KERN RIVER GOLD RUSH AT GABF 2019

As Olympic athletes, Rebecca and Eric Giddens are used to winning medals.

Their Kern River Brewing Company (KRBC), just went off at last month’s Great American Beer Festival, taking home two Golds, two Silvers, and being named Best Brewery Group in the United States.

They met in Wisconsin at a kayaking camp. Rebecca was 12 and Eric was 16. They would see each other off and on throughout the years at kayak competitions. Rebecca made the U.S. Junior Team about the time Eric was transitioning from the Junior team to the U.S. Men’s Team. They toured the world together racing and supporting one another (Men and Women do not compete in the same events in Whitewater Kayaking). Eric was on the U.S. team for over a decade and managed to win one World Cup race and make the 1996 Olympic Team in Atlanta, his home town. He is the canoe/kayak TV analyst for NBC on their summer Olympics coverage.

Rebecca in Eric’s impressive shadow? Ms. Giddens, a native of Green Bay (appropriately Titletown, USA) has hauled in an incredible eight World Cup and World Championship medals, made the 2000 and 2004 Olympic teams, and brought home a Silver Medal in the 2004 Olympics in Athens, Greece.
In the wake of being named Best Brewery Group, I asked the two to tell their story to BEER PAPER.

DRENNON: The leap from Olympic athletes to brewery owners is a fascinating one. How did you decide to open a brewery and why Kernville of all places?

ERIC: We were living in San Diego while I was getting my Ph.D. at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and Rebecca was training for the 2004 Olympics. We spent a lot of time on the Kern River, which is the nearest whitewater river to San Diego, and fell in love with the area. We tossed around the idea of opening a business in Kernville and a brewery made the most sense. Craft beer was beginning to make a resurgence in the early 2000’s and San Diego was on the forefront of that movement. It seemed like a great fit for Kernville which needed a place for people
to congregate after their outdoor adventures.

After Rebecca won a Silver medal in Athens and I finished my Ph.D., we started looking towards our next phase in life. Kernville seemed like a great place to move to and we decided to give the brewery a try. We figured if we failed, we would fail quickly and we could always plug back into “normal” life. We ended up partnering with Kyle Smith, who has since moved on to start his own brewery. Kyle was a homebrewer and a firefighter in the U.S. Forest Service and the three of us went all in on trying to make KRBC a success.

DRENNON: What year was that and how would you describe the California beer scene at that time?

ERIC: We started the business in 2005, bought the property and began converting an old building into a brewery. It had been, in order, an after-school club for kids (called
the Just for Fun Club), two different Mexican restaurants, a fruit stand and an antique shop. Needless to say, it needed a lot of work before we could open.

REBECCA: We rebuilt the original building with the help of friends and family. In May of 2006 just before opening we threw a party for all of the volunteers and we had 80 people from our community, all of whom had a large hand in helping us build KRBC, join us for a soft opening on the house. If you ever catch an event at KRBC filled with locals you can see why we made this our home…amazing people!

ERIC: The craft beer scene in San Diego was developing; the craft beer scene in Kernville was non-existent. It’s funny, we talked with a lot of breweries down in San Diego in the year or so leading up to our decision to start the brewery. They all said that the brewpub model was the way to go; there was no money in a production brewery. Now we go down there and some of those same folks have huge, sparkling facilities. Of course, we know they were being straight with us at the time, but things sure changed in a hurry in Southern California. In the end, we think the brewpub model was appropriate for Kernville. It gave us a chance to get people in for some food and introduce them to craft beer. Soon we had all the locals drinking IPA and the rest is history.

REBECCA: It was a pretty proud day when we were able to pull Bud Light from the tap lineup!

DRENNON: What were your initial short-term and long-term goals for KRBC?

REBECCA: Traveling through Colorado and California we noticed that most outdoor mountain towns had successful brew pubs that acted as a gathering place for customers to share their adventures. Our goal was to create this environment for Kernville. We’re so proud to walk into KRBC today and see our customers sharing time with their family and friends, coming in after climbing, biking, kayaking, fishing, camping, hiking, rafting – it feels like a wonderful extended family.

