AltBrau

AltBrau developed as a creative endeavor following a chapter in my life where I was certain that my path forward was going to be in the music industry. In the previous decade I had worked with hundreds of bands at shows throughout CA and booked many of my own punk, hardcore, metal, and indie shows. On occasion I jumped in the van and toured with friends. I interned at record labels, etc.

I started that time as a teenager and by my mid 20s I knew I was better suited to treat it as a hobby and not as a career.

I began home brewing around that time and in my late 20s I started AltBrau. Over the last 12 or so years I’ve brewed about two dozen collabs, publicly released over a dozen beers of my own (with some help), interviewed awesome folks for a podcast, been featured in major publications, brewed in 3 states and 4 countries, and poured my beers at festivals at home and abroad. I’ve achieved far more than I ever would have guessed when I started but I never fully got to experience having my own space and attempt to pay my bills with this passion project.

I’m turning 40 this year… and the current state of beer (specifically wild beer) in conjunction with my own life goals has made me reconsider what I want from AltBrau. I’m certain that the next chapter of my life is approaching… but I’m still happily working in the beer industry. Every day I meet awesome people who are fighting the good fight and staying positive despite the industry slowing down.

As for AltBrau… just as I still love punk shows and circle pits, I don’t see myself ever fully walking away. I’ve started investing in more home brew equipment and thinking about ways I can contribute to a culture and community I care about in a non commercial way. Creating content, putting on events, the occasional collab, etc. I still have irons in the fire, but I suspect the opportunity for this project to become a viable business has missed its window. Then again… who knows what the future holds.

I’m here. I’m hopeful. I still think great stories can be told through fermentation and sharing a beer. What do you think?

Driving up the 1 on a rainy day as night fell, I slowly made my way to the sleepy town of Point Arena in Mendocino County last year. If you were to find yourself in this tiny town of about 500 residents, you may have been fortunate enough to enjoy a pint at . I was lucky enough to be invited for a collaboration with my incredibly talented friends Peter and Rose, a smoked helles brew day scheduled for the next morning. I arrived and enjoyed their warm and welcoming community space serving fantastic ales and open fermented lagers. They opened their home to me and let me stay the night… as long as I didn’t mind sharing the bed with the dogs. Our brew day went great and the beer was a hit… a surprise since smoked beers aren’t always so easy to move.

I was saddened to hear recently that The New Museum has had to close its doors. The thoughtfulness they put into their beers and their taproom space was inspiring. Their generosity and hospitality was deeply appreciated. I will always think fondly of this collab and of their beers.

Thank you Peter and Rose. I look forward to following along on your next journey.

The beer and wine landscape right now is harsh. Blame COVID, blame inflation, blame decreasing consumption… whatever it is… it’s brutal. This week alone I’ve seen 2 of my friends close their breweries… both curating something incredibly authentic, elevated, and inspiring. But… despite how special and unique they were… it just wasn’t enough in the current environment. It makes me reconsider everything I hope to do with AltBrau and even question the time I’ve put into working in this industry.

So how do you battle all this doom and gloom? How do you smile despite the challenges?

Gathering with friends and family in a sunny beer garden with cold pints certainly helps.

On Sunday I joined my friends from for their grand finale. Although there may have been some tears behind some sunglasses, the overall vibe was nothing but joy. We were joined by many folks who came to honor the hard work of the folks who are moving on to their next adventures and let them know that what they achieved meant something.

Be sure to support the small businesses you care about. Bring your friends in. Share their social media posts. Pay the extra dollar or two instead of buying the cheaper option. Support local. And damn it… if you see cans of Break Even Beermakers or buy them now.

Haná barley is a Czech landrace variety that goes back to the origins of Pilsner lagers and their creation by Josef Groll in the 1840s. AltBrau’s newest collab with , our second batch of Eichenlander, features this special barley. It is also featured in my recent collab with , Lidska Moucha (a Polotmavy Czech Amber lager).

