About a half-dozen large blue shipping containers sit arranged in a square behind a chain-link fence on the corner of L and 19th streets in Sacramento. Stacks of wooden barrels perch on top of one container, while another houses brewing equipment. Tables and strings of lights stretch across a courtyard still under construction.
Golden Road Brewery from Los Angeles will soon open an outpost on this busy corner in the heart of midtown’s entertainment district. The shipping containers scream craft brewery, but in fact Golden Road was purchased by industry giant Anheuser-Busch InBev in 2015.
This modest-looking outdoor venue represents the first attempt by a major beer conglomerate to get in on Sacramento’s exploding craft beer scene – and a sign of the local market’s maturation. This is what California Craft Brewers Association’s (CCBA) executive director, Tom McCormick, calls the “If you can’t beat ’em, buy ’em” strategy.
California’s capital is catching up to other major craft beer markets in the state, with the number of taprooms and breweries opening in the area continuing to rise. Even with the rapid growth, experts say the market here still has room to add more players despite the recent closures of some newcomers along with Rubicon, one of Sacramento’s oldest craft brewers.
Golden Road’s brewpub will be situated about a block from the Big Stump Brewing Company and just around the corner from Rubicon, which shut down last August after 30 years.
In 2009, Sacramento had just eight craft breweries. The number has grown to more than seven times that in the last decade, with the region currently boasting 58 working breweries and another nine that are either opening soon or are under construction, according to information gathered by Sacramento Beer Frontier.
The California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control lists at least 12 craft breweries or taprooms with pending license applications in the city of Sacramento alone.
While the Sacramento craft brewing industry “has really blossomed” in the last four or five years, McCormick said the area arrived late to the California craft beer game. San Diego has more than 170 breweries, and McCormick said it is just now seeing some signs of saturation and businesses closing their doors. …
Cassie Dickman 