March 28, 2023 – Jeffrey Vitalich isn’t just a brewer of award-winning beer. He’s a yeast rancher.
At least that’s how he puts it.
It’s a fun way of thinking about what brewers are truly up to.
It also helps reveal how the owner/head brewer of new Hidden Hills Brewing and Blending approaches his craft.
“I’m providing the microbes for yeast to live the best life they can,” he says. “I just find the symbiotic relationships so interesting—and it adds to complexities and layers to make the microbes happy.”
The results indicate the microbes are apparently quite content, perhaps joyous, which leads to beer drinker happiness too.
That his Wake Turbulence triple IPA and Midnight in Paradise porter are solid shouldn’t be all that surprising, given the awards he racked up at his previous post.
While head brewer for Soquel Fermentation Project, his creations earned a slew of California Craft Beer Summit medals. (Before he led that tiny craft operation, he worked two years as a brewer at Gordon Biersch’s massive San Jose operation.)
Hidden Hills, which soft-opened six months ago, tucks in a half-hidden corner of the Barnyard in the former Carmel Craft Brewing Company.
Some of the standouts from my visit included a balanced Blueberry Tart sour, dank Cloudy Conditions hazy IPA and a fantastic and floral dry cider with cascading dragonfruit and guava flavor.
Vitalich’s brother Joseph manned the 13 (soon to be 15) shiny taps, distributing test tasters and enlightened education in equal amounts.
Vitalich sent me home with a tasting array of four “flagship” beers. Each among the nutty Day Pack pale ale, even keel Semi Casual West Coast IPA, smooth Classic Amber and zippy Hazy Dayz hazy pale ale clearly represents their respective styles without sacrificing their own personality.
That stable of brews (all available in cans) proves popular enough to keep revenues predictable so Vitalich can tinker with more exotic inventions, like the Space Jamz tangerine sour or the creative blends he barrel ages.
In fact, the one time I see him check his phone on our visit—he’s been busy transferring beers at the on-site microbrewery, assessing yeast counts, canning crowlers, noting attenuation numbers, updating notes in spreadsheets—it’s to find out this year’s California Craft Beer Summit results.
Jackpot: A dark sour he aged in tequila and bourbon barrels—fruit free—wins a third place in Wood and Barrel-Aged Sours.
He clearly loves the challenge of blending and barrel-treating beers.
“It’s why we have ‘blending’ in the name,” he says. “I love piecing together elements from varied barrels.”
He concedes that can get risky—and margins shrink—but the benefits are worth it.
“You get more possibilities as you move outward,” he says. “[It’s] for sure the most artisanal.”
The working combo of safe/steady with risky/experimental is one of a number of synergies at work.
HHBB also partners with Lynn’s Arcade to stock pinball machines.
Meanwhile neighboring Allegro Pizzeria will drop pizzas, salads, antipasti and more and bill you table side. (The smoked salmon pizza we tried—accented by sweet red onion, cucumber, capers and cream cheese—was sublime.)
An additional synergy is happening with Carmel Valley Ranch.
Vitalich consulted with their epicurean team on an exclusive property beer that just debuted—and uses CVR’s on site honey for a beer versatile enough to pair with all sorts of farm-to-table plates.
He decided on a Belgian-style golden ale that proves clean, subtle and easy on the palate, with just the right note of honey.
“I like working with honey because it’s so seasonal by nature: Bees are always visiting different flowers at different times,” he says. “It adds depth and aroma.”
Eventually another synergy will drop into position when Vitalich introduces his own wine.
While the Monterey High grad commuted to college at CSU East Bay to study industrial engineering, he worked at wineries in Carmel Valley, and now lives on a few acres of Pinot and Chardonnay vineyards in—yes—the Hidden Hills area of the valley.
His winemaking experience informs how he thinks of his fermenting process for beer, which uses all California grown malted barley.
“With my wine background I like to use terroir of things like barley and wild yeasts to help the beers speak for themselves,” he says. “I don’t want to steer too far from what the ingredients can provide on their own.”
At the time he was learning wine he also worked at Bottoms Up Brew Supply in Seaside, dabbling with mentors like BUBS owner-operator-local beer governor-of-sorts Duane Shimabukuro.
In the process a full-blown beer nerd blossomed—“I just got passionate about the fermentation and the brewing process,” he says—and while his concepts can get heady, he welcomes the chance to be an ambassador for craft beer in a town that doesn’t have a vat of it.
“I’m at the brewery any time we’re open,” he says, “and I’m always interested in sharing what I know about styles that might not be as familiar to most beer enthusiasts.”
Which blends in that much more synergy.
Hidden Hills Brewing and Blending is located in the Big Sur Barn, 3777 The Barnyard in Carmel. More at hiddenhillscarmel.com or (831) 250-7311.
About the author
Mark C. Anderson, Edible Monterey Bay's managing editor, appears on "Friday Found Treasures" via KRML 94.7 every week, a little after 12pm noon. Reach him via mark@ediblemontereybay.com.
