In the increasingly crowded craft beer market, a bit of good business sense and a strong design aesthetic go a long way. And so, in that sense, State Brewing Co. may already be ahead of the curve.
Founded by friends/business partners Matt Pfeiffer and Blake Shapiro last year, State Brewing looks to join the growing legion of South Bay craft beer producers that are crashing onto the shores of Los Angeles. Avid homebrewers by night and coworkers by day (they both worked at a nondescript wholesaling company), Pfeiffer and Shapiro took to fantasizing about starting their own craft beer line, if the opportunity ever came up. Fast forward a few months, and now State Brewing Co. is alive.
The initial plan was to either buy into an existing operator or contract brew out of state, but when an opportunity presented itself in Gardena of all places, the pair decided to upscale their own brewing knowledge and make a run at doing it all themselves to the tune of about 3,000 barrels per year. (A proper brewmaster is still in the works, but they should be landing one soon).
Done with a minimalist eye, State Brewing’s branding (the pair has been hard at work designing the future of their company while wading through the tedious permitting process) hints at similar easy-drinking operations like House Beer and Modern Times. And there will be that, though as Pfeiffer and Shapiro up their own levels of experience, it’s likely that their lineup will expand as well.
When the brewery officially unveils in spring or early summer, there will be a handful of classic styles on tap — a witbier, an IPA, a blonde. Assuming a conditional use permit gets approved, a small on-site taproom will take up some real estate inside, with enough seats for 20 or so drinkers.
Until then, Pfeiffer and Shapiro are continuing to stay small and work hard, brewing recipe trials and scaling up their experience. There’s still distribution to manage, accounts to lock down, paperwork to sign and plenty of construction to oversee. But the two already have enough business sense for all of that.
State Brewing Co.
1237 W. 134th St.
Gardena, CA
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