DRENNON: As the West Coast IPA craze was ascending into a near-obsession in California, KRBC began showing up on everyone’s radar with two phenomenal beers – Just Outstanding and Citra double IPA.

ERIC: Just Outstanding, which we named after a local mountain bike trail, was one of Kyle’s homebrew recipes. That was the garage beer that really made us think we could pull the whole thing off; delicious and very innovative for the time. It was a true joy to watch as we were able to move people on from our gateway blonde and red beers and create a town full of hop-heads. There is even a rumor that one Daniel Drennon happened to list this beer among his favorites (Note: The reference is that this author listed Just Outstanding as one of “The Five Best IPAs in the World” for an LA Weekly article in 2011). Citra Double IPA, which in retrospect was a pretty uninspired name, came about as we played with this relatively new hop back in 2010. Right out of the gate, we recognized that it was a special hop and a special beer. People began to take notice and soon it caught fire on the beer forums and started pulling in some accolades around the beer world.

DRENNON: Citra took home some medals that escalated fans desire for the beer to near-Pliny-like status with folks driving to Kernville and camping out in your parking lot for the bi-annual release: summer when it was 100 degrees and winter when it was ten degrees! What the Hell did you think about that?

ERIC: Our first inkling that things were about to get weird was when Citra beat out Pliny the Younger for the People’s Choice award at the Bistro Double IPA festival, an honor that it had held for many years. Citra then went on a four-year streak of its own. After that, Citra delivered us our first medal, a Gold at GABF, and the hype train was in full motion. Obviously, we were over the moon that people were stoked on our beer. It helped put us on the beer map, but in some ways, it was a double-edged sword.We started releasing it in 22 oz bottles and draft at the brewery only. We were still operating off of a 7 bbl brewing system then and it seemed like a great way to use our limited quantity of this beer to get people to come experience our brewpub. It was pretty cool at first when we pulled up to work before the first beer release and there was already a line; evidently some had camped out the night before. That soon turned into panic as the number of people in line continued to grow and a quick count indicated that we would not have enough bottles of Citra Double IPA to go around. It is still one of the harder things we ever had to do when we walked through the line and explained to folks who had driven hours to get to Kernville that they would not be bringing bottles of Citra home.

DRENNON: What year was the Citra GABF Gold medal and what years did it win at the Bistro IPA Fest?

ERIC: GABF Gold was 2011 and Bistro People’s Choice was 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014.

DRENNON: That’s quite a gap between those medals and your incredible achievement this year. Winning medals isn’t the end all, be all, but once you’ve done it, and especially as world class competitive athletes, I would imagine it becomes a goal that becomes increasingly difficult with
the explosion of breweries in California and the country. Was there a strategy to get back to winning medals?

ERIC: There were likely a few factors that contributed to our absence from the GABF stage for so long. First and foremost, our philosophy was to make beer that we liked, not necessarily brewing to style. We would simply go through the beers we had available and send in the ones we thought were good into the competition, even if they did not fit the category guidelines. Apparently waiting for the judges to come around to our views was not a particularly good strategy.You are right in that we have some competitiveness in our DNA. Somewhere around 2017 we decided that we were not going to make progress on winning beer medals unless we changed our approach. We now had our 20 bbl production system where we could brew our flagship hoppy beers, allowing us to turn the 7 bbl system into more of a playground for experimentation. Before that, it was common for Just Outstanding to occupy 3 of our 5 fermenters. We went from sometimes 6 or 8 beers on tap before we opened our production facility to as many as 20 now. We began to focus on having a variety of beers available to pub customers and went through each recipe, making changes as we went. Just Outstanding was pretty much the only beer off limits. The result is that we started winning medals again at various competitions. Highlights include winning a Silver for Brown Claw
at GABF in 2018 and doubling up at the Bistro DIPA/TIPA festival in 2019; a Gold for Double Chuuurch in the DIPA category and a Bronze for Y.U.B. Trippin’ in the TIPA Category. You are correct in your statement that winning medals is not the end all,
be all, but it felt good to get rolling again; mainly for our brew team that had yet to experience much success in competition.

