Category: Blog

Yes, I’m trying to resuscitate this moribund blog yet again. But this time I’m scaling it way back to basically what it was when I started.

You see, when our beloved Celebrator Beer News basically went dark years ago, I decided I would step into the breach and provide Bay Area Craft Beer nerds with the news they were accustomed to, delivered via the interwebs on a semi-regular basis. I had a newsletter, with subscribers and everything, and even ran ads (which got zero clicks)!

All well and good. But what I didn’t realize was that the Celebrator was a full-time gig for at least one person, with lots of others contributing. I still needed to work full-time for a paycheck and benefits, so I was doing this in my free time, which I quickly discovered was not nearly enough. Especially since I’m basically lazy and found it more and more difficult to sit in front of a computer at my home after eight hours of sitting in front of one at work.

So, The Beerverse eventually pretty much shriveled up and died.

But I’m still a fan. So I figure, instead of trying to be all craft-beer things to all craft-beer people, I’m going back to basics. My Instagram feed is here, and I’m hoping to start putting up the occasional beer-related blog post now and again. Not looking to change the world, or convert the unenlightened, or even make a dime. Just me and my beery thoughts. And if I’m able to steer anyone towards a particularly outstanding beer and/or brewery, all the better.

We’re surrounded by great beer here in the Bay Area. I’m just here to let y’all know what I find. So cheers, and support your local brewery!

You know the cliché, right?

The awkward first-date ice-breaker.  The lame party-game question.

“If you’re ever stranded on a deserted island, what (food/drink/celebrity/book/movie/etc) would you want with you?”

While that’s a hypothetical for just about everyone, Desiree Heveroh has been living it.

In fact, she volunteered for it.

Heveroh is the Light Station Keeper at East Brother Light Station, on the small island of East Brother in San Pablo Bay, accessible only by boat from Point San Pablo Harbor in Richmond, California.

Built in 1873, the lighthouse is owned by the US Coast Guard, but maintained and cared for by the East Brother Light Station nonprofit (of which Heveroh is an eight-year Board Member), created in late 1970s by a group of volunteers when the remaining buildings were threatened with demolition.  The group secured historic status for the buildings and has since been running the island as a rustic Bed & Breakfast .

Then came the pandemic, and the inn had to close to guests.  Eventually, the Keepers (screened by the nonprofit, typically for two-year terms) left the island.

But a presence was still needed to maintain the buildings and discourage vandalism and looting, and Heveroh saw her opportunity.

“I’ve always known I was going to live here.  Not wished that I was going live here … KNOWN I was going to live here.”  When the Keepers left, she realized “OH, okay, THIS is how. “

Although she was ready for the challenge, there was much to learn.  John Barnett, who served as a Keeper for a still-record 7.5 years, recommended Captain Jarrod Ward, an accomplished boat Captain.  Ward and Heveroh began their unique volunteer partnership on July 1, 2020.

“I couldn’t drive the boat or do a lot of the mechanical things yet.  Captain Jarrod spent the first several months teaching me all of the things I needed to know.”  The Light Station’s Facebook page salutes Ward’s service and credits him for teaching Heveroh “everything she knows today about surviving on this Island with & without power.  His contributions are immeasurable & none of this would be possible without him.”

The training has indeed come in handy.

“Oh, the upkeep is never-ending,” says Heveroh.  “There’s never been a time when everything was good and we didn’t need to fix something.  The salt air just erodes — if it’s made out of metal, it’ll rust away.  If it’s made out of wood, it turns to dust.  The handrail up the gangway and the fence around the whole island both need to be replaced, the piles that hold the landing dock are hollow.

“Maintaining this magic is a never-ending financial obligation.  We were going to focus our efforts on getting those things repaired when the cable gave out.  So it really set us back.”

The cable Heveroh’s referring to isn’t for television, as there’s no TV or Wifi on the island (did I mention it was rustic?).  It’s the literal cable the runs along the bay floor that provides the island’s electricity.

On April 1^st (no fooling), it failed.

Which left Heveroh and Ward literally stranded on the island.

As I mentioned, the only way to get to and from the island is by boat.  The boat requires a hoist to raise it up from and lower it into the water.

No power, no hoist.  No hoist, no transportation.

Captain Ward, confident in Heveroh’s training and abilities to maintain the lighthouse on her own, moved off the island to continue working his day job.  He did check in weekly and caught rides from the kind folks at the Harbor to deliver anything she needed.

