4 kegs of California Common

Johnny was a whirlwind of kegging today - four kegs of California Common, a steam beer, which can't be called a steam beer thanks to Anchor Brewing. Steam beers, historically from California's west coast, are brewed with lager yeasts, but fermented without refrigeration. Steam beers probably originated in the Gold Rush through the inelegance of necessity, but resulted in unexpected delectibility. Though they claim no connection to the original steam beer process, Anchor Brewing trademarked the term "steam beer" in 1981, rendering the rest of us unable to use it.

While researching California Common, steam beer etc, I came across the Beer Judge Certification Program style guidelines, a matrix of ABV%, color and chemical breakdown, Johnny said "What I am trying to do is make something that's good, in and of itself." We're less into the statistics of style and more into just making beer that tastes good.

Van Houten Brewing Co., Inc.

So, while the brewing and recipe refining continues, we got a bit tangled up in finding a place to brew and filing the incorporation papers. We are of course trying to avoid renting full warehouse space and are interested in contract breweries and restaurants. We thought there might be a chance to do Phase 1 brewing in our garage workspace but the differing city and county regulations mean we are in search of the next option. We're pretty excited to pair up with a few local restaurants and brew for them, but we'll need to be a legal entity to approach anyone. So - we found ourselves a super cool lawyer to help move along the process and we are deciding to get registered!!!! After some research, we've decided to go with an "S" Corp formation - we get the tax and liability protection without the added complication. LLCs seem to make more sense with more parties involved, but both accomplish the same goals.

We're a one horse show with plans to stay that way - so we prefer to keep it simple and like the "S" Corp. Maybe we'll add some sideshows or paint the pony eventually, but we'll never offer it to shareholders. We'll keep our beer horse show close to our hearts.

Most of our colleagues are LLCs, but Kern River Brewing Company is an "S" Corp too, so it seems we are not alone :)

Van Houten Brewing Co., Inc. here we come.

Our Story

Van Houten Brewing Company (say "van HOW ten" ) is a Marin-based, family owned and operated craft nanobrewery-in-planning. Johnny and Creek Van Houten, a husband and wife team, are the mainstays of the operation. Johnny's dad, Tom serves as consultant and works with Johnny to perfect recipes. Between the two of them, they have almost 20 years of homebrewing experience.

Johnny and his dad, Tom, began their quest for great beer while attempting to recreate a limited edition beer which had fulfilled its mission by becoming unavailable. They decided to try to make it themselves and found that their own beer was even better. Let’s face it, there is an alchemical chemistry geek appeal to brewing - the hydrometers, spiral copper tubing, magnetic stirrers, and large boiling kettles over rocket-ship-like flames all has a certain appeal.

Creek joined the team by loving Johnny, who instilled in her an undiscovered love of beer, which bodes well for their marriage. She is the Minister of Information and honing her skills in navigating government acronyms on our way to official breweryhood... or is it breweryship.... brewerydom?

Anyways, the beer began showing up at movie nights and pirate parties – then weddings and anniversary gatherings, and the requests began. And so, the microbrew movement settled in and thrived, and California got their IPA on, while our father and son team continued their quest honing skills in British Ales, and German Lagers, (not to leave out the Belgians). Perhaps it is our Dutch and British blood that causes us to yearn for old style beer brewed by the simplest means possible.

Ten years later, we’re just plain tired of people asking us for beer so we’ve decided to take the plunge, make our dreams come true – and bring great beer home.

Sometimes we get help from our friends (like Shakes and Hank at right) doing what we lovingly refer to as "market research."