DRENNON: What does being named GABF 2019 Brewery Group of the Year mean to you?

ERIC: To be named one of the top breweries out of the almost 2300 breweries that competed in GABF is pretty astounding to us. We always knew we had a special place, but to be recognized in this way helped validate our beliefs and reassure us that we were not delusional. The locals and staff have been so proud of these awards, and they should be; they all helped make it possible.
In general, the quality of beers across the country has improved dramatically since we opened in 2006. It is humbling to look across the auditorium at the number of people who devote their lives to making quality beer. To get any sort of recognition at GABF is a dream come true for most brewers. To win a brewery of the year award is next level and something we are still trying to process.

REBECCA: We’re well aware this will probably never happen again, so we might as well live it up and enjoy the moment!

DRENNON: GABF features Gold, Silver and Bronze medals being announced in 107 style categories. KRBC took home Gold in Session IPA for your Gravity Check, followed by Silver in Double Hoppy Red Ale for Side Hike, then Gold in Belgian-Style Blonde or Pale Ale for Nenette, and finally another Silver in Brown Porter for Brown Claw. Tell us
your emotions as you heard them announced as medal winners.

ERIC: One interesting fact is that
all four of these beers either did not exist or had different recipes than the previous year. Even Brown Claw, which won a Silver in 2018, had a different malt bill and hop bill. With that said, these four beers were, in our view, the best of the 10 we submitted for competition. We chose these, along with Double Chuuurch and Pumps Bumps ‘N Rollers Kolsch, to pour at the festival in the hopes that one of them might just bring in a medal. We would never have expected what ended up happening in that auditorium in Denver.

Gravity Check was our first beer to come up for an award in category 17, Session IPA. The original Gravity Check recipe, admittedly one of our favorite beers, was pretty much a S.M.A.S.H. beer with Pilsner Malt and Mosaic. We completely changed this beer around for the competition with both the malt and hop bill and knew instantly we had hit it right on. Right out of the tank, I loved this beer. I told the crew that “if there is a better Session IPA out there, I want it because it will be my new favorite beer”. We had spent the afternoon previous to the award ceremony at Cannonball Creek Brewing in Golden and had the pleasure of drinking “Trump Hands,” their award-winning Session IPA. When they announced that beer for Silver, I got slightly depressed, knowing there was only one more slot available on the board. When Chris said “And the Gold Medal goes to Grav…” I shot up out of my seat and let out an inappropriately loud “woo hoo!”. Luckily, he finished the sentence with “…ity Check, Kern River Brewing Company” otherwise it would have been rather embarrassing. We celebrated up on stage and I told the rest of the crew “That was awesome, we got our medal. We can go home now”.
After that we had a couple of categories roll by without a hit. Then it started to get surreal. We got a Silver for Side Hike Double Hoppy Red, Category 69. A beer we designed specifically for the comp and was a collaborative effort with the whole brew team. Holy Crap, a Gold and a Silver in the Same GABF. We had just doubled our historical total. Another fist bump with Charlie (Papazian). Best Day Ever!
We celebrated on the way back to our seats with the folks from Beachwood and Green Cheek. I flashed Evan Price the Green Cheek t-shirt that I was wearing under my KRBC flannel to raucous applause. We barely got seated again when Category 86, Belgian Blonde came up. We knew we had a good beer entered, but it seemed silly to be hoping for any more medals. Bronze, no luck. Silver, nope, oh well… Gold to Nenette. What? Kern River doesn’t even make Belgian Style beers. This one blew our minds. Our first GABF Gold medal for a non-hoppy beer. We were waiting in line to receive the medal for Nenette and I started doing the math. I was pretty sure we were going to get a Brewery of the Year award. Normally they present this when you pick up your last medal for the ceremony, so I was kind of expecting them to announce it prior to us taking the stage. When they didn’t announce anything, I said to myself, “Holy Crap. We are getting another medal, and I’m pretty sure it’s for Brown Claw”. I didn’t mention anything to anybody else; it just seemed too ridiculous to even say out loud.
Category 97, Brown Porter, rolled around and, sure enough, Brown Claw was announced for Silver. Shortly after we got in line, they paused the medal announcements to announce Brewery Group and Brewer of the year. It was pretty special to have Brandon Berube, our new head brewer, and Emily Kirkpatrick, a brewer who started off with us as a dishwasher when she was a teenager, there with us. It was their first GABF and it turned out to be a pretty memorable one. We were bummed to not have the rest of the brew team there, especially Andrew Karle, our other brewer, but we were pretty sure the whole team was celebrating back in Kernville.

