Page 27 - Demo

22Bill Owens had the idea for a micro-brewery in 1981, spent over a year researching, testing recipes, and writing How to Build a Small Brewery, when three opportunities came along to change his plans. The first event was when Bert Grant, a brewing industry veteran, incorporated the Yakima Brewing and Malting Company Yakima, Washington in December, 1981.72 When it opened early 1982, Yakima Brewing was the first brewpub in the United States since Prohibition by serving beer in a brewery-owned pub next to the brewery. As Dick Cantwell says, %u201cThe brewpub is a modern business model for an ancient practical concept: serving and selling beer on the premises where it is brewed.%u201d73 At the time the three-tier system was still firmly in place, so producers such as a brewery could not legally sell their product directly to consumers. Grant did not care, nor was he bothered by the Department of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms. Bill Owens dismissed Grant%u2019s claim to being the first brewpub because Grant kegged the beer and rolled it into the adjoining bar, effectively self-distributing the beer to himself.74But, now that there was one brewpub in the country, there would be more.The second event that shifted Owens%u2019 focus was a presentation about brewpubs by David Bruce, owner of the Firkin chain of brewpubs in the United Kingdom, at the Association of Brewers Conference in June, 1982. Charlie Papazian remembers that Bill %u201cthought that was a great idea.%u201d75 Bruce purchased flagging pubs and added small, primitive brewing equipment, creating the first modern brewpub chain. The big draw for customers was seeing, smelling, and hearing the beer being made.76 The brewpub concept fulfilled Owens%u2019 desire for fresh beer.The third event was an ongoing debate about legalizing brewpubs in California. Assemblyman Tom Bates who had authored the homebrewing law was interested in promoting the growing micro-brewery industry, especially for his constituents in Alameda County, as there were numerous micro-breweries in the area. Bates had served in the Army in Germany in the