By Jondi Gumz
Craft breweries in Santa Cruz County have been shut down by COVID-19 since mid-March, so how did New Bohemia Brewing — also known as NuBo — get the green light to reopen in Pleasure Point?
The secret is: Serving meals and setting up service outdoors.
“We have a kitchen,” said Dan Satterthwaite, NuBo co-founder and brewmaster.
Big Basin IPA sells for $8 a pint and $20 for a 4-pack.
Satterthwaite works out of an eye-catching building at 1030 41st Ave., designed by Capitola architect Frank Phanton.
“We added a full-time head cook and we’re selling more food,” he said. “In late June we got a temporary outdoor permit with the county.”
Menu options include BBQ and salad, made on site, a vegan BBQ plate and a giant pretzel with beer cheese.
It’s a small business, with 11 employees.
Satterthwaite, 45, of Soquel, launched his venture in 2013, inspired by the beer culture of Bohemia (today’s Czech Republic).
He and his head brewer Mike Barker, also of Soquel, have 42 years of brewing experience between them.
What NuBo doesn’t have is a beer-canning machine, which can cost $150,000.
Satterthwaite solved this problem by hiring Can Van, a mobile canning company in Sacramento with a mission to save craft breweries whose taprooms were closed by COVID-19.
New Bohemia Brewing cans beer with a mobile operation known as Can Van.
“Can Van comes every two to three weeks and cans as much beer as we have ready,” he said, noting the company’s consistency and quality of work.
Patrons at NuBo’s outdoor beer garden can see the machine in action.
This summer, New Bohemia debuted two new beers.
First came Pilzner Soquel, “a summer drinking beer,” Satterthwaite said.
When it was well received in New Bohemia’s online store and Capitola opened its Esplanade to the beach for outdoor dining, he created a beer for Capitola Village: Capitola Kolsch, dressing up the can with a photo of the Capitola cliff.
Then came August, a crazy month when lightning started fires in the Santa Cruz Mountains.
“I live in the mountains and I wasn’t affected by the fire but we have friends in Big Basin, Boulder Creek and Last Chance who literally lost everything,” Satterthwait said. “We knew we wanted to help.”
Discretion Brewing in Soquel and a dozen other craft breweries got together and made a beer — and it sold out in a week.
New Bohemia Brewing co-founder Dan Satterthwaite is passionate about craft beer.
So Satterthwaite did what he does best — he created a beer. It’s called Big Basin IPA, short for India Pale Ale, tapping into the popularity of West Coast IPA.
For every can of beer sold, he’ll give $2 to Sempervirens Fund, the 120-year-old nonprofit devoted to protecting redwood forests.
“They can help out Russian Ridge, Saratoga Gap, all these beautiful pieces of our landscape,” Satterthwaite said.
“We got our supplier to donate barley and hops so we can donate as much as possible,” he added.
“I doubt we’ll make enough money to build an entire house or a business but if other local businesses see that people in this community really care about helping and restoring our area — if we start something, somebody else might start something. And if everybody did, we’d be able to get back on our feet much sooner.”
It’s been a year of overcoming adversity at New Bohemia Brewing, and Satterthwaite is grateful for local supporters who buy his products.
“We’ve had to be really creative, work fast and hard to keep things going,” he said. “I’m not going to quit.”
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Photos courtesy of New Bohemia Brewing