I think we are most proud of the fact that we won medals in a wide variety of styles; from hoppy to malty to a fermentation-driven Belgian-style. To be recognized across this broad spectrum of beers does not happen by accident and we hope it reflects the care and attention we put into all of our beers.

REBECCA: Eric’s worked so hard on the Gravity Check recipe. He’s been obsessing over it for a couple of years now. This last batch, he finally felt like we nailed it – he was so proud to enter it into the GABF. By the time they named the Bronze and Silver, my hopes were down for this beer so when they called our name a completely uncontrolled yelp came out of me. We truly could have walked away with just the one medal and been very happy campers. When Side Hike came up for silver, I was super proud of our team. Brandon Berube had recently joined us as our new Head Brewer and this was a recipe that we did not have set for the competition. He and Eric were able to collaborate on this beer, make some major changes from our last hoppy red and the result was a delicious hoppy red – glad the judges noticed too! Nenette is a beer we have to keep on tap. Our customers adore this beer and it gives us variety (important to mix it up since we’re known as being an IPA-centric brewery). We’re always striving to dial in this recipe so that the one consistent Belgian beer we brew is top notch. The feedback from our customers is the reason we entered this beer into GABF, so a big shout to our Nenette drinkers for keeping us inspired to do our best. At GABF we were pouring at a
“Meet the Brewers” booth and I had volunteered to go back and pour before the ceremony ended. We didn’t have volunteers so I knew that I had to be back in time. Ten minutes to pour time I looked at Eric and said “I can’t leave yet. I need to stay for Brown Claw. I promise I’ll run to our booth right after they call the brown porter category.” I was hoping Brown Claw would win a medal and was so stoked when they called our name. I had not been counting others medals nor did I realize there was still a group category to win so I had no idea that we were also going to receive the Brewery Group of the Year award. I honestly felt like I was having the best dream ever when they called it and tried to wake myself up to be sure it was real. Never did I imagine that we’d be “one of those breweries” we’ve watched year after year popping back up on stage. We’ve worked really hard to do our best. Each one of the beers that medaled made it to where it was because of our whole team. Recipes were made but that’s not why we won medals. We won because our whole crew participated, worked hard and worked together. We trained and trusted our brewers to do their best and that’s what they did; Emily, Andrew and Brandon you rocked it. And then of course we’re well aware that it doesn’t stop there – Tami, Brian, Truelove, Valdez you help baby the beer every step of the way! Chelsea, Melissa, Kelly and Megan you keep us all in line! Jacob, your chef skills and leadership keep our customers coming back for more! Finally, the drive and vibe that our whole staff generates keeps us striving for the best! If you can’t tell, I’m blown away by the crew we work with and both Eric and I truly count our lucky stars every day! I’m so proud KRBC could take the Brewery Group of the Year Award back to such a deserving crew made up of amazing individuals!

