Homebrew’s heart remains in Seaside

Life at the humble heart of Monterey County DIY beer-making has turned sour. And that’s just fine with the man that pumps that heart, homebrew sage Duane Shimabukuro. He doesn’t love increasingly popular sour beers, but he’s more than happy to study up on how to make them so he can do what he does better than anyone in the area: troubleshoot homebrew hiccups. He’s also seeing more women interested in brewing so he’s ramping up his class schedule to match. To hang at his store is to know what a cross between a microbio seminar, a specialized hardware store and a shrink’s office would be like. Talk turns from cellaring to original gravity to pilgrimages to Russian River. Deliciously geeky stuff. Shimabukuro answers the phone and it continues. A winemaker stocks up on obscure hops and it flows on; no matter where the rising local homebrew tide takes people, the starting point remains the same. “I was dealing with challenges of online buying,” Shimabukuro says. “I was thinking, ‘People barbecue and do normal things in life. In my mind there had to be other people like me. I crunched the numbers, got permission from my wife, signed the lease and s*** my pants.” Now scores of panicked would-be brewers, knowing they have Shimabukuro and Bottoms Up to help them out, can avoid a similar fate.

Bottoms Up Homebrew Supply is located at 1143 Echo Ave., Suite C-2, Seaside •10am-6pm Tue-Fri; 10am-5pm Sat-Sun; closed Mon. •899-BREW (2739) www.bottomsuphomebrew.com