Play. Eat. Drink. (Repeat)

Written by Tracie Grimes

At any given moment on a typical “dog day afternoon” of August, thousands of Kern County residents are ready to relax, unwind, and crack open a cold one. And in this era of designer coffees, smart phones, and imported water, many Golden Empire beer aficionados are looking for something that will do more than just quench their thirst. They’re looking for something flavorful; something they can relish.

That’s the promise of the Kern River Brewing Company, a fast-growing microbrewery and restaurant (aka, a “brewpub”) in Kernville that’s offering visitors to this quaint hamlet on the Kern River a place to “Play, Eat, Drink, Repeat.”

“People really want to treat themselves when they’re sitting down to have a beer,” says Eric Giddens, who opened Kern River Brewing Company in 2006 along with his wife, Rebecca, and Kyle Smith, resident brew master. “Most people coming through our doors have had a very active day. Our local customers have put in a full day at work and the tourists have just spent the day hiking, white-water rafting, skiing, kayaking—just about any outdoor activity you can think of—and they’re ready for relaxation and enjoyment. They aren’t looking for something they can just slam down; they want a beer they can savor. Our brews and fresh, simple ‘pub-style’ food fit the bill. We fit a real need up here.”

Kernville was the perfect spot to open a comfortable place where locals and visitors could feel at home, sit, and sip flavorful brews, agrees Smith.

Smith, a Kernville native, saw firsthand how the Kern Valley area would easily swell from a population of 15,000 to between 20,000 and 40,000 on the weekends. It was the perfect place for an establishment offering simple yet tasty food, entertainment, and brews that couldn’t be found anywhere else.

“I spent a lot of time traveling and visiting brewpubs and I just knew that Kernville needed a small brewpub,” Smith adds.

He believed there was a bright future for a brewpub in Kernville, and having spent the past 10 years experimenting with different flavors and developing his own unique style of brewing, he found he had a passion for brewing and a love of craft beer. He began thinking about turning his hobby into a business, but was leery of leaving his job with the Forest Service. “I knew that once I gave up my job there was no going back.”

A chance meeting started the three entrepreneurs on their path to success.

“We were friends with Kyle’s dad, Bill, and one night we were sitting around talking,” Giddens explains, “and we happened to mention that we were thinking about moving up to Kernville and possibly opening a restaurant or something, when he said, ‘Oh, you’ve gotta meet my son Kyle. He lives in Kernville and he makes great beer.’ ”

The Giddens, who were living in San Diego at the time, thought “Why not?”

“Rebecca and I were looking to start the next chapter in our life,” Giddens, who holds a Ph.D. in Oceanography from the Scripps Institute of Oceanography, explains. “I was working in my field and Rebecca had decided to ‘retire’ from kayaking competitions [Rebecca is a 2004 Olympic Silver Medalist; 2002 World Champion; a National Champion many times over; and a US Team member]. Rebecca had done a lot of training up in Kernville and we really loved the area, so we started investigating ways that would allow us to move there and financially support ourselves.”

So the Giddens, who knew nothing about beer except the fact that they liked to consume it, went up to Kernville to sit with Smith and try a few of his brews. “Bill was right,” Giddens exclaims, recalling the relaxing evening they spent sampling Smith's handiwork. “Kyle knew how to brew great beer!”

It was then the trio knew they had hit on their recipe for success. They would open a brewpub. It was a gamble, but the trio found each had qualities that complimented the other: Smith had a gift for brewing great craft beer; the Giddens knew how to tackle the intricacies of running a business. It was a stout dream, but it was a risk they felt was worth taking.

Raising the seed money they needed to get started was their first challenge, and the three partners had to get creative with financing.

“We financed the brewery through a combination of an SBA Loan, the sale of our house in San Diego, and the owner of the property carrying paper on the building,” Giddens explains. “We had a lot of debt and were starting a restaurant/brewery from scratch—it was pretty nerve-racking. I remember doing some work in QuickBooks one day and seeing all the numbers in red. I thought, “Wow. If everyone cashes their checks today we are going to be in trouble!”