The island does have a small additional source of power — a 1930’s-era generator, which Heveroh ran a couple of hours a day to keep her refrigerated and frozen food from spoiling, and to charge the backup batteries that power the actual lighthouse light, which continues to operate as an operational Aid to Navigation (the lights were upgraded to LED in 2012).

When the generator’s starter recently failed, she required the services of machinist Steve Phillips who specializes in antiques to make the replacement parts, who then video-coached her to make the repairs herself.

She used a small wood-burning stove in her tiny quarters for heat, burning eucalyptus bark and other branches she gathers from around the island.

The power cable failed once before, from a lightning strike in the early 1990s.  While the Coast Guard replaced it then, this time they have other plans.  Since their only responsibility is to ensure the actual light in the tower works, they plan on powering it with a small solar array, which is much less expensive than replacing the cable.

This will, however, leave the remaining buildings in complete darkness.  The nonprofit will need to come up with the funds itself, which seems like a very tall order.  A new cable plus installation could run as high as $1 million.

Help a Brother Out

But just like 40+ years ago when the historic Light Station buildings were threatened, the community is rallying.  The nonprofit has started a Gofundme campaign, which so far has raised more than 50% of their goal.

The Light Station’s plight has especially resonated with its namesake, East Brother Beer Company.

“We named ourselves after the island,” says brewery Co-Founder Rob Lightner.  “There’s so many events and fundraisers and initiatives and causes out there, you can’t do everything.  You have to allocate your time and prioritize.  Of course, with this one, it was like, ‘Yeah, we HAVE to do this.’”

East Brother (the brewery) is donating 20% of the sales of select beers to the cause.  The decision which beers to use was really a no-brainer, says Lightner.  “You know — freighter, bay, water, lighthouse.  Let’s just use the Freighter Series.”

Aside from the name, a number of other elements came together to make the choice an easy one.

COVID made determining the brewery’s “packaging mix” a constant moving target.  “How much do we put in cans, how much in kegs, how much does the taproom get, how much goes out into distribution?” says Lightner.

Long story short, they wound up with excess Freighter Series kegs in inventory.  “Usually we churn through those and sell out, but with the pandemic that didn’t happen.”

Which wound up being a blessing.

“If it’s a fragile IPA or a beer that doesn’t last long, you’re kinda out of luck.  The good thing with the Freighter Series beers, like the Russian Imperial Stout and the Belgian Tripel, they get better with age and have a longer shelf-life.  They’re big, they’re bold, people are willing to pay more.  So that’s great.  We’ll generate a little revenue to donate and act as a bullhorn or megaphone to get the word out.”

But you’ll need to travel to Richmond to chip in, as the fundraiser is limited to taproom-only draft sales.  Putting any extra in cans for distribution just wasn’t in the cards.

“We’re just so busy simply fulfilling orders right now.  Designing [more] labels, getting [more] cans, we just don’t have the bandwidth honestly.  We even talked about brewing a special beer, but we went from decent volume before the pandemic to all of a sudden hitting capacity.”

The uptick in demand for canned beer indeed caught the brewery by surprise.

Lightner recalls a recent conversation with Head Brewer Paul Liszewski, who said, “‘I think we have to go contract somewhere, we need to find a brewery, we’re out of fermentation space.’  We had to go out and get another tank just to keep up with demand!

“So we immediately put out a note on [a local] forum, ‘Does anybody have fermentors?’  We found a 100-barrel fermentor, which will take us from 600- to 700-barrel capacity.  Depending on your lager/ale mix, you can brew anywhere from 8000 to 12,000 barrels in a year.”

So Bay Area folks, if you want to literally help someone stranded (although Heveroh would be the first to say it’s never felt like that) on an island and enjoy some top-notch beers in the process, head to Richmond and catch a Freighter.  The fundraiser continues as long as the kegs do.

Other Richmond businesses are chipping in, as well.  The Factory Bar, Catahoula Coffee Company, and Tacos El Tucan, which have formed a coalition called The San Pablo Avenue Business District, are selling themed merch, coffee, and cocktails, with all profits going to the Lighthouse.

EPILOGUE

At one point during my Light Station tour, Heveroh is showing me the kitchen.  “It’s a pretty good size, got some good appliances, and they all require lots of power, which we don’t ha…”

As if on cue, the refrigerator springs to life.

“Did the power just go on?”

“I heard something running!” I reply.

“Maybe it’s working!,” she says, excitedly.

