{"id":22553,"date":"2019-07-17T08:00:44","date_gmt":"2019-07-17T15:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/?p=22553"},"modified":"2019-07-11T00:44:29","modified_gmt":"2019-07-11T07:44:29","slug":"making-history-with-stephanie-eppig","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/2019\/07\/17\/making-history-with-stephanie-eppig\/","title":{"rendered":"Making history with Stephanie Eppig"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

There\u2019s no escaping fate. Dr. Frederick Frankenstein (played by Gene Wilder) famously screamed about \u201cdestiny!\u201d in the 1974 comedic classic Young Frankenstein<\/em>, but when it comes to family legacies, Stephanie Eppig was as fated to open a brewery as Wilder\u2019s character was to reanimating dead tissue. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like Wilder\u2019s Frankenstein, Stephanie also brought something back to life\u2014her family\u2019s brewing legacy. She\u2019s the great granddaughter of Henry Joseph Eppig, who was part of the dynastic Brooklyn beer family in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. She wasn\u2019t raised in the beer industry; her mother worked as a Navy nurse in San Diego before the family relocated to Annapolis, Maryland for the rest of Stephanie\u2019s childhood. From there, Stephanie bounced around to New York City, back to San Diego, a (very) brief stint in New Zealand, and Los Angeles, before finally settling down in San Diego when Eppig Brewing became a reality. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Her road to opening Eppig in North Park in 2016 was filled with twists which, upon reflection, seem to be kismet. Stephanie laughs easily as she recounts the mix of major life choices and happenstance that led her to where she is today: co-founder of Eppig Brewing and head of marketing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After college and a few years of churning-and-burning in a high-stress consulting job, Stephanie quit the rat race with a plan to complete Ironman New Zealand and then hop around the South Island for a bit to recenter herself. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe get there, we\u2019re ready to race, and what they call a \u2018weather bomb\u2019 came in. It\u2019s basically a big cyclone, and the race got cancelled.\u201d She shakes her head and chuckles. \u201cI was like, now what am I going to do with my life?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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She cut her trip short and found herself back in the States, where she was \u201cjobless and homeless\u201d\u2014but a first date with Todd [Warsaw, now-husband and co-founder of Eppig] changed the course of her life once again. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It still took a few years for them to coordinate their lives and futures together. Stephanie ended up working for Toyota as part of their strategic insights group for their luxury Lexus brand, and surprised herself by loving it. (\u201cI didn\u2019t know I was a car girl!\u201d) She commuted between Los Angeles\u2014for work\u2014and San Diego\u2014for Todd\u2014until Toyota announced a company-wide relocation to Texas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She brought Todd to Texas to see if a move was in the cards. \u201cI always thought I was going to be a career-long Toyota girl,\u201d she says, but within 30 minutes she knew a relocation wasn\u2019t her destiny. Back in California, she described their \u201cwhat now?\u201d conversation over cocktails that would lay the foundation for Eppig Brewing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI asked Todd \u2018what do you want to do?\u201d Stephanie explained, because by then Todd was equally burnt out from his career. He turned to her and said \u201cI want to open a brewery.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Todd had no idea about Stephanie\u2019s family history in beer\u2014fate once more. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Brewery co-founder Leonhard Eppig pictured on a page from “One Hundred Years of Brewing: A Complete History of the Progress Made in the Art, Science and Industry of Brewing in the World, Particularly During the Last Century”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

By the next week<\/em>, Todd had brought Clayton LeBlanc, Eppig\u2019s future brewer and third co-founder, into the fold. By the next year, Eppig Brewing had opened its doors. Despite the whirlwind of opening a brewery, Stephanie held fast to one principle: if they were going to put the Eppig name on a brewery, the beer quality had to be something she could \u201cstand behind and be really proud of.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s indescribable,\u201d she replies when I ask her how it feels to resurrect her family legacy. She shows me some of her prized historical collection from the original Eppig breweries in New York: old bottles, original caps, beer ledgers, et cetera. It\u2019s allowed her to connect with family she didn\u2019t even know she had; relatives from all over have reached out with stories, antique photographs of the Eppig ancestors, letters, and a few even showing up at the brewery doorstep hoping for a tour. (So far, Stephanie has always obliged.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Family as much as fate has driven Eppig\u2019s vision as a brewery, as well as Stephanie\u2019s move from a traditional fast-paced career to the beer world. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen my mom was diagnosed with leukemia, that was the moment for me where [I realized] work doesn’t come first. Living your life and creating those moments comes first, being able to spend the time and cherish the time with your friends and your family.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With over a century of history behind the Eppig Brewing name to preserve, there\u2019s no chance Stephanie\u2019s slowing down. Eppig opened their Waterfront Biergarten in early 2018 and plans to be out of their original North Park location by September of this year. (\u201cJust in time for Oktoberfest!\u201d she hopes.) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Their forthcoming home base in Vista wasn\u2019t easy to find. After two years of searching, the Eppig team finally discovered the perfect place to move. (Dare I say it was\u2026 fate?) A 30-barrel system will triple their capacity on day one, and Stephanie gets visibly excited describing the authentic German touches they\u2019ll implement; she redesigned the original mezzanine tasting room concept in favor of a Bavarian-inspired beer hall with grand ceilings. That\u2019ll come later, but an outdoor space and preliminary tasting room will be ready for their autumn soft opening.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meantime, Stephanie plans to stay true to her roots while finding innovative ways to participate in the local beer scene.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFor me, one of the coolest things is to be able to tell and bring back the story of a brand that was lost,\u201d she says. She sips her beer and smiles. \u201cThat\u2019s my tribute and inspiration.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Know someone who deserves to be featured in an upcoming column? Nominate them by emailing <\/em>beth@bethdemmon.com<\/em><\/a>. <\/em>
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s no escaping fate. Dr. Frederick Frankenstein (played by Gene Wilder) famously screamed about \u201cdestiny!\u201d in the 1974 comedic classic Young Frankenstein, but when it comes to family legacies, Stephanie Eppig was as fated to open a brewery as Wilder\u2019s character was to reanimating dead tissue. Like Wilder\u2019s Frankenstein, Stephanie also brought something back to life\u2014her […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":22557,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-22553","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego-beer-beverage-news","8":"entry"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/W2X5428.jpg?fit=1024%2C683&ssl=1","wps_subtitle":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pdtr4y-5RL","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22553","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22553"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22553\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22557"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22553"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22553"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22553"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}