‘I See You’ — The Evolution of SoCal Cerveceros

The first time I met Agustin Ruelas in person, it was over a beer.

We were already connected via social media. One day, on a whim, I posted on my Facebook page asking if anyone who followed me was a homebrewer. Agustin was the only person who replied. After a couple of weeks of messaging back and forth, we decided to meet up.   

In a dimly lit bar, we casually shared our impossible dreams of someday owning beer businesses. His would be a family-run brewery with his brother Adrian at the helm as head brewer, one that would craft Belgian-style Ales influenced by Mexican culture. He would call it Brewjeria, a clever pun that combines “brujeria” (the Spanish word for witchcraft) and the word “brew.” 

I shared my vision next. I wanted to start a hyperlocal brewpub where the community of Norwalk and the surrounding residents of southeast Los Angeles could gather in a family-friendly space, listening to local, up-and-coming crooners. My beers would be themed after Norwalk’s streets. I called my dream the Norwalk Brew House. 

Our visions were vivid but intangible, nothing we would hold our breath over. The one throughline in our conversation was community—the idea of collaborating and connecting with others to build something bigger than ourselves. That part was tangible. 

Back then we didn’t know too much about breaking into the commercial beer industry. The more pressing issue was our independent realizations that we were often the only Latinos in the homebrew shops we frequented. We agreed on our respective feelings of not belonging in the scene, or being overwhelmed by our lack of technical brewing knowledge. That led us both to ask the question: “Are there more Brown brewers like us in Los Angeles?” 

As people of color living in the United States, we are often marginalized, underrepresented, and overlooked. Paradoxically, these experiences also connect us, and allow us to understand each other. They certainly aren’t exclusive to the beer world, and they serve as unspoken links between people—like a subtle head nod you give to one another, as if to say, “I see you.” 

Fast-forward to seven years after Agustin and I met, and Brewjeria Company and Norwalk Brew House both exist as commercial beer ventures. The former is a production brewery with a taproom, and the latter is a self-distributed contract-brewing operation. But on our journey to realizing our respective dreams, Agustin and I would first inadvertently co-found the largest Latino homebrew club in the country. SoCal Cerveceros would go on to be dubbed “one of the most important homebrew clubs in the world,” by Beer Paper LA. We’d get crowned 2018 Homebrew Club of the Year by Anchor Brewing Company, grace the cover of Zymurgy Magazine, get profiled in the Los Angeles Times, and launch the biggest annual BIPOC beer fest on the West Coast: Coldxela. 

That wasn’t what we set out to do—but on the slow journey toward fulfilling our own dreams, we ended up creating something that made it easier for others to pursue theirs.

BUILD IT AND THEY WILL COME

After that initial meeting, Agustin and I quickly became friends. The energy between us felt familiar, as if I’d reconnected with a cousin I hadn’t seen in years. As we continued to trade thoughts and ideas, we kept coming back to the observation that our local homebrew clubs and shops had little to no diversity—if there were other Latino brewers in those spaces, we never saw them. Until that point, he was the only other Latino homebrewer I knew, and he was already brewing with his brother, cousin, and a friend. 

One day, I asked Agustin if he thought there was a need for a place where Latino brewers could gather and connect. “What do you think about starting a club?” I asked. “I’m down if you’re down,” he replied. 

My interest in homebrewing had been sparked in 2014, when I read “Brewing Up a Business: Adventures in Beer from the Founder of Dogfish Head Craft Brewery” by Sam Calagione. At the time, I had been dreaming of someday opening a bar and grill that would showcase local bands and feature California-brewed craft beer. I figured it would be a good idea to learn all I could about how beer is made, so on a visit to a local Barnes & Noble, I picked up a few books that looked interesting. “Brewing Up a Business” was one of them, and it chronicled how Sam Calagione set out to open a brewpub—despite it being illegal in the state of Delaware at the time—and ultimately built one of the most successful craft beer brands in the country. I was motivated by Sam’s story, his resilience, and the idea that a dream so ambitious could really be achieved. So I went online, purchased a one-gallon homebrew starter kit, and off I went. 

“From the moment I met with Ray and through our first couple of club meetings with less than 10 members, it seemed like it was long overdue. It almost felt like we were behind, trying to grow into what was needed for the other members that have joined since then.”

