Bringing It All Back Home

Alexandra Nowell on Three Weavers’ Recent Buyback

‘Lynne, Alex — Say it ain’t so!” That was the text I sent to Lynne Weaver and Alexandra Nowell in mid-July 2018 on the day news had broken that their Three Weavers Brewing Company in Inglewood had joined the CANarchy Craft Brewery Collective.

Alas, it was so. But now, three years later, it ain’t so no longer.

In early June this year, in an article on Brewbound.com that surprisingly otherwise flew under the radar of the national and local beer press, it was announced that Three Weavers had reached an agreement with the collective to buy back full ownership of its brewery in order to “pursue [their] vision of a Three Weavers-branded brewery, tasting room and restaurant within Hollywood Park’s retail district” adjacent to the new SoFi Stadium in Inglewood.

A couple days later, Beer Paper sat down with co-owner and brewmaster Nowell to discuss the deal, and what it means for the future of Three Weavers. Weaver herself was unavailable but, as her co-owner says, “It’s totally OK; Lynne and I both have the same script.” Since the agreement becomes effective August 13, we are publishing that interview now.

Beer Paper: My first question has to be, why now for this deal? And all of a sudden, out of the blue. I hadn’t heard any leaks, or even rumors.

Alexandra Nowell: It wasn’t out of the blue. There were no leaks; we kept our mouths shut. The deal itself really came together just over the spring, but the idea of reacquiring the Three Weavers brand is something that had been on Lynne’s mind for quite some time because of the synergy that needed to happen with Hollywood Park and Three Weavers.

BP: When you entered into the deal with CANarchy, did you and Lynne have in mind that at some point you might want to buy back the brewery?

AN: It was never the plan to separate from CANarchy; it was a really great relationship. The separation is completely bittersweet. They’ve been really good to us. I found a ton of excellent resources within the company. We’ve become more efficient because of them, but without sacrificing quality. I’m gonna miss having access to a lot of the resources that I had through CANarchy.

Fortunately, we were also really well positioned prior to joining them, so things aren’t actually going to change very much for us. We were really well established in terms of supply chain and relationships prior to the deal. But the thing that Lynne and I thank them for the most is essentially carrying us through the pandemic. We weren’t too bad, numbers-wise, last year but it was great that it wasn’t debt on our end. Instead, it was that collective element, because CANarchy’s numbers were up last year with so many off-premise-heavy breweries as part of the collective. We were able to lean on them to ensure our survival.

BP: Is that why the break was so bittersweet?

AN: Yes, the separation feels a little odd, but it was the right move for us as a brewery and a brand. And then of course, Lynne has been working really hard on the Hollywood Park project for a while. She threw around the idea of creating a new brand for it, but it never felt authentic to Inglewood. It just made sense that Three Weavers would be the namesake of this brewpub — and the only way to do that was to reacquire it.

BP: Was it proposed that it might be a CANarchy brewpub? 

AN: No, it has nothing to do with them; it was completely separate. Lynne was pursuing the Hollywood Park project prior to us joining CANarchy; the conversations with the developers at Hollywood Park had already been happening. Lynne said, “I believe in this project and the potential success of it; I’m not going to let it go,” and so she continued working on it to really bring it all together in a way that made the most sense. We were fortunate that the CANarchy board was willing to allow us to separate. It was so amicable, it’s weird; things like this usually aren’t.

BP: So by mid-August you’re the complete owners again?

AN: Yes, this is 100% the original ownership group of Three Weavers: Lynne and myself, all of our original investors, Lynne’s ‘s friends and family.

BP: Can you talk about the financial terms of the buyback?

AN: No, I can’t, but I can tell you we bought the brewery back for cash, and our equity in CANarchy remains even with the reacquisition; it was cash-free and debt-free. We were surprised. They just offered it as part of the deal. So we’re still shareholders in CANarchy.

BP: So how do you feel?

AN: Grace under pressure. It’s been kind of surreal. I don’t think Lynne and I have fully realized how things are going to look after the fact, especially with this new element, the brewpub. But I know we’re both quite excited. One of Lynne’s superpowers is fund-raising — through a really extensive network of our existing investors who believe in Three Weavers and have stood behind us through all of this and want to see Hollywood Park be successful.

