SoMa brewery looks to get sour in the new year
Connor Casey never meant to make so many IPAs.
His four-year-old SoMa brewery, Cellarmaker, has become known for a wide range of well-executed IPAs, and for the long queues that people wait in to buy cans of them. But that wasn't the entire plan — his goal was to also make some sours.
Back in June 2017, Casey discreetly signed a lease for a space nearby, also on Howard Street, after about three years of scouring the city for a space to ramp up Cellarmaker's bretted and barrelaged sours program. Some options had too low ceilings, and others could only be leased for a few years before they were to be converted into apartment complexes.
"I was starting to feel like that guy that couldn't commit to anything," Casey says. "There was always a catch."
But one day, Casey noticed a lease sign near the brewery and called the number listed. Luck worked in his favor; due to a listing error, he was able to view the space before it was supposed to be available. Casey signed for it.
Up to that point, Cellarmaker brewers had been using a handful of barrels for aging in their small brewhouse, but their ambitions were a bit loftier. By the end of 2018, Casey says, he wants Cellarmaker's taps to showcase a "greater presence of sour and funkier beers." They're already well on their way to meet that objective, with a barrel-aged collaboration with Pennsylvania's Tired Hands, and two sours made with produce from Brentwood's Frog Hollow Farm (one with Gold Dust peaches and the other with Ruby Grand nectarines).
"We had been doing six to eight wine barrels on site," he says of the main brewhouse's capacity. "We had great success, we learned a lot, and we've dumped a lot, too. That hurts when you're a young brewery, but we want to make sure everything that comes out of the taps is great."
Despite the expansion, Casey doesn't believe Cellarmaker's output will drastically increase. The brewery is currently producing around 2,000 barrels per year, and Casey estimates that the new sours project will only add another 120 barrels to that. But even that number is fluid, because treating beers with such capricious bacterias and yeasts is known to be a dicey endeavor.
"Sour beer is unpredictable in general," he says, which is why he decided to delay the reveal of Cellarmaker's new efforts. "I'd rather (surprise people) like, 'Here's this awesome beer.'"
As for when the public might get its hands on the new sours, Casey is less certain. The weather in San Francisco recently got chilly, which slows down conditioning time necessary for the beers.
"We're hoping for (February's San Francisco) Beer Week, at least for some of them," he says. "That was the plan two months ago but then it got really cold."
When Cellarmaker does start releasing their sours — of which there will be 10 to 12 per year — they'll be both on tap in their popular taproom and sold in bottles.
And in case the public starts believing Cellarmaker has big plans to start taking over San Francisco, Casey reiterates that the company is enjoying its success with its current model.
"We feel so in control of the project and we feel our accounts are partners," he says. "We're real happy with where we're at. It feels manageable, but a controlled chaos. We like being small and we don't have anything to prove. This allows us to do it."