Bay Area brewers keep on keeping on

And then it all came to a crashing halt.

“About as bad timing as possible,” said Jason Simpson, co-founder of Ghostwood Beer Company in Redwood City.

Ghostwood, with its triple IPA “Clearly Dangerous,” had just put itself on the beer map with a third-place finish in the Triple IPA category at the prestigious The Bistro Double IPA competition in Hayward. It is the 15th year of the competition, which takes place during San Francisco Beer Week in late February. “Clearly Dangerous” finished ahead of Russian River’s yearly release of Pliny the Younger, which people wait in line for hours when it is released during SF Beer Week. Simpson said he got a text from brewery partner Mike Hedlund, who was working in the brewery’s taproom on the day of the contest.

“He said he overheard a customer ask, ‘Do they have that beer that just finished third in the contest?’ … That’s how quickly the news traveled,” Simpson said.

Less than a month later, the pandemic shut down both Ghostwood’s brewery and tasting room.

“That was the real kick in the nuts,” Simpson said. “Craft beer is competitive now. … To beat out guys like Pliny the Younger and all these big names, we thought we’re finally turning the corner.”

The guys at Alpha Acid Brewing Company were preparing to ramp up production in their Belmont facility when the shutdown came. With parts of their old system starting to show their age, owner Kyle Bozicevic and lead brewer Bob Giosso had already been looking to upgrade and expand their operation and ended up buying some used equipment from El Granada’s Hop Dogma.

“We had been slowly upgrading. Our old system was crapping out. We know those guys over there (at Hop Dogma) really well. They’re super cool,” Bozicevic said. “We picked up the equipment March 5.”

The shelter-in-place order came down two weeks later.

Hop Dogma, which has won multiple awards with its beers since 2014, was involved in an expansion project of its own, as it was building out its patio area. Ella Jenkins, a beertender in the Hop Dogma’s tasting room, said the patio work was put on hold for a while, but now it’s done and the brewery can host customers again.

“It’s definitely hard for everybody right now,” Jenkins said. “Now we’re able to have onsite service. It’s definitely hard, but we have a real great community around here who know how important small businesses are.”

Breweries buoyed by loyal customers

The support of loyal customers has been a big reason these breweries are continuing to operate. The fans of their beers, in addition to communities being cognizant of supporting local business, has helped buoy the breweries.

“Our customers just want to help out as much as they can. It’s been really heartwarming to see our regulars coming out,” Simpson said. “That was one of the hardest parts of all of this. … [The regulars] were almost more sad than we were … Their second home was being taken away.”

On a recent late Friday afternoon, there was a socially-distant line of customers waiting for spot on the patio of the Fieldwork Brewing Company taproom in San Mateo, which continues to be one of the most popular beer spots on the Peninsula. The biggest brewery of the bunch, Fieldwork is based out of Berkeley, but has seven tasting rooms around the greater Bay Area and the spot at Bay Meadows has been a popular destination since opening. And while the tasting room was shuttered for three months, the brewery operations were still continuing in Berkeley.

“Even before pandemic times, the team we have that operates internally, it’s a ‘just get it done’ group,” said Rob Monroe, general manager of the San Mateo Fieldwork location. “Even when hard times come through, we’ve had the resources to get it done.”

All are currently offering to-go orders from their breweries, while the patios at Fieldwork and Hop Dogma are currently open. Alpha Acid is doing Friday events.

Changing on the fly

While the issues may all be a bit different, several of the solutions are the same, the first being: just push on through. So despite having to close its tasting room, which was located at a different site than the brewery, Ghostwood’s Simpson said brewery production has continued.

“To save the brewery, we had to shut down the tasting room,” Simpson said.

Bozicevic is also co-owner of Ale Arsenal, a tap house in San Carlos. It, too, has been dark since the pandemic hit and he’s not sure about its future. But that didn’t keep Alpha Acid from pushing forward with its brewing schedule. Hop Dogma was undaunted, as well.

The other main tactic has been the ability of the brewers to pivot quickly. Setting up online to-go systems were launched in a manner of weeks and delivery routes were developed. Draught systems used in tasting rooms morphed into canning operations.

And to get around the limitations that prevented breweries from opening without food options, the breweries are either making food on site (Fieldwork) working with food trucks (Alpha Acid) or partnering with local restaurants in the area (Hop Dogma).

“I like the challenge, personally,” said Alpha Acid’s Giosso. “It’s been fun. We’re super small so we’ve had the ability to change on a dime. … It was pretty cool to pivot that quickly.”

Simpson, meanwhile is still trying to figure out how he wants to proceed, but did release “Bona Fide Meal” IPA — a dig at California’s Alcoholic Beverage Control, whose rules state that to be considered to be serving food it must be a “bona fide meal.”

Said Bozicevic: “Everyone has their own interpretation of what ‘food’ is.”

Wholesale accounts helping

Ghostwood and Alpha Acid have also driven beer sales with outside accounts. Simpson said his beers are featured in a handful of restaurants, while Alpha Acid has a deal to put their brews in Whole Food Markets around the Bay Area.

“It’s nice to move some volume,” said Giosso of the self-distributed Alpha Acid. “We’re doing more volume, but it’s not as profitable. We’re doing well, all things considered.”

Added Bozicevic: “We’re not really a production brewery. We make very little selling wholesale.”

Most brewers will tell you they’re not really in the business to make money, anyway. For most, brewing and coming up with new recipes is a passion and wanting people to taste their creations. They are no more different than chefs who wants the world to try their food.

“If we can get back to normal, we make good beer and people like it,” Simpson said. “But how is this going to look on the other side? There’s a lot of moving parts to that.”