This batch of Haná was grown in the UK by who harvested and shipped the barley to who floor malted it in the SF Bay Area.

I recently had the pleasure of attending another Haná Pils brew day with and from in Venice Beach CA. I was joined by Crisp Malts’ Sales and Marketing director, Colin Johnston, on this road trip.

Firestone Walker will be releasing this upcoming Helles lager once it’s had time to condition. Be on the lookout.

Many thanks to Sam and Andrew for their hospitality. They are making some incredible beer and it was a pleasure to sit in on this brew day.

I had the pleasure of representing at the recent Business of Beer panel hosted by . Sitting alongside folks from Sierra Nevada, Deschutes, Calicraft, Markstein Sale, and team from Brewing with Brothas was an honor and I loved hearing what these folks all had to say about their experiences and their predictions of where the industry is going.

My focus during the time we had was to remind the audience that beer is an agricultural product and that over the centuries brewers and consumers have moved further and further from the farmers growing the grain and hops in their glass. Brewers now purchase their ingredients from a catalogue and don’t have a relationship with their maltsters or farmers. My hope is that we can begin to realign our industry to remind the public where their food and beverage comes from and allow them the option to purchase products that support sustainable agriculture, multigenerational family farms, small businesses, decreasing carbon emissions, and keeping their money in their local/regional community.

Thank you to Thomas from CaliCraft for inviting me and to St Mary’s for hosting.

Attn: Sacramento area breweries, wineries, distilleries… I’m seeking shared space to rent for barrels, tanks, and bottles. I’m looking to conduct fermentation, aging, blending, packaging, and conditioning of mixed culture beer. Open to (very) small spaces and operating under a contract arrangement, alternating proprietorship, or other alternative business model. If you’re interested shoot me a DM or email me at [email protected]

For more information on the beers I’m making, check out www.AltBrau.com (link in bio).

Photos: a throwback to my blending collab with my friend Harrison at Beachwood Blendery.

Eichenlander (Batch 2) is now hitting the market! Wendy and Felipe at Fox Tale Fermentation Project brewed this keller pils with me last year and we loved how it came out. This year Felipe hit me up to brew it again. The timing was perfect as I had access to the last bags of some very special malt…Haná Pils from and .

Be on the lookout for this special beer at the following locations:












Be sure to tag us when you try it!

October will be 4 years with . I started as a part-time maltster during the peak of the COVID lockdown… shoveling grain and stacking pallets in a mask and distancing from my co-workers the best we could. I quickly moved to full time and eventually took over the social media handles for the malthouse and our pub, , spreading the gospel about our California grown floor malt. I’m now the senior most employee and since I started I’ve seen 20 or so people come through the doors, many who were not prepared for the physical aspects of the job or just picking up shifts for a side hustle, but many others using it as a stepping stone to work at breweries like , , , and .

With my move to Sacramento on the horizon, I put my notice in last year with the expectation that my time in malt was over. I had had a good run but I assumed I’d be back in the beer or cider sales world as I had been before the pandemic. It was time to hang my boots up. Back in January, however, I began my role as Sales & Marketing Manager with the company, driving in once a week and working remotely the rest of the time. Admiral created a role for me and I’m very thankful to them for it.

It’s been a strange transition into a role that didn’t exist before and there’s been some hiccups, but I’m now at a place where I’m very proud of the work I’m doing. I’ve been fortunate enough to work with some awesome sales accounts, create photo and video assets that have been shared in large publications, been interviewed by beer writers I really respect, assisted in the development of a historic collaboration with , and helped organize a festival for the first time (with the exception of helping with the homebrew market at a few years back).

AltBrau isn’t just about brewing… it’s also about the adventures beer can take you on via travel, relationships, or career moves. With so much instability in beer right now, I’m glad to still be working in this industry. Thanks, Admiral.

