IRVINE

Just months away from celebrating five years of beer brewing, Bayhawk Ales, Orange County’s oldest microbrewery, has reached the break-even point, with $400,000 in annual sales.

In November, connoisseurs no longer will have to dine out to taste the brewery’s product. Instead, they will be able to buy Bayhawk in bottles at specialty liquor stores countywide.

In 1994, an Oregon vintner founded Bayhawk Ales as part of a network of breweries in Oregon, Washington, Colorado and New York. But only Bayhawk, owned by more than 1,000 stockholders, survived. There are four breweries in Irvine, but only Bayhawk Ales sells its beer off-site.