Background
Eric Kirchner and Jennifer Harris opened Kulturhaus in the summer of 2021 in Pismo Beach. Kulturhaus is a 5 barrel brewhouse that specializes in small batch varietal beers as well as sausage plates, house fermented pickles, sauerkraut and vegetables.
The meaning of Kulturhaus in German is used to describe a “society house” or cultural center. Jen and Eric loved the phonetic connection to “cultured” foods/drinks since all cultures have practiced fermentation in some way.
Eric has a background of home brewing and bar management. Eric began managing the front of the house for Russian River. He ended up brewing for 10 years at Russian River’s downtown pub. In 2017, Eric was contracted to create the initial 6 recipes for a start up brewery called Pretoria Fields in Albany Georgia.
Jen and Eric met while Eric was lead brewer at Russian River. They bonded over their shared love of fermentation as Jen was holding classes instructing how to ferment food at home. When Eric went to Pretoria Fields, Jen went with him, hired as director of marketing.
After a few years, Jen convinced Eric to return to the Central Coast to begin their search for the right spot to open Kulturhaus. In 2020, with a newborn son in tow, they stumbled upon the location at 779 Price Street in Pismo and their vision began to take shape.
Experience
We arrived on a Wednesday afternoon and joined a few people in the tasting room. The tasting room is completely accessible. Immediately impressive was the nine beer varieties they had for such a young brewery. After tasting a couple beers, Eric entered the bar area and we struck up a conversation. He talked about the start up and he offered to show me his brewing area.
Eric must be a puzzle master as it was amazing how much equipment he fit into the area along with the kitchen. The stove is literally 1/4″ from his Mash Tank. Each fermenter has a bright tank attached above it reaching to within a couple inches from the ceiling.
Back in the tasting room we tried a couple more beers along with some locally sourced pickled duck eggs (yum). We wished we had started our afternoon at Kulturhaus so we could have tried a couple more offerings as well as enjoyed some delicious looking food items on the menu. Everything we tried was enjoyable and we left with a crowler of “Wecken”, a beautiful purple hued Farmhouse Flower beer.
It is exciting to have a new inventive brewery in Pismo Beach! We encourage you to stop on by and try for yourself. When in the area also check out Pismo Brewing, There Does Not Exist in SLO and Three Stacks and a Rock in Morro Bay.