Thank you to for taking these beautiful photos and to for sharing them

Throwback to an AltBrau event we did around 2017 at Beer Revolution in Oakland (RIP). The plans I had for AltBrau in the pre-COVID age are long gone as are the beers we poured (New Lexicon and Secret Army) but the relationships I made during that time will never be forgotten. The world is a different place and the beer industry is certainly in a different stage of life… but if all goes well we will get back to hosting events like this again.

📷:

Long Live

Many thanks to for inviting a home brewer with an IG account to their annual Olly Olly party, giving me an outlet for photo and short story versions of my beer adventures via the GBH B-Roll series, coming on my old podcast episodes on SoundCloud, and bringing me into the GBH podcast network family.

Outside GBH, I always enjoy seeing Kiser out in the real world and having a beer. I can’t wait to see what he does next and I hope he knows how important it was for me to have his support in a time while I was trying to find my voice and figure out my place in this business. I still am… but with some more confidence.

The annual gathering of fermentation enthusiasts from around the world that is went down recently at outside Amsterdam in the beautiful city of Utrecht. Although we were only able to attend 2 days and sadly missed the famous Home Brewers Market, we had a great time catching up with many of our friends we only get to see at this special event.

The people I’ve met at CB continue to inspire me and remind me that there can be so much more to making beer than just business.

Thank you to .a.rah for capturing these moments 📸

What will the future of American wild ales and farmhouse beers look like in 10 years?

Breweries like went for scale and breweries like tried doing it incredibly lean. Neither model, in the end, was able to predict where beer was going. Of course there are so many other factors we can’t possibly calculate beyond market share, but it’s important to note that funk-forward breweries such as , , and have successfully expanded their offerings well beyond mixed culture beer (to the point that these beers likely make up the minority of their offerings) and breweries that started with the intention of being saison and/or barrel aged forward breweries quickly figured out that clean hoppy ales and crisp lagers were going to do better at keeping the lights on and turned their talents into becoming powerhouses in those categories ( , , all come to mind).

I’m not immune to this. There is a reason many of my recent collabs have been lagers. I’m incredibly proud of the rustic old school lager collabs I’ve done with folks like , , and … all done through the lens of a farmhouse brewer. But it’s not a category I feel confident in without experts guiding my hand. It’s not really my comfort zone.

Mixed culture beers have always been a niche market and any student of (beer) history will consider what happened to lambic in Belgium in the 70s and 80s before turned American beer geeks onto it. As beer as a whole suffers, I find funk and farmhouse focused brewers are hit hardest… and I don’t know if there is a Shelton Brothers on the horizon that will keep these beers alive.

Ale Apothecary has and will continue to be an inspiration for me. I hope someone can come along and help breathe new life into the brewery as we all figure out what the hell is happening.

Go read this story from

Now I’m going to go back to drinking my IPA and be part of the problem.

TENMA x ALTBRAU = As Gravity Dies (Vienna Style Lager)

Brennan and Dana at are making some awesome beer and it was an honor to recently brew with them.

This modern take on a traditional amber lager includes a blend of of malt from old world maltsters and California grown barley from new world floor maltsters . Finished with Contessa and Hallertau Tradition hops… this beer truly represents ingredients, agriculture, and practices of the past and present blended into a single delicious beer.

On sale now.

Thank you TENMA!

AltBrau X Degrees Plato - Tues 4/16 - 5pm-8pm

Mark your calendar.

Come hang out and try 3 AltBrau lager collabs with our friends at and . We will also have a barrel blend on draft with that was conditioned on strawberry leaves.

We will be pouring some bottles from the AltBrau and cellar (old bottles and some new stuff). Want more details? Nope. You just have to show up!

As if that wasn’t reason enough… Degrees Plato has an awesome selection of other beers on draft and to-go and killer Mexican food from their kitchen. They will be running a taco special so be sure to come hungry!

