Local brewers hope to tap the home market

Two home brewers looking to find a spot where they can make their beer and serve it to the masses are eyeing Glendale for opening their taproom.

Kirk Nishikawa and Sherwin Antonio started making small batches of their homemade recipes 10 years ago and have been brewing under the name Brewyard Beer Co. for some time now.

That’s meant a lot of equipment, a lot of beer and adequate storage space needed under one household roof.

“We have maybe five fridges at my house and only one of them is for food,” said Antonio, who brews out of his Mission Hills home for the time being.

After winning first place at the Los Angeles County Fair in 2011 and earning a handful of other recognitions, Antonio and Nishikawa have leased a 4,500-square-foot building at 906 Western Ave., an industrial area where they hope to brew and pour out of at least four tap handles.

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FOR THE RECORD: An earlier version of this story incorrectly listed the address of the leased building as 600 Western Avenue.
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“It’s a home brewer’s dream,” Nishikawa said.

Part of the structure will house the newer and bigger brewing equipment to be joined by a taproom.

Antonio said his favorite type of beer to brew is a hybrid of a pale ale and lager.

“It pretty much emphasizes the ingredients more, the malted barley and hops and the water profile to where you get a beer that is full in flavor like ales … but with the lager yeast it finishes crisp and clean like a lager,” he said.

Brewyard’s California Common would be one of the featured beers on tap, along with a pale ale, saison blended with lychees and an India pale ale.

But there’s a comprehensive approval process that’s getting underway despite already securing a spot in Glendale.

The brewing partners have applied for a conditional-use permit to operate their business. And any beer brewed by Nishikawa and Antonio, so far, has been given away for free because they need a permit from the state’s Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control to sell their libations.

“We started taking a huge leap of faith on everything,” Nishikawa said.

So far, the city has been cordial in initiating the permitting process, he said.

Mayor Zareh Sinanyan said he is already supportive of Glendale’s potentially first-ever microbrewery and that it would play a key part in the community’s transition to becoming an 18-hour city.

“In this day and age, you look at cities around us and how many microbreweries there are,” he said. “If anything, this should have happened already.”

Eagle Rock Brewery was among the first craft breweries to open nearby several years ago, followed by Golden Road Brewing on San Fernando Road just outside of Glendale and, more recently, Highland Park Brewing.

When it came to finding the right location for his brewery, Nishikawa said being close to others in the market is ideal because they can collaborate and set up events such as tours of breweries in the area.

He compared north Los Angeles’ growing scene to an established one in San Diego.

“We’ve discovered in San Diego, there is a sense of camaraderie in breweries in terms of clustering up,” Nishikawa said.

Antonio pointed to a growing scene of breweries in Torrance and believes Glendale could be next in line for the trend.

“With Eagle Rock and Golden Road, you’re seeing this continuing to grow, and we thought Glendale would be a perfect fit,” he said.