When Agustin and I first brought together seven brewers in the spring of 2015 to hang out and talk about homebrewing, there was no grand plan to become the biggest Latino homebrew club in the country. We weren’t thinking about legacy. We weren’t strategizing ways to raise money for a startup. There was no talk of impacting the industry, and building a wider community of support. We were just novices talking about beer. We did all the things we imagined a homebrew club would do: We set up brew days, shared tips, traded equipment, visited breweries, and met on a monthly basis to drink beer and discuss brewing techniques. None of us had ever run a club before, so we went about it very organically, doing what seemed sensible. 

“From the moment I met with Ray and through our first couple of club meetings with less than 10 members, it seemed like it was long overdue,” Agustin says. “It almost felt like we were behind, trying to grow into what was needed for the other members that have joined since then.” 

Those first few meetings were really about strangers getting to know each other. To my surprise, everyone was friendly, inviting, and really excited to talk about homebrewing. Their enthusiasm for beer was on par with my obsession for collecting ’70s soul and salsa vinyl—these were definitely my kind of geeks, in other words, and the more we talked, the more we learned of mutual friends in other circles. We had been connected before and beyond brewing, and hadn’t even known it.   

What I didn’t fully realize in those early days of the club was that being a Latino in the wider craft beer industry was still an anomaly. We’d become so conditioned to not seeing ourselves in prominent roles throughout various industries that it wasn’t something that appeared significant at first. But that gulf became clear when, as word started to spread of a newly formed Latino homebrew club, brewers expressed how excited they were: Finally, a group with people who looked like them. For the first time in their homebrewing experience, they felt a sense of belonging, they said, one that was motivated by beer but cemented by shared experiences within this specific community.

“I was surprised and excited,” says Alex Ruiz, now of South Central Brewing Company, about his first time visiting the club. “The three of us at South Central Brewing Company went to the first meeting and instantly felt at home. Everyone was welcoming and we learned so much in that first meeting.”  

Today, SoCal Cerveceros has over 250 members, and while it’s become more ethnically diverse as it’s grown, its Latino-majority membership reflects its geography: Los Angeles County had the largest Latino population of any county in the United States as of the 2020 census, and of that 4.8 million people, 76% have Mexican heritage. I used to joke that SoCal Cerveceros was the largest Latino homebrew club when we had just seven members, by default.

BREWING UP A BEER FEST

It wasn’t until we decided to host our first beer-tasting event that SoCal Cerveceros’ full potential revealed itself. 

Picture walking into a random backyard, the aroma of freshly cooked tacos, rice, and beans hitting your nose as you make your way past the door person. The taquero’s propane grill fills the entrance with thick smoke, like fog hugging a cemetery in a horror flick. On the other side, there’s a crowd of Brown people smiling, laughing, and holding up taster cups of beer to analyze what they’re drinking. A rock band anchored by a female drummer and bassist plays like they’re headlining the biggest concert of their career. It’s loud, it’s dynamic, and it feels somehow new. 

Then there’s the table serving beer with names like La Negra Tomada and What’s the Yams Porter. As you take your taster, the band finishes and, without missing a beat, the DJ drops “Bidi Bidi Bom Bom,” the iconic cumbia song by Selena. The crowd erupts in cheers and descends onto the dance floor. 

Any doubts we had about whether or not we could pull off a successful event were debunked that night. Not only did we run out of homebrew, but we also raised money for AIDS/LifeCycle, which benefits the Los Angeles LGBT Center and the San Francisco AIDS Foundation. The inaugural event ultimately gave us the confidence to produce something more ambitious, something that would allow us to stick our proverbial flag in the mountain of the local beer scene. 

After that night, the path forward was clear: Every year, we’d share homebrew in a festival setting while helping raise money and awareness for local nonprofits. Although none of us realized it at the time, the process of scaling up our event was a crash course in entrepreneurship. We were scouting venue locations, sourcing stages, booking audio and lighting, drawing up press releases, selling tickets, and becoming bona fide beer event producers. If the club itself was a place to discuss brewing technicalities, its events became places for members to get a taste of running a business.