She runs outside and shouts to Kristen Gates, Light Station Board Treasurer who was with us on that day helping out an electrician at the island’s power terminal, “The refrigerator went on!”

Gates replies, “We have power!  We did it!”

“Everywhere?”

“Yep!”

Gates had been working on for weeks to repair the cable, assembling a very capable crew including an electrician, boat captain with his Tug, and her exceedingly capable brother Brian Gates.  

They pulled up enough cable to expose the damaged portion, remove it, and splice in a new section.  But power still wasn’t flowing.  Apparently, on that day, while I was there, they made the connection.

Heveroh, apologizing several times for being distracted, continued with the tour.

“I can’t believe we have power, it’s been two months!  I get to take a shower today, I’m so excited!”

Although power has been temporarily reestablished, Heveroh knows it isn’t a permanent fix.  She likens her situation to being upgraded from the ICU to a regular hospital bed.  While the patient is stable, she still needs monitoring.

Since the nonprofit always encourages donations anyway due to the considerable expense of maintaining and repairing a nearly 150-year-old inn in the middle of the bay, Heveroh is hopeful they can take advantage of the newfound awareness and momentum they’ve created.

“The splice won’t hold forever and then we will be in exactly the same spot,” she says.  “We still need to replace the cable with a brand new one that still carries a hefty price tag, but this will give us enough time to raise those funds.”

To those who have already donated, Heveroh says “We’ve got power, but we still have these other things going on.  Thank you so much for showing up.  If you want to contribute to [our other repair projects], great, thank you!”

With power hopefully restored and vaccination rates increasing, East Brother Light Station is targeting September to reopen for guests, which will help tremendously with the funding they need for the replacement cable. 

Heveroh knows at that point it will be time for her move on, as a minimum of two Keepers are needed to maintain the buildings and host guests.

“This job is incredibly demanding.  There’s a lot of work on non-guest days — they have to haul all the laundry, get it done, fuel the boat, shop for the next week’s worth of guests.  There’s no down time.”  Guest stays are Thursdays-Sundays, so the Keepers “miss all of their families’ special occasions, which usually take place on weekends.  You’re signing your life away to the island.”

Although the bond she’s formed with her temporary home is obvious (she repeatedly calls her time there “magical” and refers to the lighthouse as “she”), Heveroh is okay with moving on.

“I expected three months when I moved in.  So every day after that has been bonus.  She needs to touch more lives.  No one else, in her 148-year history, has had a situation here like I’ve had, with her.  So we had our special time that was just for us.  And I’m grateful for it.”

As to the next chapter?

“I’m actually going to do a little tour of West Coast lighthouses that have accommodations.”

When I mention that sounds like great material for a book, she smiles knowingly.

“I’ve already thought of the title — ‘Isle Be Our Brother’s Keeper.’”

If you follow me on Instagram, you may have seen my reviews of beers from far-flung places around the country, and a mention that I received them via The Beer Connoisseur’s Beer Buyers Club.

Before I go into my experiences with the club, I should mention how I came to join.

The Beer Connoisseur (TBC) approached me several months ago with a proposition.  If I joined the Beer Buyers Club, wrote a few words about it, and advertised their magazine on my site, they would provide a free subscription and an opportunity to write a guest blog post for them.

So full disclosure, I am being compensated with the subscription and a small percentage of any sales via the affiliate link on my site (that banner ad you see at the top of the page).  However, I am paying full fare as a club member, which can get pretty pricey in a hurry if you don’t watch yourself.  More on that shortly.

I should also say that this partnership has provided me with something much more than a subscription.  TBC’s editor liked my guest post so much it’s now a feature story in their latest issue, and I’ve been brought on as one of their regular contributors for future issues!

I’m a real beer writer!

But I digress.  Back to the club.

The Beer Buyers Club is run through a partnership with the beer-buying site Tavour.  Simply download the app, create an account, and you’re on your way.  TBC even gives you a coupon code to save $10 on your first order (of at least $25).

Buying beer through the app is easy.  A little too easy, actually.  A couple of times a day you get a notification of the latest beer on offer.  If you’re interested, go to the app, read the write-up, and if you want it, add as many as you want to your “crate” and the app automatically charges your card on file.  Prices can vary greatly, from about $4 to upwards of $40 or more per beer, depending on style and rarity.

Your crate is shipped roughly monthly, although you can adjust ship dates if needed.  Shipping to a business address is recommended, as a signature is needed for delivery.  Shipping is flat rate (about $15) regardless of the size of your order.

