For the third stop in my brewery tour of the Bay Area, I visited San Jose’s brewery scene just south of downtown. A trip to Hapa’s Brewery & Taproom was recommended by Mercury News readers Katherine and Chris Maraschin. And then since the idea behind this series is to highlight beer neighborhoods, I headed next to Narrative Fermentations.
Hapa’s Brewery & Taproom
Brewery founders Derek Tam, who’s half Chinese, and Brian Edwards, who’s half Japanese, often heard the term “hapa,” meaning mixed heritage, when visiting Hawaii. That idea of mixed cultures inspired their brewery name.
The pair grew up together in Los Gatos, played Little League together and after college started home brewing together. As time went on, brewing went from a hobby to an obsession to a business idea.
Once the plan was set in motion, Edwards spent two years brewing at Dempsey’s Restaurant & Brewery (dempseys.com) in Petaluma, which is an early Bay Area brewery, having opened in 1991. Its founder, Peter Burrell, became a mentor to both, and also came aboard as a partner in the business, occasionally visiting them in San Jose as they worked on building out the brewery space. In 2017, Hapa’s Brewing Co. opened its doors.
They served just three beers at first: “Barbie’s Blonde,” a 4.5% ABV blonde ale named for Brian’s mother, who put up with him and Derek taking over her garage for so many years while they were honing their craft; “Hungry Dog,” a West Coast IPA brewed with Citra, Mosaic and Cascade hop varieties; and “Little Angel,” a robust mocha porter with great chocolate notes and a dry coffee finish. All are frequently in the tap rotation.
These days, you’ll find at least a dozen beers on tap, plus one hard seltzer made in-house. Besides the requisite IPAs, both hazy and clear, Hapa’s also offers a nice range of styles. To my delight, everything I tasted was clean, well-made and quite tasty.
One beer that caught my attention was “Amish Rifle,” a red ale. Having grown up in Pennsylvania’s Amish country, I was surprised to find the term in California. But the beer is named for NFL quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick (currently with the Washington Football Team), a college friend of Brian’s who is called the “Amish Rifle” because of his beard and his strong throwing arm. This ale is malty and slightly sweet, and like its namesake, you could easily throw down a few of these.
They also had on a kettle soured beer, “Scattered Light,” described as a rainbow sherbet kettle sour, brewed with several berries and lime. It was pink in color, only lightly sour, but very tasty.
The brewery taproom on Lincoln Avenue is an open wood-and-steel space, with room for standing at the bar or at several tall tables throughout. The brewery itself is in full view. There’s also a back patio and space for cornhole tournaments. A food truck is regularly onsite.
Details: Open from 4 to 9 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday, 3 to 9 p.m. Friday, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday and noon to 8 p.m. Sunday at 460 Lincoln Ave., with a second taproom in Los Gatos at 114 S. Santa Cruz Ave. www.hapasbrewing.com
Narrative Fermentations
A 10-minute drive away, right by CEFCU/Spartan Stadium, you’ll find Narrative Fermentations, founded by John Phelan and Jon Berkland. They took over the space vacated by Steve Donohue when he made the difficult decision to close his Santa Clara Valley Brewing Co.
Narrative’s story is a now-familiar one: Phelan and Berkland were friends who grew up in Morgan Hill and began home brewing together.
Phelan’s father owned a home-brewing shop when he was younger, and so it was familiar equipment to him, and Berkland worked for distributor Wine Warehouse for 17 years, selling beer, wine and spirits. It was that experience that led to the brewery being called Narrative Fermentations, because as Jon found selling beer, it was all about the stories. So when they started the brewery, the idea was to tell their story through beer.
They had eight beers on tap when I stopped by, and a nice mix starting with a Mexican-style lager, ¿Qué Onda?, which essentially means “what’s up?” It’s a clean, refreshing beer. In fact, everything I tried was well done, but I especially enjoyed their “Citraquest Pale Ale,” which had a nice Citra hop bite throughout; “Frosted Tips,” an unfiltered, cold-fermented IPA brewed with Strata and Citra hops; and “Shark Mouth Hazy IPA,” brewed with four varieties of hops.
The first beer the duo home-brewed was a Russian imperial stout that they based on North Coast’s “Old Rasputin.” But a stout wasn’t in the commercial lineup until their taproom manager, Corrina Billett, convinced them to brew another one. The result was “Deep Dark Secret,” an old-school imperial stout, 9.8% ABV with great roast character and a dry finish.
Details: Open 3 to 9 p.m. Wednesday-Friday, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday, with a food truck frequently on the premises. 101 E. Alma Ave., San Jose; www.narrativefermentations.com
If you have a local brewery or brewpub you think is knocking it out of the park, drop me a line at BrooksOnBeer@gmail.com and tell me why you love them.