{"id":23915,"date":"2020-07-06T10:19:30","date_gmt":"2020-07-06T17:19:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/?p=23915"},"modified":"2020-07-06T10:22:21","modified_gmt":"2020-07-06T17:22:21","slug":"harnessing-creativity-during-trying-times-at-citizen-brewers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/2020\/07\/06\/harnessing-creativity-during-trying-times-at-citizen-brewers\/","title":{"rendered":"Harnessing creativity during trying times at Citizen Brewers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Citizen Brewers, a \u201cbrew-on-premises\u201d business in Grantville, used to rely on groups like friends and co-workers brewing and bottling custom fifty-liter beer batches to pay the bills. When it comes to brewery operations, owner Judd McGhee is a one-man show, other than the occasional helping hand. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

By the middle of June, McGhee had started to get a feel for his new operating procedures — including \u201cCOVID cleaning\u201d after small-group brews — that added an extra hour to each day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When reached on June 26, McGhee was keeping his fingers crossed that he wouldn\u2019t have to close again. But three days later the reinstatement of California\u2019s stage 2 restrictions, which required a meal with each alcohol transaction, threw another wrench in the gears.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf I have six guys in to brew a beer, why would I bring in a food truck for just six plates?\u201d McGhee asked rhetorically. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t make sense for me or for them.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, McGhee will likely have no choice but to go back to brewing by himself because of further restrictions, so he\u2019ll pivot to selling bottles to-go.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like many brewery owners in this climate, he vacillates between hopefulness and helplessness. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis situation presented me with opportunities I hadn\u2019t capitalized on before, like working with the ABC (Alcoholic Beverage Control) to sell bottles to-go,\u201d he said at one point, but later admitted, \u201cIt\u2019s hard to wake up every day and champion it when all these walls get put up. And the margins are so thin anyways; I\u2019m just trying to get through this and keep the door open.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
McGhee shows off a new hazy IPA that will soon be bottled<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

McGhee says that he\u2019s lucky that he can diversify his already unique model enough to keep the lights on, mentioning a series of collaborations in the works with previous neighbor Kensington Brewing, who moved to Adams Avenue. McGhee bought two of their small stainless fermenters, and because Kensington now has a food license, they can put on Citizen Brewers beers as guest taps. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ultimately, McGhee is optimistic about what will come from all this. \u201cPeople are so tenacious, and radical<\/em>,\u201d he opined. \u201cThey\u2019ll end up doing amazing things.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Citizen Brewers, a \u201cbrew-on-premises\u201d business in Grantville, used to rely on groups like friends and co-workers brewing and bottling custom fifty-liter beer batches to pay the bills. When it comes to brewery operations, owner Judd McGhee is a one-man show, other than the occasional helping hand.  By the middle of June, McGhee had started to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":23918,"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-23915","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\/2020\/07\/JUDD_WEB-copy-scaled.jpg?fit=1024%2C683&ssl=1","wps_subtitle":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pdtr4y-6dJ","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23915","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\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23915"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23915\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23918"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23915"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23915"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23915"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}