food&drink
Farm to Glass
Humboldt Regeneration’s homegrown brews
By Grant Scott-Goforth Photos by Mark McKenna
“YOU’RE MAKING THIS HARD FOR ME,” says a regu-
lar who’s sidled up to the standing-only bar that divides the small tasting room from the tap house at the Humboldt Regeneration Brewery. He came to get a growler filled, but with 28 unique beers on tap, and a small littering of empty tasters in front of him, this customer is experiencing some decision anxiety. Humboldt Regeneration Brewery and Farms lives up to its name. Owner Jacob Pressey claims to be the first commercial brewer in the county to roast his own malt (the process of germinating then drying grains) since Prohibition. He grows those grains, too, on a small plot of agricultural land down the street from his McKinleyville brewery and tasting room. Pressey is gregarious, eager to talk about his experiments, experience and the thinking behind
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HUMBOLDT INSIDER
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Humboldt Regeneration 2320 Central Ave., McKinleyville Humboldtregeneration. com Open Wednesday to Sunday 11:00 AM-7:00 PM Closed Monday Tuesday
Above: Pressey in his fields. Right: Hops on the vine, in the barrel and on tap.
each of his unique brews. Formerly the brewmaster for Eel River Brewing Co., a North Coast icon in its own right, Pressey has been in the fermenting game for two decades plus. His long-term goal is to mimic an estate winery — to buy a plot of farmland with enough space to grow all the grains, hops and other ingredients for his brewing needs and to have the tap house right there on the grounds, putting people right in the center of the farm-to-pint-glass experience. While he uses all the grains he grows, these days he has to supplement them with purchased grains to match the volume of beer he brews. Humboldt Regeneration could be gently described as a nanobrewery, but the cramped brewery/tap room — decked out with boilers, a malt kiln, oak barrels and kegs and other accoutrements that spill into the parking lot — charms because
SUMMER/ FALL 2017
7/7/17 10:10 AM