Interview/photos by Don Fox
My
name is Don Fox. I’m one of the beer guys at Hi-Time Wine Cellars. For
people who don’t know me, my biggest passions are travel and beer.
It just made sense to take a piece of my already occurring weekly
beer journeys and publish them on this new blog.
For
my first installment, I planned a trip to the new Cismontane tasting
room in Santa Ana. Besides the location being only 7.6 miles from
Hi-Time, the beer department has always had a great relationship with
the brewery. The following is a Q &A with Cismontane Owner and
Brewmaster Evan Weinberg, Sales Rep Jordan Smith and myself.
Don: Let’s start out by giving a brief history of the brewery and explaining the different phases of expansion the company is undertaking.
Jordan:
The beginning starts with Saddleback Brewing which was owned by a
group of firefighters. Evan and Ross bought the location in ‘09, we
made our first batch on Valentine’s Day 2010 and we have been
upgrading the system as much as we can. We just recently opened the
tap room in Santa Ana. We don't have a sign up yet so the crowds are
slowly learning that we are here.
Don: Yeah, a lot of internet reviews say that they love the spot, love
drinking here, but can never find it.
Jordan:
Unfortunately with Google, they gave us the street address here in
Santa Ana but the city and zip of Rancho Santa Margarita, so do not
consult Google for now. Don’t have a telephone line in Santa Ana
yet either so if you can, call the RSM location and they can give you
the lowdown.
Jordan:
Pretty off the grid... Yeah, we have dial up here as well, most
internet providers are not willing to put in infrastructure due to
the industrial space around here.
Don:
You can also fax Cismontane.
Jordan:
I think you can fax us! I don’t know the number but you can
definitely fax us. So we’ve been ripping at the Rancho location
ever since; we opened here in Santa Ana last November. The first
phase is complete. You guys should come down and check it out. We
have a 15-tap tasting room. The next phase will include a distillery
in the back corner. You can see everything back there is in pieces
right now that, hopefully, will be up and running by the end of the
year. After that we’ll be evaluating production to see where we
want to go. I think the overall plan is to brew in this space, but
that’s still a ways off. We have a lease in RSM that runs well
through 2016. We love it in RSM so I don’t see us leaving but
eventually- we’re almost at capacity as is. There’s not much
room for growth in RSM in terms of square footage, for adding
fermenters, or anything like that. So when that time comes this will
be the home-base or the production site. When that happens there’ll
be a lot of walls to break down. So when you guys come by and check
out the tasting room, you will see that all the offices are standing
on the site of the brew house.
A
side note on the Santa Ana location- we are getting the space next
door renovated so we can have our distribution hub from this
location. So all our distributors would pick up from here which is
much more centrally located in Orange County. Not sure what would
happen if we move production to Santa Ana - but any RSM locals, don’t
fear, we will be accommodating you guys!
Evan:
Access to roads and people! We have been secluded on the mountain
side long enough. We needed more space and to be in a more convenient
location. With Santa Ana’s exploding food and beverage scene, what
could be better?
Don:
One of the things I had read was that you guys are planning to do
more one-off projects here?
Jordan:
I think in this location we will have a better venue for it. In RSM
we’re under 2500 square feet, in Santa Ana we are over 7000. Right
now we are using less than half of it, we joke that it's our storage
space. We have a sailboat, a small apartment’s worth of furniture,
a piano…..
Jordan:
I think that’s the projection that most budding distilleries go
for, unless you have a lot of money. It’s difficult to open and not
sell any for 5 years. I believe Evan is really interested in doing a
gin that uses all local botanicals. We’re also looking into doing a
brandy. I know the laws about retail at production sites are
different with brandy than with the rest of the liquors. We are
taking a look at unique ways to make brandy by possibly aging the
brandy in wine barrels.
Don:
I’ve noticed that you guys have experimented with beer/wine blends
and wine barrel aging. Does Cismontane have a connection to the wine
industry?
Evan:
Wine for me started in college in Santa Barbara. The California
central coast is a happening spot for wine. I made a lot of friends
that worked in the industry; wine makers, farmers, salespeople, and
cooperages. Some of my friends got into the wine industry around that
time and have since been making names for themselves. We draw on
these relationships and the knowledge that I have gained about wine
in a unique way from the way we use barrels, to the collaboration
products we make. The Mesa, for instance, is a perfect example.
Charlie Wagner, of the Wagner family of wines, and I tasted every
beer we could find that was brewed with grapes. It was a hell of a
night! Most of the examples we tried were of the extreme variety. We
decided that we wanted to do something that highlighted the flavors
of both beverages in a way that made something that was unique and
drinkable. We also wanted to make sure that none of the off flavors
from the wine or beer world would be evident. Off flavors can be
quite different for beer and wine. We call it The Mesa because it is
a small part of Santa Barbara that we were both living when we met.
Jordan:
Hop Dumpster. We originally brewed the beer for Mohawk Bend’s IPA
Festival in December. I proposed that we do something different than
we had previously done. The concept was to brew a double IPA with no
specialty malt. So it’s a blend of Pilsner, Maris Otter, and Pale
Two Row from Washington. This beer’s hop schedule runs contrary to
some of our core beers, where we have a scheduled hop addition to the
boil. In Hop Dumpster, we add just enough hops at the beginning
of our bittering process to give it the right amount of IBUs. We save
the vast majority of the hops for very late in the boil to get a more
intense aroma and flavor characteristic from the hops, mostly
characterized by Citra and Amarillo.
Don:
Is there anything new we should be keeping our eyes out for?
Evan:
Hop Dumpster will be available all year long, Cerveza SNA (Veinna
Lager), more barrel aged beers!!!! We are going to try to get all the
specialties that we like the most out this year, and there are a lot!
Cismontane
Brewing Company - Santa Ana Tasting Room
1409
E Warner Suit C
Santa
Ana CA, 92688
twitter:
@cisbrewco
Instagram
@cisbrewco
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