While most of Alameda’s craft beer makers are ensconced in Spirits Alley on the island city’s former U.S. Navy base, Alameda Brewing has been happy to cater to the island’s downtown crowd just a few blocks from the Park Street Bridge. They recently celebrated their 10-year anniversary in July with a three-day festival.
Run by the Phua family, Alameda Brewing (formerly Alameda Island Brewing), has plenty of reasons to like their status in the city’s downtown craft beer market — not the the least of them being that they own the brick building, formerly home to a Dodge dealership, that houses their business and built a similar-looking one next-door.
Originally co-owned by the Phuas and the family of Matt Fox, Alameda Brewing got its start when Fox, fresh out of the U.S. Coast Guard in Alameda approached Bill Phua about starting a brewery using recipes the avid home brewer had developed in 2015.
As Phua already owned the building, it was a match made in brewski heaven, and the brewery opened that same year. The Fox family sold out to the Phuas in 2019, right before the COVID-19 pandemic hit — a move that Vincent Phua, Bill Phua’s son and the brewery’s general manager, describes as “extremely fortuitous” for them — and the Phuas have been running the show ever since.
Recently, the brewery took home a silver medal for its Burma Ale, a “gruit,” or “tea beer,” made without hops that has floral notes and tastes a little bit like Earl Grey. Another favorite on the menu is Let it Lager — a brew that “lagers” at near-freezing temperatures for six weeks. The result is smooth, crisp and refreshing. With all the competition in the craft beer world it hasn’t been a walk in the park for the brewery but may have seemed like it at first.
“Back in the day, pre-COVID, all you had to do was just produce beer, and people would flood your tap room,” says Vincent Phua, who is also working towards his MBA at UC Berkeley. “But obviously since then things have changed. Just like any bar and restaurant, you have to focus on more than just product. It’s also the environment, the total customer experience.”
While Alameda Brewing has a presence in stores, bars and restaurants throughout the Bay Area, the younger Phua says he’s focused on growing his East Bay customer base at the moment.
“There’s plenty of breweries that have succeeded by just being local,” he says. “Obviously, we want to be within the greater Bay area and possibly more, but for now we need to make sure that we focus on our core markets first.”
While the brewery doesn’t serve food, hungry beer lovers can pick up delicacies such as kimchi fried rice next-door at the Monkey King brewpub (not to be confused with the Monkey King restaurant six blocks up Park Street). Also next-door is the very popular Fikscue Craft BBQ that regularly sells out of its gigantic beef ribs that would have Fred Flintstone drooling. All food items can be brought into Alameda Brewing.
The recent celebration of the brewery’s 10-year anniversary featured live music, food, two types of beer pong and, of course, plenty of beer.
Imbibers looking for a unique way to down their suds were encouraged to employ a “beer puppeteer” device. The popular Dutch drinking game features a glass of beer suspended by puppet strings attached to a brace overhead strapped to a lucky beer drinker’s back. Using the puppet strings, brave souls guide the glass of golden nectar to their lips, or not, depending on their dexterity any how many they’ve already had.
Alameda’s Gary Spenik gave the contraption a whirl, and while he probably won’t employ the method at home, he was able to take some pulls from his lager without spilling a drop. Perhaps one of the more intriguing concessions at the festival was the “Chuck It Wagon,” an empty trailer into which the truly adventurous could throw glass bottles, shattering them within its safe confines.
Before chucking the glasses, proprietor Omar Farah requires the chucker to write on one glass something they’d like to stop focusing on and on the other something in their life they’d like to focus more on.
“Are you happy? Chuck it. Are you sad? Chuck it. Whatever you got going on, just chuck it. Chuck it all,” says Farah of the chuck-it phenomenom. “It’s breaking a battle, breaking a glass, but it’s done with intention. It’s not about anger. We all need a little happiness, and we all need a little bit of release.”
Farah is also quick to point out that the Chuck It Wagon is not a rage room where people go to vent.
“Rage rooms feed the monster. This is about intention, right? We’re asking you to write something that you want to let go of, and we’re asking you to write something that you want to call out to yourself, right? It’s about intention.”
After the cathartic experience of the Chuck it Wagon, many festival goers could be seen relaxing with a cold one, a serene glow embodying their aura. Alameda Brewing is at 1716 Park St. For details online, visit alamedabrewing.co.
Paul Kilduff is a San Francisco-based writer who also draws cartoons. He can be reached at pkilduff350@gmail.com.