SoCal Cerveceros: Five Years in the Making (originally published in Zymurgy Vol 43- Nov/Dec 2020)

In 2015, two homebrewers met over a Facebook post and began to discuss starting a homebrew club. At that time, not a single Latino-focused homebrew club was to be found in Los Angeles County. In fact, no such club existed in all of Southern California. Further research suggested no such clubs anywhere in the United States.

On a cool Friday night that April, seven of us gathered for our inaugural garage meeting in the Southern California suburb of Hacienda Heights. With that casual meetup, the country’s first, and now largest, Latino homebrew club was born. Five years later, the SoCal Cerveceros (SCC) boast a membership of more than 200.

Our club has grown to include a multifaceted network of members, from one-gallon first timers to multiple-award winners, seasoned commercial head brewers, startup brewery owners, gypsy brewers, and homebrew supply shop owners. As cofounder and president of the SoCal Cerveceros homebrew club, I’ve been privileged to have a front-row seat to this amazing experience, one filled with rewarding human interactions and connections.

I’ve been there since the club’s inception and have participated in every moment worth celebrating. I’ve witnessed strangers become fast friends over discussions about yeast cultures. I’ve seen brewers create partnerships and launch businesses together. I’ve heard stories of people feeling like they’ve found a new family, a proverbial place to call home. Many times, I’ve heard, “I’m glad there’s a club with so many brown faces.” Some have told me this group has helped them get through hard times. But the greatest thing I’ve heard over the years is “Thank you for inviting me to join the club.”

Growth, Diversity, and Cerveceras

We SoCal Cerveceros often find ourselves at the forefront of conversations about diversity and inclusion in the beer world. Some may look to us as a de facto authority on the subject, given our group’s size and composition. We’re happy to wave that flag and represent a demographic that often goes underrepresented, but we weren’t always so diverse. We had to actively pursue diversity and work from the inside out to create an inclusive club that reaches beyond ethnicity and gender.

Membership growth in the early days was painstakingly slow. The first year we grew by just two, from seven dudes to nine! We knew it was going to take some work to find new recruits and that it would be an even greater task to recruit women. Homebrewer demographics mirrored those of the larger beer industry, and we felt it. We believed in creating and fostering an environment where women felt welcomed, respected, and accepted as brewers and beer connoisseurs alike, but we had to work hard to figure out how to achieve that.

I vividly remember one meeting with about ten attendees, all men. Two women showed up looking confused and asked if they were in the right place. They were. They took one look around, walked out, and never came back. I couldn’t blame them. What women would want to hang out with a group of random dudes they’d never met and drink homebrew? It was a tough sell.

After two years of meetings, Zaneta Santana, our first woman, joined SCC. She brought along her brew crew, a trio who called themselves the South Central Brewing Company. It was apparent that Zaneta felt comfortable in our group, in part because she arrived with familiar faces. We took note of this and soon started offering a membership option for couples. This really helped our numbers, as many couples attended meetings together.

Before we knew it, the SoCal Cerveceros had an influx of women, which made for diverse meetings where new recruits weren’t intimidated by an overwhelming presence of men. We could finally convey our idea of a non-homogeneous group that was open to all. It’s really great to witness women who initially attend with their partners as curious visitors becoming bona fide brewers themselves. We have a great conversion rate, and today, we’re proud to say women make up at least 35 percent of our membership.

Enter the SoCal Cerveceras

The Cerveceras are the ones who deserve a great deal of credit for taking our club from a Latino-based group to a multicultural, multiethnic bunch of women and men. The Cerveceras formed organically as a natural progression of friends hanging out and brewing together. These brewers took it upon themselves to organize brew days and bottle shares and recruit other women to join the SoCal Cerveceros. It’s been amazing to see this new group take shape and take off.

Many of the Cerveceras are award-winning brewers, Certified Cicerones, and podcast hosts. Several hold positions in commercial breweries. Cervecera Araceli Cardenas and her husband own Monrovia Homebrew Supply and Pacific Plate Brewing Company. She has been a huge asset to our club, its growth, and our efforts to foster an environment where everyone can feel comfortable learning.

The Cerveceras create fun ways to both promote SCC and showcase women in the club. They recently collaborated with the Pink Boots Society, Inland Empire Brew Witches, and Feathered Serpent Brewing Company on a commercially released beer called Keep Ya’ Hops Up. This was a great way for many of the Cerveceras to experience firsthand what it’s like to scale up a homebrew recipe and brew on a commercial system.

