Sarah BennettL.A.'s second successfully funded brewery Kickstarter campaign made its $25,000 goal on April 6, and come June, the buzz-building, female-run Three Weavers Brewing Company will be the first beer makers to open in the city of Inglewood.
Though many breweries have tried before (with varying success) to harness the power of crowdfunding, Three Weavers' victory lies partially in the resumes of the two woman who will be in charge of the operation: founder Lynne Weaver and brewmaster Alexandra Nowell. ]
A graduate of UC Santa Barbara, Weaver comes with a background in finance that can be seen across all aspects of the brewery's launch, from the well-written Kickstarter proposal to the aggressive marketing plan that put Three Weavers at promotional events throughout the region during the course of the fundraising campaign.
Three Weavers' beer is also in capable hands thanks to Nowell, who, at only 28, is one of the region's most promising newcomer brewers. With only a year in Los Angeles under her belt, the former lead brewer at Bay Area powerhouse Drakes has already won two medals at the Great American Beer Fest – both for beers she brewed during her short stint at Lancaster's Kinetic Brewing – and has spent the majority of 2014 making collaboration beers with other area breweries under the Three Weavers name.
The first, a partnership between Golden Road Brewing and Bank's Beer in England, was L.A.'s first international collaboration beer. Called Cross the Pond, the intensely aromatic and flavorful 3.8%ABV session IPA was made first at Bank's in January and again at Golden Road in February, reminding locals that even though Nowell doesn't have her own brewhouse right now, she remains a formidable force as a brewer of drinkable, hoppy beers.
The second collaboration made under the Three Weavers flag this year was the Messenger, a citrusy IPA brewed with Noble Aleworks in Anaheim. Filled with bold, grapefruit-y hops and citron-rich additions like Buddha's hand and pomelo zest, the beer again showed off Nowell's skill with IPA recipes, this time with a higher, 7.3%ABV.
Weaver and Nowell spent most of the last month meeting their future fans at tapping parties for the two beers, talking up their soon-to-be-built 1,200-square-foot tasting room, which was the focus of their Kickstarter proposal.
Designs of the Three Weavers tasting room; Credit: Jeremy Taylor Designs
With the credo, “It's more than beer – it's community,” Nowell and Weaver say the Three Weavers tasting room will be a gathering space where their vision to connect people, art and beer can flourish. Already the place has a full agenda: nonprofit nights where proceeds from sales are donated to a charity, seminars about hops and brewing, and art shows where the walls will be adorned with local work (starting first with Nicholas Gingold, whose brewer portraits make up the book California BrewMasters).
The $25,000 raised will be going toward the bars, taps, lighting, tables and cold storage necessary to make Three Weavers' dream space a reality. The pair plan to use recycled and repurposed materials wherever possible, and Weaver even found some vintage bowling lanes to be incorporated into the tasting room aesthetic.
It's all part of Three Weavers' goal not to just give back to the growing L.A. beer community that birthed it but also to seed an entirely new beer community in Inglewood, a city itself on the rise (thanks to everything from the new Forum to the Slauson Corridor Revitalization Project).
Three Weavers will begin brewing in May and the tasting room should be ready to serve by June.
Three Weavers Brewery: 1031 W. Manchester Blvd., Inglewood; threeweavers.la.
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