Cismontane Brewery Says Business is Hopping

When you hear "Rancho Santa Margarita," rolling tawny hills and tract homes come to mind, not necessarily craft breweries.

But Wednesday afternoon at 3 p.m., the small tasting room at the Cismontane Brewery off Santa Margarita Parkway was hopping. Co-owners Evan Weinberg and Ross Stewart sat on laptops poring over spreadsheets in the tasting room, as their backslapping patrons got tipsy on gourmet brews.

Weinberg and Stewart were on and off the phone, purchasing grain and handling orders from the growing number of local bars that stock their wares.

When Weinberg was able to take a breath, he said he started Cismontane Brewery because he wanted to get back to a creative hands-on endeavor after spending time in corporate real estate and as a scientist.

"I started a tomato farm with my buddy up in Napa Valley," he said. "It brought me back to wanting to do something more tangible. This is back more to the basic needs of humanity -- beer is a basic need of humanity, right?"

And Cismontane's growth since 2009 seems to support that assertion -- soon, the seven-man operation will have to bring in two new employees, he said.

"We've doubled in volume every year," Weinberg said. "This year, I think we're going to do a little better than that."

Weinberg said his approach to brewing beer is to only loosely follow traditional types of brews -- such as India pale ales, stouts or lagers. The idea is to put his own twist on the recipes, he said.

"Our philosophy is to make really high-quality, subtly unique beers that kind of represent our beliefs in brewing,” he said. "Like our IPA -- that's 7.6-percent alcohol; that's a big beer, but it's smooth and mellow."

Some beers from Cismontane -- a term that refers to coastal mountains -- are named for particular Orange County features or flora, such as Holy Jim Extra Pale Ale named after the waterfall. The tap handles in the tasting room are made from polished charred wood salvaged from the area's wildfires.

Cismontane is just one of a growing cadre of microbreweries popping up all over Orange County in the last several years. The Pacific Northwest and San Diego County have traditionally been the West-Coast epicenters of microbrewing, but OC is starting to pick up the torch, Weinberg said.

"There's definitely a lot of changes in Orange County," he said. "There's been a couple of breweries that have opened in the last year, and older breweries who have been here for a long time are getting rediscovered."

But Weinberg said he doesn't fear the competition -- in fact, Cismontane is teaming up with Fullerton's Bootlegger's and Tustin Brewery to create a new ale for the Sept. 7 BrewHaHa beer fest in Orange.

"We all communicate pretty regularly," Weinberg said. "I think some people are starting to feel the pressure and more competition, but I'm not really like that. If someone wants to know how we make a beer, I'll tell them. I don't really believe in trade secrets for something that's 5,000 years old. If I can help someone make a better beer, I'll do it.

All photos by Adam Townsend