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Brewing beer by the beach

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Mike Lombardo and Brent Reynard don’t mind laughing at their business story.

The friends, who were born and raised in Laguna Beach and have known each other for more than 25 years, got an itch to brew beer after Lombardo received a beer kit as a gift from his sister.

“We grew up surfing and drinking lots of beer and thought to do home brewing,” said Reynard, 37.

Reynard pored over recipe books, looked up ingredients online and began brewing with Lombardo, 34, on a consistent basis.

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For five years, Reynard’s living room was filled with plastic fermentation buckets. The two stood over a boiling kettle, creating and perfecting beer for family and friends to sample. They garnered good reviews.

“Lucky for us, we have very thirsty friends,” Reynard said. “We’re perfectionists and we wanted to create something that a brewery would [want].”

Friends and family encouraged the crafters to make the beer commercially. But it wasn’t until Lombardo and Reynard entered their recipe in this year’s OC Fair, earning a medal in the IPA (India Pale Ale) category in the homebrew competition, that they imagined their hobby could be a business.

“That was the validation,” Lombardo said.

After a year of researching and securing licensing and permitting, Laguna Beach Beer Co. was born.

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Greetings, beer drinkers

Whenever Lombardo traveled Pacific Coast Highway as a youth, he would look for that bend in the road where a nomadic beach squatter would regularly grin, wave and welcome visitors to Laguna Beach.

He would have been too young to have seen Eiler Larsen, “The Greeter” of Laguna Beach, who adopted the daily habit of standing on a street corner to greet every car and passerby. But he remembers the man who, eight years after Larsen’s death, assumed the tradition of town greeter in 1983.

Nonetheless, it’s Larsen, the shaggy-haired, heavily bearded original seen smiling in paintings, postcards, photographs and sculptures, who has inspired Lombardo.

That, Lombardo thought, should be the company’s signature style.

“The beer should embrace elements of Laguna, and what better way than having the Greeter?” Lombardo said.

Reynard’s wife, Heather, who is an art teacher and an artist at the Sawdust Art Festival, designed the company’s beer tap. She drew a figure dressed in a red shirt, slacks and sandals. The man with the overgrown beard is holding a jug with beer sloshing around in it.

They called it the Greeter’s Ale. The drink is a light-bodied, slightly hoppy pale ale.

It wasn’t simple to create.

“Brewing is easy, but making good beer is difficult,” Reynard said.

Reynard and Lombardo said their process is first to develop recipes in Laguna. Once they have something they like, they take the recipe to Southern California breweries and use the equipment there to make the beer. Once the beer is ready, they take the kegs back to Laguna Beach and distribute them to the places with which they have formed partnerships.

It takes at least six to eight hours to brew a batch and three weeks for fermentation. Lombardo said the process is very much like chemistry, because they have to add ingredients precisely at certain times.

“The possibilities are endless, and that’s part of the fun,” Lombardo said. “Brewing beer is a very artistic movement, and Laguna has artists, music, restaurants, but we feel like this brewing is a vital piece of that artistic element.”

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A beginning Taste

On Oct. 1, Lombardo and Reynard premiered the drink at Taste of Laguna, presented by the Laguna Beach Chamber of Commerce to celebrate fine food and spirits.

“It went exceptionally well,” Lombardo said.

The chamber agreed.

“We were happy to have them at the Taste of Laguna,” said Loretta Griego, the chamber’s office manager. “I have tried it, and it was really good. I think it’s a great idea.”

The partners say the beer is the first of many they will make to hit the local taps. They may only have one beer now, but they have arrangements to supply it and whatever other brews they develop to two locations in Laguna: the Marine Room Tavern and Hennessey’s Tavern.

On a Wednesday afternoon, the company’s founders sat on bar stools at Hennessey’s and proudly motioned toward the tap.

Laguna Beach Beer Co.’s Greeter’s Ale was among eight beers on tap offered to customers.

“Hennessey’s always tries to support local products, and we depend on the community,” said Sarah Karros, the tavern’s manager. “When we were first approached by these guys, it was a no-brainer. It was a great product, and the boys are amazing to work with.”

Karros said that when the beer made its debut at the tavern on Oct. 3, the location went through what is equivalent to three kegs in 5 1/2 hours.

“It was phenomenal,” Karros added. “Two and half hours later, I got a call from the assistant manager asking to buy more.”

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Hibiscus, anyone?

Reynard and Lombardo said they are two months away from introducing their second beer.

“We’re selling so much more beer than we ever imagined,” Reynard said. In two weeks, they have tripled production.

They have big plans. Within six months, the duo would like to be in a dozen locations. Reynard said they would like to have a tasting room in their future retail location. They would like to sell seasonals and limited growlers so locals can take the beer home. They’re currently working on seven different batches, including pumpkin beer, toasted coconut and a variation with hibiscus flowers.

Reynard and Lombardo are also in the midst of creating a brewer’s league, which would allow beer-making members to receive feedback from tasters and learn differences in tastes.

Reynard and Lombardo said they have gotten much support and help along the way.

“One of the unique things in the beer industry is that everyone, from the community to breweries, has been very friendly,” Lombardo said.

“It’s fun,” Reynard added. “It’s what I would be doing if I had a million dollars.”

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