What’s really great is that the developers of Hollywood Park wanted to keep the complex true to Inglewood and Southern California, so they only sought out local businesses to come in and fill out the spaces as tenants. It will have a really authentic feel to it.

BP: What can you tell me about the proposed brewpub for Hollywood Park?

AN: It’s a ground lease for a piece of land on which we’re building from the ground up. It will be 22,000 square feet, a lot of it outdoors, like a beer garden, with different sorts of workable spaces to make it pandemic-proof. But also a place that can pack in a lot of people for football games, basketball games and musical events.

Of course, it will be a full brewery with a 15-barrel brewhouse and a full kitchen. It will also be an R&D brewery for us, although a lot of beers will come from our original facility. It’s gonna to be a bit of a fishbowl brewery as well, so it’ll definitely be a showpiece.

BP: And as a brewpub, you’ll be able to serve guest beers, as well as wine and cider.

AN: I’m so excited about that guest beer element because we’ve never had that, and it’ll allow me to flex my brewer friendships too. I’ll be able to bring in beers directly and just have really cool things on tap and available. So that aspect of it is really enticing. It will breathe some new life into the concept of Three Weavers.

We’re still throwing around concepts for the design, but we can’t actually start construction on it until after the Super Bowl, so we won’t take full possession of it until next March. I’m hoping we can be open by December 2022.

BP: Not to end this interview on a down note, but I would be remiss if I did not ask you about the issue roiling the brewing and hospitality industries this year: what I call the “BeerMeToo” movement, calling out harassment — and worse — of mostly female employees. As one of the woman owners of a brewery, what is your take on all of this?

AN: It’s not even a poorly kept secret that women have endured sexual harassment in the world forever, and in beer especially. So I was personally pretty highly triggered by reading a lot of those accounts because I had had similar issues with some of the men that were called out. The worst offenders are brewers at festivals, because of all the alcohol consumption.

But what really got to me the most is that I had accepted that behavior as okay. And looking back, [we women] shouldn’t have; it was almost like we were groomed to accept it. Yeah, I’m afraid that’s how it’s been. I knew from my early days as a baby brewer in this industry that I would not want to be tagged as the girl who cried sexual harassment, because that’s not how you advance in your career. I had a target to advance in my career as far as I could go, and just had to put up with it, as shitty as that is.

BP: Can you talk about any harassment or inexcusable behavior you have personally experienced?

AN: I had a female brewmaster boss very early on in my career who made it very difficult for me, and I left because of her behavior. It wasn’t sexual, but it was just unfair behavior towards me, because I’m a woman — which I did not expect from a woman. I was not going to stay when she obviously wasn’t willing to take me seriously and allow me to advance. So I left and found a new job.

BP: Where did you go?

AN: I went to Drake’s [Brewing in San Leandro, CA], and it was amazing. I never dealt with that behavior from my co-workers there, and I was the only woman who had worked there in many years. I was very fortunate that they took care of me and taught me that I was an equal. So I think I’ve just been really fortunate with where I worked. I haven’t had any issues. It’s when you get out in the wild…

BP: And to close, has there ever been any issues at Three Weavers?

AN: As far as I know, nothing’s been brought to our attention. Lynne and myself have always been really accessible and communicative in terms of managers, and we’re friends with our staff. The Three Weavers team is our family, and we communicate like family members do. Our staff is diverse, racial- and gender-wise. We believe in advancement for all people, regardless. And if you bring something of value to the table and to our team, we want you to succeed, and try to help you get there.

I feel fortunate that we’ve been able to create a nice little bubble here at Three Weavers, which has been a very inclusive and safe space for all of its employees. And that we’ve been able to shield our employees from experiencing anything like that here on our turf. In Los Angeles, we’re very lucky to have such a diverse craft brewing industry, and brewing industry in general in Southern California. Other states, other parts of the country, not so much…

Tomm Carroll is a Los Angeles-based beer writer / judge / educator / historian / collector / traveler / drinker (not always in that order). He can be reached at beerscribe@earthlink.net.