VENTURA COUNTY WEEKEND : CENTERPIECE : Fermenting a Revolution : County microbrewers are barreling along in their efforts to create a flavorful sampling of handcrafted selections.
Bob Shields, owner of the Shields Brewing Co. in Ventura, isn’t about to tell anyone what kind of beer to drink. There’s no room for snobbery in the beer world, as far as he’s concerned.
“Beer is for the average guy. He’s the judge of what’s best, and nobody can tell him it’s not,” said Shields. “Beer is like music, poetry, art. It’s in the eye of the beholder.”
More and more, that eye has been wandering away from the Buds, Millers and Coors of the world to focus on microbrewed beers, which are pitched as richer and more flavorful than the mass-produced commercial brews.
Microbreweries and brew pubs--small breweries with a restaurant on site--were considered a fad until the late 1980s. Now, they qualify as a full-fledged industry.
In California, it’s an industry growing at a rate of one such brewer every eight weeks, according to Bob Judd, director of the California Small Brewers Assn.
At last count, Judd said, there were 140 small brewers in the state, 110 of which operate brew pubs. Small brewers hand-crafted about 15.5-million gallons of beer in 1994 in California, Judd said, accounting for more than $300 million in gross sales.
Nationally, there are 745 small brewers, according to David Edgar of the Denver-based Institute for Brewing Studies. About 77-million gallons of microbrewed beer were produced in 1994, with sales totaling about $1.3 billion.
All of which is a good thing, considering that the cost of opening a brew pub, with all the licenses, permits and facility costs, averages $640,000 nationally, said Edgar, with upward of $1 million common for larger-scale operations. Both brew pubs and microbreweries, which Edgar said cost an average of $550,000 to start, are regulated at the county, state and federal levels.
Despite the risk, Judd expects the industry to continue its upward trend.
“We’ve seen an unabated customer response,” he said. “We project about 200 microbreweries in operation in California by the turn of the century.”
Three Ventura County brewers are part of that beer bash.
There’s the nearly 6-year-old Shields in Ventura, the 8-month-old Joe-Joe’s Brewing Co. in Simi Valley and the soon-to-open Brown Bag Brewery and Restaurant (formerly the Brown Bag Deli) in Thousand Oaks.
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Bob Shields wants his customers to get the feel of a brewery.
So when he found a vacant concrete building at Santa Clara Street and Ventura Avenue in downtown Ventura, he figured it offered the perfect ambience for the Shields Brewing Co.
“We put it in an industrial area because we wanted to give people the sense they were coming into a brewery,” said Shields, who with his wife, Trudy, has operated the brew pub since Valentine’s Day, 1990. “When I brew on Sundays, the smell permeates the area.”
Shields wants to make microbrewed beer readily accessible and not an elitist type of beverage.
“We brew for the locals,” he said. He keeps that in mind when he makes up his Channel Islands Ale, his Gold Coast Beer, his Shields Stout and his Channel Islands Wheat, which won a third place award at the highly competitive California State Fair in September.
“Southern Californians don’t want beers they’ve got to fight. Ours are brewed mellow and smooth, not harsh and bitter. But they still have body.”
To go with the beer, the brew pub serves pastas, sausages, burgers, salads, sandwiches and even blackened red snapper and chicken dishes. But the Shieldses would just as soon rid themselves of the pub portion of the business.
“We’d like to sell it off,” said Bob Shields. “We’re looking at all kinds of options.”
They would also like to expand his seven-barrel brewing system.
“I would love to be at 150 barrels--if I can find an investor to get us out of the brew pub and into the microbrewery.”
Shields Brewing Co. produced nearly 10,000 gallons of beer last year, to sell in-house and to distribute at a variety of supermarkets, upscale liquor stores and restaurants, including Ventura’s Pierpont Inn and The Chart House, and the Whale’s Tale at Channel Islands Harbor.
By putting out more of his product and focusing his finances and attention on the brewery, Shields said he could better compete with the larger microbreweries and with “microbrew clones,” such as Miller Reserve Amber Ale, that are packaged and marketed like their microbrewed counterparts but are produced by beer giants.
And there, said Shields, lies the secret to the future success of microbrewed beers.
“The public needs to be informed about microbrewed beers,” he said. “You could live in Thousand Oaks the rest of your life and buy your six-pack and never know there has been a change in the market.”
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Joe-Joe’s Brewing Co. & Restaurant of Simi Valley took home two gold medals at a recent beer festival in Orange County. This came as no surprise to either Joe or Joe.
“I don’t want to say ours is better than anybody’s, but I think the judges will tell you it is,” said Joe Vogel, 31, who co-owns the Los Angeles Avenue brew pub with Joe Tremonti, 28. Vogel brews all the beers for the establishment, including the award-winning Simi Simply Red and the Stoney Mt. Stout.
