INTERVIEW CONTINUED FROM PREVIOUS PAGE

What do you look for when you’re hiring somebody to work in the brewhouse?

Jaime Dietenhofer: Our head brewer and our lead brewers, we look for experience, obviously. We’re also training people to work up through the system, because there’s a lot of stuff they can learn from them, and get the experience from our system. It comes down to work ethic. There are a lot of people that want to brew beer, but there are a lot of people that don’t want to work really hard. Brewing’s very intensive.

Meighan Dietenhofer: It’s physically hard. It astounded me how physically hard it was. That’s why I don’t do the brewing part.

Jaime Dietenhofer: You have to really love it, because it’s demanding.

As far as naming beers, you said you rely on local landmarks?

Jaime Dietenhofer: Yeah, local landmarks. Exactly. Different things that mean something to that region, the Central Coast, because I believe any brewery really gets its strengths from its regional aspects.

What was the most recent beer that you brewed, and what was your inspiration?

Meighan Dietenhofer: We had four specialties come out that were submitted to competition. The most recent was Big Cone Black Ale.

Jaime Dietenhofer: We have an ESB and an EPA, but the Big Cone Black is technically an American stout, but we use Citra and Amarillo hops as the finishing hops for grapefruit taste, so it doesn’t taste what it looks like. We’re calling it a black IPA, but it’s actually technically an American stout. It has a malty finish.

And you said you’re opening a joint facility with other artisans in Santa Barbara?

Meighan Dietenhofer: It will have a tasting room where people can come in and taste the beer. We’ll have a brewing area where we can do one-offs, so that will allow even more creative brewing ventures, as opposed to the eight we normally have.

What are you hoping to accomplish by opening in this facility, the Funk Zone?

Jaime Dietenhofer: I think the big thing Meighan was talking about is that we have our mainstays that could apply to a lot of people. It’s very drinkable, the main line-up, but there are a lot of people out there that look for the latest and greatest. We also want to be stretching the envelope on the brewing process, because we have a very talented brewer that wants to do a Grand Cru or wild beer, but to make 60 barrels of it in a batch because our fermenter’s 60 barrels, it’s a large test project. We just want to be able to come up with these different concoctions and stretch the whole brewing process.

What’s the process like for deciding on a beer? Do you have to agree with brewer A.J. Stoll?

Meighan Dietenhofer: I think it’s collaborative. He has a lot of ideas, but we have to think about what fits with what we already have.

Jaime Dietenhofer: I realize I didn’t know how to brew when I blew it up in my college dorm, trying to make it, so I realized what I don’t know anything about. I’ll say, “A.J., this is going to be like…” and he’ll bring me back to reality. He’ll hone it in, but it’s definitely collaborative.

If you could only drink one more beer, and it’s not a Figueroa Mountain beer, what would it be?

Jaime Dietenhofer: If I could only drink one more beer, with a gun to my head, I would have to say Poor Man’s IPA by Pizza Port.

How come?

Jaime Dietenhofer: I think it’s maybe the best balanced IPA.

Which Pizza Port?

Jaime Dietenhofer: That came out of Solana.

What about for you?

Meighan Dietenhofer: I feel like I want to go back to Sierra Nevada. That’s always been my main lifeblood, but probably [Deschutes] Mirror Pond [Pale Ale].