DRENNON: Tell us about The Backyard expansion. Why and when did you do it?
We started thinking about expanding around 2013. There was quite a demand for our beer and we were working hard to keep the taps supplied at the pub and sending out limited amounts of beer to Southern California. We were routinely turning down requests for beer and that
was probably the main motivator to expand; to get more Kern River beer out in the market and raise awareness of our little mountain town. Somehow, we forgot the pains of building the first brewery and the fact that we swore never to do that again. After a year or so of planning and 2 years of construction we finished the brewery, literally in the backyard of the old brewery. This, incidentally, is why we were awarded “Brewery Group” of the year. We technically have two brewing locations and two licenses, even though they are only steps apart. We are quite possibly the smallest brewery group out there.

DRENNON: Does KRBC have a brewing philosophy?

ERIC: Besides being obsessed with quality, we really try to focus on drinkability. Making beers that are balanced and well-crafted so that people can simply enjoy drinking a glass. It sounds silly, but in an age where many beers are designed to
be aggressive or ground breaking, sometimes it is nice to have the person across the table, not the beer, be the focus of your attention.

DRENNON: How has your background as world-class competitive athletes influenced the way in which you run a brewery?

REBECCA: If there is one thing that Eric and I have learned from 15 years plus of racing at an Olympic level, it’s that setting goals and rigorous training sets one up for success. In 2017 we had a goal to brew to style, enter beers in competitions and use the judges notes as well as listen to constructive criticism to make quality changes to our recipes. Eric has a background in science so we also spent a lot of time and money on our quality control program. While brewing is of course an art, the science goes hand in hand if you’re striving for award winning beers. While whitewater slalom kayaking in an individual sport one of the most important things that we learned as athletes was that it takes the whole team working hard and treating each other with respect to come out on top. Over the past few years our number one mission, over winning medals, was to have a true team. We knew that with good people on our side that cared about each other and our business that we had the best chance at success. We would never be where we are today without our amazing staff and we couldn’t be prouder. On stage at GABF, Eric and I discussed that this couldn’t have happened to
a better KRBC team. We have the most selfless, caring and hardworking individuals that we’ve ever had the pleasure to work with. We wished that we could have had our whole staff on stage with us – we couldn’t wait to get home to celebrate with everyone!

DRENNON: What have been your most important lessons learned over your first 13 years?

ERIC: Perhaps the biggest lesson
is perseverance. We have had success over the years, but it has not been without some pretty daunting obstacles. Building something from the ground up has been a learning process and we often got it wrong before we got it right. At the end of the day, regardless of whether you moved forwards or backwards, you have to show up the next day and try to improve. Another thing that is important is to try to always do things the right way. If you have good intentions, you won’t second guess yourself if things go awry.

DRENNON: How do you feel about experimentation in new styles or doing twists on existing styles?

REBECCA: I am always pushing to try something new and different. Eric enjoys the challenge and research. Now we also have Brandon who’s excited to create and collaborate!

ERIC: If you are not evolving, you are getting stagnant. That does not mean that you have to chase every trend (I’m looking at you, Milkshake IPA, which I know Rebecca will make us brew), but learning something new is always a fun challenge. It’s also important for us to have a variety of things on tap at the pub so that anyone can find something they like. For example, we make a Hard Seltzer for the pub. Not because we want to get rich quick, but because we would rather make our gluten free option for customers than buy it from someone else. Who would have thought that fermenting simple sugar could be so interesting.

DRENNON: Do you plan to do any collaborations and, if so, why do you like collaborating?

ERIC: We have our “Hops for Homies” program that focuses on collaborating with other breweries. We love it; we get to invite brewers to Kernville and get out on the river or a trail and show-off the Kern River Valley. We also get to exchange ideas and just talk beer. We also enjoy going to other breweries to see how they do things. Invariably we come back with new ideas and new motivations.

DRENNON: Between talent and work ethic, which is more important?

REBECCA: Talent is important, however, we quickly learned that for us (and our goal of working as a team) work ethic beats out talent any day. Usually with a good work ethic one understands the need to learn each day, work for the good of the company and of course be a good team member.

DRENNON: If you each had to describe yourself in one word or phrase, what would it be?

REBECCA: (smiling) Determined.

ERIC: Lucky A.F.