Custom brews on the menu

Doug Tabbert

This do-it-yourself brewery and bakery, camouflaged in a small, white

business-suite strip mall off Heil Avenue in the inland reaches of

Huntington Beach, is a beer connoisseur’s dream come true. But Brew

Bakers is a dream he or she never had.

It takes an independent visionary, namely owner Dennis Midden, to

develop an enterprise this unique and fun. Operating as an antithesis

to the industrial revolution, patrons of Brew Bakers produce not just

the cash but the labor, too, from ingredient mixing to bottling and

slapping on idiosyncratic labels.

The shop has a cement slab for a floor that helps keep the

microbrewery cool but comfortable. The small lunch counter appears

even smaller as the ceiling towers above and is reminiscent of the

drug stores and soda fountains of the late ‘50s and early ‘60s.

Children were sucking down bottles of sweet suds during the summer

lunch hour -- there’s root beer, sarsaparilla, ginger beer and orange

or cream soda.

You can come in for some grub, a loaf of challah, a pint of root

beer and/or beer on tap, but the real fun comes when patrons make

their own soda or brew. There are recipes for 100 beers and more

labels than you can imagine with the option of designing your own.

Their bestseller is Wildfire Red, No. 58. The cookbook explains that

“Wildfire doesn’t truly emanate a beer on the market, and its roasty

taste in combination with a slight bitterness has won the hearts of

many.”

You need to make an appointment for brewing, which takes a good

two hours. Nascent brewers learn their craft step by step, learn the

preference of their beer-buds, and learn how scrumptious their

soft-pretzel-crust pizza is. It takes two weeks for the beers to

ferment.

The menu is brief, with roughly five items on it. I tried a

bratwurst sandwich ($4.50) that came on a cutting board with a bottle

of spicy mustard. The mild sausage was enveloped in a warm pretzel

bun. It was so satisfying that I almost had two, but I opted for a

pretzel roll ($1) instead. I suggest you leave your

carbohydrate-phobic pal at home.

Wes Birdsall, Brew Bakers’ manager, said they’re more than willing

to experiment and offered me a sample of his latest concoction: a

darker, full-bodied beer with enough sweetness to smooth out the

higher alcohol content often found in thick brews. Birdsall had hit

the bull’s-eye on this customer’s request. The beer was full of

distinct and harmoniously intriguing flavor.

A motto plastered in more than one location claimed, “life is too

short to drink cheap beer,” but the beer you make here isn’t that

expensive. On Thursday evening, you can make a case in one of the

26-gallon kettles that line the walls for only $33, a little more

than two bucks for a handcrafted microbrew -- not bad.

* DOUG TABBERT is the Independent restaurant critic. If you have

comments or suggestions, e-mail hbindy@latimes.com