They looked for ways to save money and quickly saw that one way was to act as their own general contractors. This proved to be not only good for the bottom line, but an introduction to the community resembling something along the lines of an old-fashioned barn-raising.

“We were on site doing a lot of the work ourselves and noticed that a lot of locals would come by and want to hang around...chat...have a beer. We loved it, but we made a rule that if you want to hang out for more than five minutes, you have to do some work,” Giddens laughs. “It was great! People kept coming by, helping us. We could already see we were fitting a real need in the community. People just wanted a place ‘where everybody knows your name.’ ”

Construction was completed, the new equipment was installed, and it was time to dip their toes in the water. A “soft” opening was held for the community, with KRBC offering free beer and food to anybody who helped hammer a nail or run a calk line.

“It turned out to be a great way to test the ‘waters,’ ” Giddens recalls. “We had a huge crowd that night and were able to work out a few kinks. It was great that we could mess up and people would still come back for more.”

With the soft opening under their belts and the kinks worked out, it was time to jump in the pool. The butterflies in Gidden’s stomach felt more like pterodactyls.

“We had been so focused on opening the doors that it didn’t really dawn on us until the last minute that after the doors were open we would have to actually run the place,” he says.

Gidden’s “cold feet” experience soon gave way to a sigh of relief because practically from the moment they flipped the sign on the door to “OPEN,” business was booming. Just six months after they opened they had to expand.

Five years later, KRBC is still a hoppin’ place. The restaurant is now serving an average of 2,000 patrons a week and they’ve been brewing at capacity (and they’ve had to expand their brewing capacity) since they opened.

Smith's array of craft beer is probably the biggest source of KRBC’s need for expansion. The popularity of his special recipes for English-style malts, imperial stouts, ale aged in bourbon barrels, Belgium-style wheat beers, and seasonal brews has grown by leaps and bounds. And Smith's craft beers have made quite a splash not only in Kernville, but in Southern California as well. Specialty brews (all with names that have a local flair) such as Isabella Blonde, Sequoia Red, Class V Stout, and Just Outstanding IPA can not only be found on tap at KRBC, but in specialty liquor stores across Kern, Los Angeles, Orange, and San Diego counties.

Each launching of a new brew gathers such a following that growth continues at an amazing rate, Giddens says. “We’ve definitely found our niche when it comes to brewing craft beer,” he adds, noting that they’re starting to see people from San Diego who’ve driven up just to sample KRBC fare. “That’s quite a testament; people driving that windy road all the way from San Diego just to check us out.”

Word-of-mouth advertising has always been the main tool in KRBC’s marketing belt, and they haven’t needed to spend big bucks on advertising. “Our theory is to make everyone who comes in feel welcome, and then hopefully they will tell a friend—or even a stranger,” Giddens explains, adding that they have tapped into Facebook, Twitter, and e-mail to promote their “beer and schwag.”

“We’ve actually gotten busier each year, even in these times of recession,” he notes.

While they’ve enjoyed their growth and success, Giddens is quick to point out that they didn’t get into this business just for money.

“We’ve asked ourselves on more than one occasion, ‘Do we keep trying to grow?’ After all, this whole business started out because we wanted a lifestyle change, so how much of our living do we want to give up?” Giddens points out. “One of the really cool parts of it [owning/operating the Kern River Brewing Company] is that it’s not a corporate thing. It’s family. A lot of our employees have been with us since we opened. Kyle, his wife Michelle, their daughter Emma [13]– they’re our family. This is what Rebecca and I were looking for as we decided on a lifestyle change. And now our daughter, Maggie [born in June], will have a huge extended family to grow up with. For all the headaches we’ve endured and have yet to endure, we really have built a place where everybody knows your name.”

Knowing what your risks are, which risks are worth taking, and what you might lose is the key to success in business and in life, Giddens emphasizes. “Sure, our risks were financial, but we looked at what was really important to us and realized that the reward of living our chosen lifestyle was worth the risk of losing a few dollars.”

Photos courtesy Kern River Brewing Co.

Article appeared in our 28-3 Issue - August 2011