Background
The idea of BrewLAB started in 2012 by three home-brewing friends, Rob Peed, Peter Goldammer, and Steve Jarmie. The opportunity for the space soon came up and the trio began piecing together the brewery. Everything in the tasting room and the brewing system was designed and created by the three on a shoestring budget as they did not want to involve outside money. BrewLAB opened to the public on September 26th, 2014.
BrewLAB is located in a small industrial park on the west end of Carpinteria, next to a meadery. They pride themselves in using ingredients found locally and have begun growing multiple varieties of hops in the Santa Barbara area. Rob has since moved on and in 2016 Dave Mendoza joined Peter & Steve to advance BrewLAB. They recently raised $10,000 through an Indiegogo campaign, and are in talks with the Small Business Administration to acquire funds for a 10-barrel brew house.
Experience
We arrived on a Wednesday afternoon and found we were a bit too early to get into BrewLAB. We were so lucky to find The Apiary right next door was open for business. This is a great place to find a huge variety of Mead and we did have a great time there. We did make it to BrewLAB, ordered a flight and talked with Peter. We loved what the guys did with the tasting room. Lots of reclaimed wood , several tables and the bar was inside the cozy space. There is a s small patio out front. Pride of ownership is obvious. Ask and you might here some interesting stories about the journey and background of both the people involved and the physical space. The beer selections were diverse and excellent. We loved Nordic Sahti a unique light tart, herbal with spruce tips, Black Beauty a nice tart Berliner, the Season of the Brett, a clean funky Saison & True More a great floral pilsner. Peter gave us a tour of their brewing area. We can’t wait to see what these guys grow into. They have food trucks occasionally as well as live music.
Make sure to visit the Apiary next door too!
There is a Best Western Plus Carpinteria Inn about a half mile east. This is about half way between BrewLAB & Rincon Brewery.
