, life is always changing. You gotta be able to change your taste and flavors, to experiment, but not get away from your core. With English Ales, the foundational beers aren’t going to disappear, and there will be opportunities to add more. Look at Alvarado Street or Dust Bowl Brewing: They’re always adding something. You gotta enjoy the flexible aspect of life. 

On straddling traditional and contemporary:

The thing is these are English-style beers, and the modern palate changes, flavors changed, we has the IPA thing, and right now—on top of more sophisticated beer people—the popularity of seltzers and sours. Because there’s such a beer community, and so much competition, and a broad range of flavor profiles, you want to find something people want, that will catch fire. Alvarado nailed it with their Mai Tai PA. 

People like the crazy beers, and often want to have something totally unique. I’m not that exotic of a guy. I’m not doing dragonfruit, ghost pepper and bacon. English Ales has beers people know and enjoy and that will persist. Our style is historic roots. Our other beers will also acknowledge those roots. 

On procuring ingredients (with a little bit of creative craziness): 

Sourcing has an impact—Why choose one hop over another hop? How are you making decisions on a recipe? What are alternatives to source it elsewhere?

A small adjustment can go a long way. With our nano brewery on Catalina, one beer we had would use black sage foraged while hiking on the island, for an American wheat. Then we added prickly pear tea from [on-island] cacti, which made it pink, made it unique, made it more “island,” and added another main flavor coming from right there, and made it more personal. Everybody loved that it was natural in two parts. Those are things—maybe it’s sourcing from your community, or growing my own hops, or neccessity, that pushes you in a direction—that makes me more experimental.

On the mug clubbers: 

It’s so exciting—in the end, it’s all about the people—and I get to meet all these people who I inherited and am responsible for shepherding. I want to honor them with good beer.

More info at englishales.com, which is undergoing a renovation of its own.