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Celebrating their 10th anniversary, Fran and Sean Fitzharris of Brewery Twenty-Five are mixing the new, including an experiment in hop water and a collaboration with 650 brewers on a beer to benefit the victims of the Lahaina wildfires, with the old.
“We are kind of going back to our roots,” Fran said. “What we want to do is revisit some of our brews that we’ve done in the past and also do a celebration of some of our favorites.”
First up is a double dry hopped IPA called “Chonk,” which has previously featured famous local cats in the labels including their cat, Wednesday, as well as Clive from Bear’s Hideaway and Sula, the late denizen of Mission San Juan Bautista.
Highlighting the neighborhood goes beyond just the labels on cans, with revivals of some of their more successful collaborations, such as Dulce de Muertos, currently on tap at Mad Pursuit, which is made using conchas from El Nopal Bakery as an ingredient.
“We’re excited about this year and about the possibilities,” said Fran. “And, as we always do with our work, it’s going to include a lot of our friends and family business.”
The Fitzharrises have a longtime connection to the San Juan Bautista area. They were married at Casa Maria 20 years ago this July and had their reception at San Juan Oaks. And that love of the town shows in the friends that they have made and the beers they have brewed.
“We were the first brewery to use Vertigo Coffee’s beans in a beer,” Fran said. “They have got great, great coffee there and they are an under-recognized roaster. Now other brewers like Alvarado and Narrative are using them, too.”
Six years ago, following an influx of new food and beverage businesses in town, they decided to open a tasting room on Third Street.
“There were a lot of like-minded places opening up,” Fran said. “18th Barrel, Inaka, Lolla. We already had a great relationship with Vertigo. We had those business connections and it was just a no-brainer to open a tasting room amongst our family, right?”
The room was a bit of a time capsule displaying items from San Juan’s past, like a church pew from Mission San Juan Bautista and signs from the now-closed Joan and Peter’s German Restaurant and Casa Rosa.
“You run into folks that don’t want their face attached to their business,” Fran said. “I don’t understand that approach. We wanted the place to be our story and wanted people to get to know us and support us as friends.”
The tasting room closed last year after efforts to move to a new location failed when the brewery could not come to an agreement with the city and the property owner over the details.
“We kept pushing and pushing for around eight months,” Fran said. “We lost a lot of money in just the processing fees. I miss being able to share our story with people face to face, so we are considering doing something small like that on our property.”
With the tasting room in flux, they are devoting energy to expanding their reach to taphouses outside of the area. For the locals, they still have a “co-pilot” program in which a home brewer is invited to come in and create one of their own recipes.
“They usually brew five gallons,” Sean said. “So we scale it up to 200 gallons a week on our commercial system. They get to be part of the process and then we have a big release party. It’s really exciting and a fun project.”
Sean’s favorite recent beer was Cozy Brew, their first collaboration with Ozeki Saki, which was one of the choices for BenitoLink’s “favorites of the year” article.
“That was an awesome accomplishment for us,” he said. The headquarters is in Japan and the local team here was really advocating for us to be able to do that. We got to do the debut at Inaka here in San Juan and we got a nice little media ride out of it. It was a very cool experience.”
Last year marked another milestone as well: Brewery Twenty-five hired its first full-time employee, David “Oso” Alvarez, who also works as house manager for El Teatro Campesino.
“With Teatro closed, COVID was a long dry spell for me,” Alvarez said. “I needed to exercise my brain and I could not have done better than learning the industry from Sean. There is a true passion that’s found here, not only for what we were creating but for who we’re creating it for.”
Recent – and Future – Pours from Brewery Twenty-Five
Hop Water – A response to Dry January, this non-alcoholic concoction is made with the Damm family’s Damm Good Water. “There’s a lot of folks that make hop water, so we just wanted to take our stab at it,” Sean said. “We like collaborative efforts, so this is their spring water that we have infused with all Citra hops. It’s just something fun and different that we’re experimenting with.” The natural grapefruit, sweet lime and herbal characteristics of the hops combine to produce a quinine taste similar to tonic water. At this point in the process it had yet to be carbonated but it still had a pleasing and refreshing kick to it. Once carbonated, it’s going to have that extra note of acidity and, Dry January or not, would be begging for a splash of good gin. But, if you want to stick with the theme, you could just add a bit of ice and a few crushed raspberries or a squeeze of lime as a counterpoint. I liked this one a lot and can see a lot of possibilities with it.
Kokua Relief Project Beer – The Maui Brewing Company created the project to benefit families who were impacted by the 2023 Maui wildfires. Brewery Twenty-Five joined over 650 breweries across all 50 states as well as brewers in Canada, Finland, Japan, Switzerland, Puerto Rico and New Zealand, all working from a single beer recipe created by Maui Brewing. “‘Kokua’ means ‘help,’” Fran said. “But it has a deeper meaning, to extend help to others in a sacrificial way with no intent or personal gain.” Session IPA made with Mosaic and Waimea hops, it is a fruit punch red and has an appropriately fruity aroma that jumps out of the glass. There is a bit of tangerine, papaya and mango in the flavor, with a sideways touch of herbs and pine. Light in alcohol (4.2%) and packed with fun, it is a great beer for a great cause. It is currently on tap at 18th Barrel in San Juan Bautista and Mad Pursuit in Hollister.
Triple Berry Kettle Sour – “Technically, this is a kettle sour,” said Sean, ‘but when we are adjusting the pH, we go more for tart than for sour. We are using organic raspberries, blackberries and strawberries from Coke Farms, so with that tartness, it is almost like eating the fruit.” Not yet released, this one is due for a launching event being planned for Valentine’s Day. The first sip is of lemon and sour strawberries and it mellows a bit as you drink, bringing out the rest of the complex fruit profiles. A nice beer for sipping.
The Mysterious Whiskey Barrel Beer – Not their name for it – it is a work in progress. Two batches of beer in two different whiskey barrels that might come together, or not. One barrel was for rye and the other was for bourbon and both barrels are being used to create a stout. “We are trying to make something that we can blend with,” Sean said. “Maybe there’s a lot of tannins or something in one and the other has too much of another thing. We are just seeing how they are coming along and we will figure out what to do closer to packaging time.” It is difficult to size this one up since it is not the finished product. The bourbon version has a nice warmth and a sweet, dark burnt caramel flavor, the rye version offers more chocolate and is a little more medicinal. It will be interesting to see how they end up when blended together.
Recommendations for future Eat, Drink, Savor articles can be emailed to roberteliason@benitolink.com.
BenitoLink thanks our underwriters, Hollister Super and Windmill Market, for helping to expand the Eat, Drink, Savor series and give our readers the stories that interest them. Hollister Super (two stores in Hollister) and Windmill Market (in San Juan Bautista) support reporting on the inspired and creative people behind the many delicious food and drink products made in San Benito County. All editorial decisions are made by BenitoLink.
