Half Moon Bay Brewing to Share the Wealth at Second Home

Capitalizing on the craft beer boon and finding a spot in need of such a place, California’s Half Moon Bay Brewing near San Francisco is expanding its reach with a second facility that will cater to consumers of many Pacific Coast brands.

The upcoming Pacific Standard bottle shop and taproom will not only help give a financial lift to the 16-year-old brewery, it will expand the name of Half Moon Bay and introduce it to consumers at the new Berkeley, California location.

“The bottled shop evolved when we realized that the area we are in didn’t have anything like that,” explained Half Moon Bay general manager Nate Rey. “With the licensing we have, we can do that. We are the only off-premise site for beer bottles and cans, growler, crowlers, and once we get up to capacity we would love to be able to sell kegs out of there as well.”

Half Moon Bay’s original location, located about 40 miles south in Half Moon Bay, California, expects to hit maximum capacity at 2,300 barrels on its two vessel, 15-bbl brewhouse this year.

An influx of cash from Pacific Standard will help with expansion needs in the future at the original brewpub, although Rey pointed out “it’s not about us,” making sure that no more than 50 percent of the 15-20 taps will ever be Half Moon Bay products and a majority of the bottled products will other California breweries at the new location.

“We are able to do it and we wanted to do it to be able to promote Pacific Coast breweries,” he said. “It will be connected to Half Moon Bay and yes, our beers will be featured, but we are going to have a ton of local breweries and unique and hard to get collection of bottled beers that showcases what the Pacific Coast has to offer.”

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Located across from Berkeley City College and only a few blocks from the University of California-Berkeley, Pacific Standard will be the only bottle shop in the area. A former wine room, Rey said not much had to be done to the building because it was designed more like taproom than a wine room.

“It was a perfect fit for us,” he said, noting that about 10 areas were scouted and five of those his team really looked into before settling on the final location. The process took more than a year and hopes is the new facility will be open by the middle of this summer.

“Every time we thought we had a lease, something would fall through until this opportunity presented itself,” Rey said. “It’s a great location and ready to go.”

The Berkeley area became a key target in the last two years as Half Moon Bay has seen a large growth in sales in the region. Rey ties that to the addition of head brewer James Costa.

“He has gotten out beer to the level that justifies getting our beer to the market. Before he came in, we weren’t really making a lot of beer,” Rey said. “But in the past two years we have seen a lot of growth and specifically in the East Bay region over the last 6-12 months.”

Rey said plans include involving other local bars, restaurants and retail locations, some that already have Half Moon Bay’s beer on tap.

“We want to partner with them and have them not see us as a competitor,” Rey explained. “We want them to grow with us and help each other out.”

Once such way, he said, is that Pacific Standard will offer discounts to patrons who present a recent receipt from a restaurant next door that shows the patron had a Half Moon Bay beer at their last stop.

“We have a lot of ideas that we want to roll out,” Rey said.

Federico Godinez, the executive chef at Half Moon Bay, also will serve in this capacity at Pacific Standard. Under his guidance, the menu at the Half Moon Bay evolved to one that fuses California Coastal cuisine with elements from all over the culinary map. At Pacific Standard, Chef Godinez has crafted a small, eclectic menu featuring locally sourced meats, cheeses and produce to complement the taproom’s local beer, wine and cider.

To develop the concept for Pacific Standard, Rey enlisted the expertise of Joel DiGiorgio, a Berkeley-based food and beverage consultant with Farm League Design & Management Group, and promoted Half Moon Bay manager Kyle McCarthy to director of development. Costa has also been working his connections to secure top accounts with rare and unique bottles.

“We want to have that local feel. You can come in a live and breathe the story and that’s going to help us in that area,” Rey said.

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