“I always want to be the best,” Vogel said. “I pay attention to details. . . . If the proper [brewing] procedures are followed, things don’t go wrong.”
He and Tremonti began their trek into the brew business back in 1990, as they drove back to their Simi Valley homes after a weekend trip with some friends to Laughlin, Nev.
“We started talking, ‘Wouldn’t it be great if we made our own beer?’ ” Tremonti said. “We had just spent about $400 on beer for the weekend. We were serious from the start.”
Permit hassles and costs prevented the Joes from opening a brew pub near the Cal State Northridge campus, so they chose Simi Valley to set up their combination brewery and restaurant.
“Simi Valley needed this place so bad,” said Tremonti, who grew up in the area. “People needed a place to go, to hang out.”
When they started on their venture, neither Vogel nor Tremonti, who had both been employed at World Title, had any previous experience with beer--other than drinking it. But they learned fast.
During the time they spent finding a location and ironing out the red tape, the two Joes visited other microbreweries and read volumes on microbrewing techniques.
These days Vogel studies under brew master Bob Mueller, a longtime Anheuser-Busch employee.
Joe-Joe’s produces 880 gallons of beer every 11 days. Since opening, Vogel has brewed 17 beers, including Hip-Hop Wheat, Raspbrewery Madness and Hazelnut Ale. A seasonal pumpkin brew will be on tap shortly.
Vogel said the output will increase later this month when the brew pub doubles its number of 220-gallon fermentation tanks to eight. And he expects to begin distributing the beer shortly.
“Basically, the people’s desire for fresh ingredients is what has them interested in microbrews. They are made on the premises and they offer a lot of characteristics commercial beers don’t,” he said. “I watch people drink out of the tap, one beer after another, telling me it’s the best beer they’ve ever tasted.”
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As might be expected from someone who for 13 years operated a deli noted for its heaping sandwiches, Joel Steinberg’s concept of a brew pub places the emphasis on the pub.
His 250-seat Brown Bag Brewery and Restaurant, expected to open in March in the new Janss Marketplace on Moorpark Road will be, first and foremost, a dining establishment.
“We don’t particularly relish the thought of people coming in just for the beer. We want it to be an overall experience,” said Steinberg, whose pub will be open for breakfast, lunch, dinner and late-night dessert, the last to accommodate moviegoers as they exit the new Mann Theater at the renovated Janss mall.
But despite his leaning to solids, Steinberg knows his liquids.
When they operated the deli, he and his wife, Faye, conducted weekly home-brewing classes inside the restaurant and founded a 1,200-member brewing club called The Brown Bag Bootleggers. The restaurant carried a selection of 250 beers from around the world.
The United Nations of beers will remain at the brew pub, but the main focus will be on the production from Steinberg’s own brewery, a 10-barrel system that will produce up to five distinct hand-crafted beers at a time.
Steinberg, who plans to hire a master brewer, said each brew pub brings special characteristics to its product.
“Do you use a [syrup] extract in the brewing process? We don’t use any extracts,” he said. “Does the beer come to the table with a head? Is the carbonation and flavor balanced? Does the texture feel right in your mouth? How prompt is your service? If the beer sits in the glass too long, you miss that initial robust bouquet.”
Steinberg said he will appeal to drinkers who are more interested in quality and flavor than quantity and appearance. “I think we will be the people who start the trends instead of follow them,” he said. “We’ll set the pace for other microbreweries.”
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A couple of patrons at Joe-Joe’s last Saturday night were getting their first taste of microbrewed beer--American style.
“It’s actually a very different drink from what they have where I’m from,” said Phil Bateson, a computer programmer from Birmingham, England, who is on a three-month assignment in Simi Valley.
“Our beer is a lot darker and more bitter,” said Bateson, who was sipping a Bluesberry Wheat beer. “But this is refreshing.”
Dick Wilson of Simi Valley was trying out the Simi Simply Red. He liked it better than the typical American beer. “American beers have been lightened up so much for the American public,” he said. “This is full-bodied, more like a European beer. It’s not light.”
At Shields on Saturday, Brian Simons said he was attracted to the microbrews about two years ago because of their taste.
“They have a good flavor to them,” said Simons, who had a large glass of Shields Stout in front of him. “I’m not into it for the kick; I’m into it for the flavor. I might have a six-pack in the fridge at home, but that’s for company.”
DETAILS
* SHIELDS BREWING CO., 24 E. Santa Clara St., Ventura. Hours: 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday, and Sunday; 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Closed Monday. Pasta nights Tuesday and Wednesday. 643-1807.
* JOE-JOE’S BREWING CO. & Restaurant, 1397 Los Angeles Ave., Simi Valley. Hours: 11 a.m. to midnight Monday through Thursday; 11 a.m. to 2 a.m. Friday and Saturday; 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday. Live music at 7 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday; beginning at 8 or 9 p.m. Friday and Saturday, depending on the band; 3 p.m. Sunday. 522-7725.