Coldxela and Giving Back

Homebrewers have an innate desire to share what they’ve crafted, and this desire becomes amplified when you start a homebrew club. So, it was only natural SCC would want to create an event where we could share with our friends. In 2016, we held our inaugural backyard tasting fundraiser. We were only a club of nine brewers at the time, and we poured seven different beers. About 100 guests attended, and we raised a few hundred bucks between two charities. We learned a valuable lesson that night, though: never run out of beer!

The following year, we held our second tasting and stepped up production. This time, we created booths with pop-up canopies and doubled the number of brewers who poured. We raised money for another local nonprofit and again learned a valuable lesson: when holding an evening event outdoors, make sure your space has lighting.

Our events didn’t have official names and weren’t big-ticket productions, but they were clearly unique. We wanted to continue creating, so in 2018, we partnered with the Gumball Foundation, a local nonprofit that teaches kids how to start, run, and finance micro-ventures. Together, we launched the largest Latino homebrew festival in the country, Coldxela. Pronounced “cold chela,” the name literally means “cold beer,” as the word xela is Spanish slang for beer.

Coldxela saw immediate success and was well received by craft beer fans, homebrewers, and the wider local Latino community. Coldxela featured 20 SCC brewers, a live music stage, and food vendors. We knew we had a clever name, plenty of homebrew, and a fun program of music. What we didn’t anticipate was all the media coverage and the overwhelming positive response across social media.

Our online presale sold out shortly after it went live. Two hours before the doors opened, we had a line of hopeful ticket buyers that ran down the block. Our little festival quickly reached its capacity of 400 guests. It was a great experience for all involved, and we raised $7,000 for the Gumball Foundation. Yet again, we learned a valuable lesson: always provide more porta-potties than you think you need!

Coldxela proved what we already knew: people of color in Los Angeles love craft beer! So, in 2019, we went big and scaled Coldxela to more than three times as large as the previous year. With 52 homebrewers pouring their best suds, the festival drew a sold-out attendance of 1,500 guests. The support was overwhelmingly positive and was really a beautiful sight to see.

Coldxela has become a valuable platform for us to promote homebrewing while also supporting important charitable work. It lets us showcase the talents of our members, support small and independent businesses, and give exposure to the great talent we book. In two short years, this one festival has transformed our little club into the force behind a highly anticipated annual destination.

Unfortunately, planning for Coldxela 2020 got underway just as the COVID-19 pandemic started to affect the United States. Attendance this year was projected to draw more than 3,000 attendees, with an estimated brewer count of more than 65. We have definitely found a way to quench our desire to share our craft, and we can’t wait to get back to that in 2021!

California Homebrew Club of the Year and Homebrew to Pro Brew

SCC has taken on a life of its own, and any praise and accolades we receive are credits to the dedicated homebrewers who make SCC what it is. In 2018, we were pleasantly surprised when Anchor Brewing Company named us California Homebrew Club of the Year. It’s an accolade we were grateful to receive and one we remain proud of, a reminder that we’re on the right path as a homebrew club.

Plus, we’re a bunch of beer nerds! To be singled out by a respected brewery like Anchor was huge for us. The fun part was holding an internal club beer competition and selecting three homebrews to send to Anchor for a chance to be brewed commercially. The winner was a hibiscus saison called Ruby Sun Saison .

When you experience a SoCal Cerveceros meeting or event, you can see and feel its entrepreneurial spirit. Many homebrewers dream of one day opening a brewery or holding a position in the beer industry, and members of SCC are really doing it. Through our club affiliation, members have landed positions throughout the beer industry. We’ve become something of a springboard for helping make the jump from homebrew hobbyist to industry professional.

Last year, SCC members launched two new commercial breweries and a contract brewing company, with a third brewery having opened this past spring. Many of our members now employ each other, creating opportunities where there weren’t any. Some of our members run successful craft beer lifestyle brands and e-commerce stores that sell homebrew-themed merchandise. And several more operations are currently in planning!

At our core we are a true homebrew club. Our mission is to become better brewers and deepen our understanding of zymology. We continue to grow with that goal in place. The camaraderie and support you see in SCC is everything a brewer wants in a club. It really does feel like a family.

In this, our fifth year, we were supposed to celebrate in grand fashion, with all the bells, whistles, and delicious suds you might expect. However, 2020 had other plans. Still, I raise a glass of homebrew to say cheers! Happy fifth anniversary, SoCal Cerveceros!

Ray Ricky Rivera is cofounder and current president of the SoCal Cerveceros homebrew club. He hosts the weekly online radio show Beers Bands Business and writes a homebrew column for Boulder Weekly. His recently launched gypsy brewing company, Norwalk Brew House, has begun releasing delicious collaborations. Follow @norwalkbrewhouse on Instagram.