That first underground, backyard beer tasting gave way to a public, ticketed event, which then turned into a full-blown production that sold out weeks in advance and drew local media attention. We called it Coldxela: “Xela” (pronounced “chela”) is the Spanish word for beer, which means the event’s name literally translates to “the cold beer festival.”

In 2019, we more than tripled the size of Coldxela. This time we featured 52 homebrewers, a full stage with four live bands and several DJs, guest food vendors, local artisans, and a maximum capacity of 1,500 festival-goers. Coldxela raised $10,000 for The Gumball Foundation, a local nonprofit helping students establish microventures to earn money for college tuition. And while COVID has meant a pause for the festival, we’re now gearing up for big things next year.

Ultimately, the success of Coldxela elevated the presence of the SoCal Cerveceros throughout Southern California. We weren’t “just” a Latino homebrew club; we were no longer the new kids on the brewing block. We were now the face, voice, and example for diversity in Los Angeles’ beer industry. 

VIVA LA MUJER

The latest phase of the club’s evolution has been the emergence of the SoCal Cerveceras: a subgroup of women brewers who have created their own space within the greater collective. The Cerveceras are proactive in recruiting women to the club, organizing their own brew days, helping to onboard and teach new brewers, and frequently collaborating with commercial breweries on special beer releases. Today, the SoCal Cerveceras number around 34 active members. 

One of the more visible and involved is Tyler Sadler. “SCC brings to the beer community something I was having trouble finding,” she said when asked about what motivated her to join. “I wouldn’t say I am particularly uncomfortable in spaces where I am clearly the minority, but nothing compares to being around people with the same interests and passions that you can relate with in more than one way.”  

When Tyler first joined SCC, she was brewing one-gallon batches in her apartment kitchen. It wasn’t long before she scaled up her operation and started collecting competition medals. Soon enough, she was sitting in on commercial brew days at local breweries, volunteering on canning days, and soaking up every bit of brewing knowledge she could. 

Today, Tyler is an active SCC board member, serving back-to-back terms as the director of memberships. She’s also a self-proclaimed “grain slinger” at the Simi Valley Home Brew shop, and co-hosts a beer podcast called Brew’d Up! The Podcast alongside fellow Cervecera Laurie Ann Gutierrez, who is an award-winning cidermaker and brewer. But the most impressive thing Tyler has accomplished might just be her leap from homebrew hobbyist to pro brewer. 

“SCC brings to the beer community something I was having trouble finding. I wouldn’t say I am particularly uncomfortable in spaces where I am clearly the minority, but nothing compares to being around people with the same interests and passions that you can relate with in more than one way.”

Tyler is now lead brewer and co-owner of Lit Brew, a self-distributed contract-brewing company with four beers currently in distribution, all of which are her own recipes; that move has also made her one of just a few professional Black women brewers in Southern California. “Some of the first brands and breweries I know of doing contract-brewing are members of SCC,” she said. “Seeing our members build successful brands with this more accessible method has been really inspiring, and I know it’ll inspire more brewers to go for it.” 

Other members of the SoCal Cerveceras have also gone on to various successes. Collectively they’ve won countless competition medals. Several work in the commercial beer space, including founding their own breweries. A few have become craft beer influencers and activists, influential in advocating for change during the recent reckoning around sexist bias and sexual violence in the beer industry. 

Cervecera Ash Eliot has made headlines for her advocacy work as founder of Women of the Bevolution. For her efforts helping create and launch the Brave Noise beer campaign with Brienne Allan—a global call-to-action for breweries to improve their codes of conduct and create inclusive environments—Ash was named a Good Beer Hunting Signifier in 2021. 

Zaneta Santana holds the distinction of being the first Cervecera to join the SoCal Cerveceros. In addition to being an award-winning homebrewer, Zaneta is a partner of South Central Brewing Company (a brewery-in-planning), a certified Cicerone, and the general manager of Angel City Brewery in Los Angeles. 

Marlene Garcia, a Cervecera from Salinas, California, is the most recent member to open a commercial brewery. After three-and-a-half hard years—which included everything from failed building lease negotiations and struggles to raise capital to a pandemic that halted the already-difficult process—Marlene and her family opened the doors to Brew-N-Krew Ale House in early spring 2022. 

