brewery :: on tap :: meet the brewer :: history :: philosophy

To put it succinctly, I was a practicing immigration attorney when my home brewing hobby spun out of control and exploded into ThirstyBear Brewing Company.

I started home brewing at University of Massachusetts, Amherst shortly after it became legal in 1978 to home brew. My relationship to Spanish cuisine began when I lived in Madrid, Spain for two years after my UMass brewing days. I have been connected to Spain ever since. I came to San Francisco from Madrid in 1986 and continued brewing at UC Hastings, San Francisco while studying law. I kept on brewing while practicing immigration law. I served many a home brew to my friends and immigration law colleagues during the first half of the 1990s. When brew-pubs started to take off in the early '90s, I decided to ditch billable hours and ride the wave of brewpub openings. I put together a business plan and took the first Intensive Brewing Science and Engineering diploma course offered by the American Brewers Guild.

I was incredibly fortunate to study there under the preeminent brewing scientist, Dr. Michael Lewis of UC Davis. With my business plan in hand and my diploma from the Guild, I miraculously put together a group of investors who were crazy enough to believe this lawyer turned brewer could run a successful brewery restaurant. I could not have done it without my family, friends, my first business partner, Raggi Lorentzen and all of the people who have subsequently worked at the Bear. Thus, I opened the doors to ThirstyBear Brewing Company on September 13, 1996.

I believe my appreciation for good beer and beer culture began at an early age due to the opportunity of living in Europe in my youth. In this part of the world, various interpretations of beer,wine or spirits has led to distinct regional cultures. My mother is also German, so at an early age I knew the difference between a Pilsner and an Export for example. Both brewed by our local brewery Parkbrau in the southwest of Germany! Upon returning to San Francisco in the early Eighties I was disappointed by the lack of truly good beer in America, but fortunately my father enjoyed Anchor Steam and Rainier Ale, beers he considered to have flavor and that I could steal from the fridge. This dearth in flavor seemed to be the norm across the land regardless whether it involved beer, bread or cheese.

In 1992 I graduated from St. Mary’s College in the East Bay where like most college experiences it was about quantity over quality (in terms of drink!). If I did manage to scrap some money together there was Devil Mountains Railroad Ale from Walnut Creek for example. I also remember my uncle introducing me to Mendocino Red Tail Ale, which came in a champagne bottle, had yeast suspended in the bottom and was endlessly fascinating to me. The American Craft Beer Revolution was afoot and creeping into my consciousness!

After college I began home brewing, delving deeper into the history and traditions, the secrets and magic of beer, tasting as many new beers as possible and visiting every brewery I could, no matter where I was. In 1996, I put away my tie, walked out of my work cubicle and got a job installing and cleaning tanks for the short lived Monterey Brewing Co. I had joined the Revolution at last! I subsequently attended the American Brewers Guild "Craftbrewers Apprenticeship Program" in the spring of 1997. I had the opportunity to serve my apprenticeship at Tabernash Brewing Co. in Denver Co., which focused on German-style beer, most notably their highly regarded Weiss, a true Bavarian-style Hefeweizen. The brewmaster was American Weihenstephan graduate Eric Warner who also authored the Brewers Publication book "German Wheat Beer." I also chose to serve there due to the fact that a college friend and I had started a contract brewing company called Reccow Brewing Co. with the intention of opening a brewpub highlighting continental-style beers rather than British-style ales, which were prevalent at the time. We brewed the Fest beer and Premium Lager for the Bay Area market. The beers were brewed at (in chronological order) San Andreas Brewing Co., Carmel Brewing Co. and Coast Range Brewing Co., all of which have passed into the annals of brewing history.

The company decided that I should continue my brewing studies(since we hadn’t opened yet) and shop around for beautiful German engineered brewing equipment at the same time, so I signed up for Doemans Brewing Academy’s "International Course in Brewing Technology" in Munich. There I was joined by brewers from Africa, Israel, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Croatia, U.S. and Canada. After finishing the course I managed to land a journeyman position at Graminger Weissbrauhaus in Alt Otting, deep in the Bavarian heartland. From there I traveled north to the Franconian brewing town of Bamberg, a World Heritage Site and home of the unique Rauchbier style. I alternated between working at Brauerei Faessla and Weyermann Malting Co. which were in walking distance from each other. Kaspar Shulz, which manufactures incredible copper brewing equipment, was also near by. I finished my journey at Gasthausbrauerei Leuchturm in Gunzenhausen, near the Spalt hop growing region. This brewpub was recently built from the ground up and no attention to detail was overlooked and what I hoped our future brewpub would look like.

I had spent about a year in Bavaria, when I returned the company made an ill fated attempt to re-open a brewpub in San Francisco that had claimed bankruptcy, but due to too many complexities the project failed and we closed Reccow Brewing Company in 2000. I managed to jump on board with Noah Berry at his Broken Drum Brewery and Wood Grill in San Rafael where I got to brew like an American brewpub craftbrewer should. Ales, lagers, Belgians, hybrids, whatever the imagination or desire dictated! In 2002 I was invited to brew for the Thirsty Bear Brewing Company in my home-town San Francisco. This is a unique brewpub that serves Spanish cuisine, has nine beers on tap (including cask conditioned ales), extensive wine and spirits list and even puts on live Flamenco shows! It has been here that I’ve been allowed to express myself as a brewmaster and am constantly striving to create another incredible beer experience, with whiskey and wine barrel aging being a current focus. We also explore the pairing of food and beer by hosting our "Brewery Cellar" dinners in the brewhouse itself. In July of 2003, Thirsty Bear hosted the first official meeting of the current San Francisco Brewers Guild to get it organized and it has been going strong ever since. In 2007, I facilitated our organic certification process through the CCOF, making Thirsty Bear the first certified organic brewery in San Francisco, in accordance with our green philosophy. In 2010 I successfully passed the rigorous exam to become a Certified Cicerone, which is to beer what a sommelier is to wine.

So that was the past and here’s to the future! Please stop by the Thirsty Bear Brewing Co. for a hand-crafted, organic beer some time and tell me YOUR beer story!