We will see you there 🍺 🍾 🌮

Hey everyone. It’s safe to say the beer world is in a shaky place right now. Mixed culture / farmhouse beer has arguably been hit harder than any other category. Breweries are closing left and right. Headlines are telling us younger folks are drinking less. Well established craft beer bars are shutting their doors.

The reality is that “craft beer”… whatever that even means… is no longer a big enough selling point. It’s not, in and of itself, all that interesting to new consumers. It hasn’t been particularly inclusive, it’s never been directly connected to quality, and any community around it has depended more on the creativity and generosity of individual advocates than any inherent link to the beer itself.

So what are we to do? Do we succumb to the doom and gloom? Do we give up?

No I don’t think so. We just can’t keep doing the same thing.

AltBrau started as a homebrew blog 10+ years ago documenting my experiments in beer. After a few collaborations it started to develop its own identity and began to lead toward funky wild ales. More recently we’ve dabbled in rustic lagers. The degree to which I’ve tried to monetize this thing has ebbed and flowed. At the core, I’ve always thought that AltBrau should provide an experience and shine a light on creative endeavors. Beer has been the medium to do that. Brewers have been the subject which I focus on.

I’m starting to explore ideas of how to better highlight the people and places doing good work in beer and beyond. How can I provide a positive experience for consumers from a wider background while maintaining the highest quality?

Long story short… I’m in the same boat as the rest of you. I don’t have any answers or unique perspectives… but I’m also not ready to call it quits yet. You don’t have to look very hard to find awesome folks doing great things. Let these folks set the standard for yourself and for other companies you support.

Needless to say this Monday night stream of consciousness was not written or edited by AI… it would be much better written if it was.

I’ve been loving getting updates from my friends seeing that label out in the wild.

If you haven’t picked it up yet… go over to and/or to pick up our recent collab with Olfactory and … Suede Denim Secret.

We brewed a dangerously drinkable 7.2% Roggenbock (Dark Rye Lager) using 100% California grown floor malted barley and rye. Single decoction, mash hopped, and delicious.

Photo by

Coming soon to … 3 new blends of homebrew, cellared commercial/collab releases, and lambic and 1 new collab with (as well as a few cellared bottles).

Where will I be pouring these? I’m not sure yet… but I’ll be around. I can’t wait to see my friends in Utrecht.

More info coming soon on each of these 4 beers.

** edit: just so everybody knows… these three blends are not a commercial release and I’ll only be bringing about 4 bottles of each since that’s what will fit in my check in. If you’re in California and want to host an AltBrau tasting with these new blends let me know**

❤️

New Release! Introducing Be Who You Will a collaboration with Spontaneous lambic-inspired sour ale aged in oak barrels with strawberry leaves.
Soft aromas of hay, grass, mint and a sweet fruitiness lead the way into flavors of strawberries, fresh herbs and earthy funk. The texture is dry and slightly tannic with a unique drying acidity and long fruity finish. ABV 6.4%
Bottles & draft are available at all Beachwood locations, & distributions.

Revamping/reducing our presence on Instagram. Archiving lots of posts. Thinking about what I want next for AltBrau. I always hated people talking about doing a “re-brand”. I’m shooting more for a concentration… a distillation.

At the moments we’re doing lots of collabs with friends like (seen here), , , and but soon I’ll have some bottles of my own to share.

Lots of photos and videos to edit, lots of thoughts to put down… but here’s a teaser of an upcoming lager with my friends at … follow them on IG and visit their taproom for some really solid lagers, west coast IPAs, and other great beers.

More info coming soon. Many thanks to Dana and Brennan for having me.

The ceremonial hanging of the boots 🥾 🥾

Although I officially quit shoveling grain on 12/31/23… I kept my boots accessible. I was expecting to get a phone call that would need me to unload a kiln or turn a floor. Well…tomorrow is the big move to Sacramento so it was time to leave my boots in the rafters as many have done before me.

I’m still slinging malt with Admiral… just via sales and marketing and not a shovel.