Surf Brewery Delivers Some Tonar Brews in Ventura

The sea is foaming like a bottle of beer
The wave is coming but I ain’t got no fear…
The sea is rolling like a thousand pound keg.
We’re going surfing, we’re going surfing.
– Surf Wax America

Weezer and the owners of Surf Brewery may have the same philosophy on life, but Keith Taylor, Denny Loyst, Doug Mason, and Bill Riegler decided to open up a brewery that involved surfing, instead of starting a garage surf band that enjoyed drinking beer. My wife and I headed north to Ventura for a getaway weekend vaycay where I found that surfing is not only a favorite pastime of the locals, but also an inspiration for Ventura County’s only microbrewery. I was stoked to visit the tasting room and brewery to get some gnar gnar brews and to see shwhat the buzz from the locals was about, brah.

I met up with bar manager Brian Greenwood during Keith Taylor’s 50^th birthday party at their tasting room to find a makeshift surf museum that would please The Duke himself. The four owners of Surf Brewing are all from Ventura, are all epic surfers, and were all into homebrewing at one point in time. Doug was the Big Kahuna among the four when it came to brewing. His award-winning recipes led their crew to start Surf Brewery when Bill retired from a chemical company in Carpinteria two years ago and became the general manager. They hired Chas Cloud as their head brewer, who started at BJ’s in Oxnard and then went to Santa Barbara Brewing Company. Chas is responsible for all of Surf Brewing’s most excellent recipes.

I had a noice Longboard Sampler, which had ten of their 5 oz. beer samplers that got me totally chilaxed. Surf Brewing inspires to be abstract, out there, and a little different. They have three flagships: the Mondo’s Cream Ale is light, refreshing, and perfect for a summer beach bonfire; their award-winning County Line Rye Pale Ale is a perfect infusion of rye and American floral hops; and their Surf Black IPA has a righteous amount of hops with a toasty malt flavor. I was jonesin for the Seawall English Summer Ale on nitro and the South Swell Double IPA because I’m a sucker for beers on nitro and DIPAs (if anyone can make a DIPA on nitro, then I’m pretty sure I’ll become their slave). The Black Swell combined the South Swell and the County Line for a most stellar combination of rye, caramel malts, and citrus aromatic hops. I was truly impressed with all their beers, but these listed brews were the highlights of my poser adventure of the best surfboard that I ever took a journey on.

Surf Brewery is currently distributing between Santa Barbara County and LA County and they recently started selling their 22 oz. bombers in local Albertsons, Vons, and Whole Foods. They plan to keep their operation semi-local and they pride themselves on being Ventura’s brewery. Surf Brewery also has a homebrew shop in their tasting room that constantly reminds them of their roots. They have plenty of room to expand in their warehouse and someday hope to expand their sales to the OC and San Diego to appeal to the other beer-drinking surf nations of Southern California.

Weezer said it best when they sang, “You take your car to work, I’ll take my board, and when you’re out of fuel, I’m still afloat.” Bill Reigler lives this philosophy every day when he goes to work at Surf Brewery. Except he does drive his car to work, but metaphorically speaking, his job is his board. Whoooooa dude. Mind. Blown.