Lourdes “Lulu” Ceja is another SCC member who’s made big moves. As an assistant manager and beertender at Brewjeria Company, she has leveraged her position in the commercial space to collaborate and foster a presence for the Cerveceras. From organizing commercial beer collaborations to designing can labels and racking up medals at local homebrew competitions, Lourdes has grown into a leader of the pack, and a testament of the ways that the club has opened up various avenues into the industry for members.

FROM HOBBYISTS TO PROS

Including Tyler, at least nine SCC members have now entered the industry as professionals since the club was founded just seven years ago. Several have raised capital and built out breweries; others found their pathway via contract-brewing. Some have entered into alternating proprietorships with established breweries, and many others are on the cusp of going commercial after testing the market by doing collaborations—a common pathway for members looking to jump-start a new beer brand. 

Before I decided to commit to raising capital for my own venture, I participated in nine beer collaborations between 2020-2021, five of which were released in partnership with breweries owned by members of SoCal Cerveceros. Ultimately, I partnered with another club member, Alfredo Rocha—a multi-award-winning brewer with a stellar Belgian-style Witbier to rival the beloved Allagash White—to establish SCC Distribution Network L.L.C., an independent beer distributorship focused on building out a portfolio of brands started by members of the SoCal Cerveceros. Our two respective beer companies, Norwalk Brew House and Los Barbones Brewing, are the anchors for what we hope will be a roadmap for others to follow. 

“SCC as a club continues to be a springboard from homebrewing to commercial brewing,” says Alfredo. “We are witnessing the impact on diversity at a commercial level, whether it’s women from the club knocking out collabs and special releases, members increasing minority representation in craft brewing jobs, or some starting breweries and pushing commercial brands through contract-brewing.” 

SCC Distribution Network L.L.C. is the first business model of its kind to come out of the club. The structure is built around a beer wholesale business with a focus on developing and incubating other startups, giving aspiring entrepreneurs a more economically feasible way to bring products to market. 

Ruben Leon holds the distinction of being the third consecutive club president to pursue a move into the commercial beer industry. But his story has greater significance, in that he purchased his brewery, Burning Bridge Brewing, from another club member, Aurelio Ramirez of Feathered Serpent Brewery, after he outgrew his current space and decided to move to a bigger location. (Aurelio was the first SCC member to open a commercial brewery.) In this way, a pipeline among members has emerged within the SoCal Cerveceros.

“SCC as a club continues to be a springboard from homebrewing to commercial brewing. We are witnessing the impact on diversity at a commercial level, whether it’s women from the club knocking out collabs and special releases, members increasing minority representation in craft brewing jobs, or some starting breweries and pushing commercial brands through contract-brewing.”

When asked about what motivated him to become a club member, Ruben said: “I went to the Coldxela event and walked away thinking that I have to be part of this. I wanted to join and pour my beer at an event, it just seemed so damn cool. It still is.” Much like Tyler Sadler, Ruben joined SCC early in his brewing journey, and he quickly immersed himself in the culture of the club. As he made his way from homebrewer to commercial brewery owner, he credited SCC with helping him to realize the possibility. “The club really cemented the idea that it was possible,” he says. “Watching various members make the jump to commercial pushed me to want to learn more of the business side and start figuring out how it would be possible for me to do it.” 

Since its founding, SoCal Cerveceros has contributed an enormous amount of time, effort, and knowledge-sharing to help move the conversation on diversity forward. The collective proudly waves that flag, and continues to beat that drum. What may not have been so obvious until now is the direct impact the SoCal Cerveceros is also making on the commercial beer industry, as a hotbed for budding entrepreneurs and an incubator where members can come in, network, learn, and then launch a business. As new ventures launch, members who become owners turn around and hire other members, creating an expedited route for those looking to get into the industry. And it only took one member to make the jump and reveal to the rest of us that we too can do it. 

“I am excited to see what everyone does in this industry,” says Tyler. “The more people of color that open breweries, the more diverse we will see the beer industry get. This club has some very talented and passionate brewers, marketing powerhouses, and business savvy entrepreneurs that have the power to turn this industry on its head—and it’s already happening!” 

Words by Ray Ricky Rivera
Illustrations by David Alvarado