My favorite feature of the club is having access to beer I don’t normally see here in California.  At first it was a lot of fun adding beers from all over the U.S., from Indiana to Maryland, Arizona to New York, and Colorado to Alaska, to name just a few.

But I learned quickly that pacing myself is key.  At two offerings a day, not only can it get expensive, but my fridge would overflow quickly.  I’ve averaged roughly about 18 beers a month, which is about as much as I’m comfortable with, both expense- and storage-wise.

Styles pretty much run the gamut, although naturally Hazies and DIPAs are the most featured.  (Since I live in the Bay Area and already have easy access to some of the finest examples in the country, it’s become easier for me to pass those by.)  Tavour also seems quite fond of monster Stouts, especially of the Pastry variety.  I’ll grab one now and then, depending on the particular slant (coffee stouts and porters are pretty much an automatic “yes!”).

Another benefit is the opportunity to expand my horizons.  I’ll snag a Fruited Sour and even a Gose now and then, styles I have traditionally been averse to.  It’s a great way to educate the palate without having to commit to a four-pack or more.

If there’s a drawback (besides the too-easy ability to run up a pretty big tab), it’s understanding the magazine’s tie in.  TBC does send weekly email updates about featured beers, which is great.  But aside from that, you don’t get any specifics about when they’ll be available, so it’s impossible to set a reminder.  And I really don’t know if the beers they feature are exclusive to Beer Buyers Club members, or if everyone on Tavour has access to them.

TBC also stages virtual Happy Hours with some of the brewers of those featured beers, which is a nice bonus.  But on top of trying to remember to order those beers, you also need to coordinate your ship dates so you can get them in time to enjoy during the discussions.  It’s a bit too much planning for my feeble brain.

My only other complaint is Tavour’s customer service.  I had to make changes to a shipment, and got no response after leaving several messages.  The issue was ultimately handled, but follow-up was minimal, at best.  I’m just chalking it up to staffing issues due to the pandemic and/or the popularity of the app.

Overall, these are minor quibbles.  Having beers otherwise unavailable to me shipped to my (office) door has been a blast.  It’s like Christmas whenever my new crate arrives.  I’d recommend the Beer Buyers Club for that alone.  It IS quite a bit of fun.

Oh, and if after reading my article you decide you’d like to subscribe to The Beer Connoisseur, click on that banner up top. You’ll save some $$, and I’ll get some $$. How’s THAT for a win-win?

And one final note.  No matter if your beer is from across town or across the country, be sure to enjoy them safely at home as much as possible.  If you must venture out, stay socially distant, and for cryin’ out loud, WEAR YOUR DAMN MASK!!!!

Cheers, y’all!

As a public service to my fellow beer enthusiasts (cuz who KNOWS when we’ll be able to congregate again), I’m keeping a quick list of local breweries offering to-go and/or delivery service.  These are my closest places to start, I’ll continually add and update this list as time/info dictates, so check back often.

And please, SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL BREWERS!!!  Tip ginormously if possible.  They’ve all taken a big hit, and if you want to see them around once we’re past this, give ‘em whatever $$$ you can spare!

And brewers, if you wanna get on this list, send me your deets!  Hit me up on my contact page.

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• Armistice Brewing, Richmond — open daily 2-8pm to to-go orders.  Pre-ordering strongly encouraged — go here.
• East Brother Brewing, Richmond — to-go pickup available daily 2-7pm, again order online in advance.  Delivery also available to Richmond, San Pablo, El Sobrante, Pinole, Hercules (yay!), El Cerrito, or Albany.  Deets here.
• Del Cielo Brewing, Martinez — open Friday-Sunday 2-5pm for pickup.  Order online for same-day pickup.
• Origin Brewer, Richmond — limited growler and keg sales for Richmond and El Cerrito.  Contact them here to make arrangements.
• Elevation 66 Brewing, El Cerrito — food and beer available to-go, order here.  Hours differ depending on menu, see site for details.
• Mare Island Brewing, Vallejo — to-go food and drink (including wine!) available at their Ferry Taproom only, daily Noon-7pm.  Order here.
• Ocean View Brew Works, Albany — to-go and delivery available.  For info, check out their app.
• Gilman Brewing, Berkeley — open daily 1-8 for to-go beer and food orders.  Oder here.

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Keep checking back for updates.  A long-distance glass-clink to all!