Pismo Beach brewery pairs its beers with German food like sausages, pickles and sauerkraut
A new Pismo Beach brewery is now serving its own brews alongside German biergarten-inspired eats.
Kulturhaus Brewing Company, Located at 779 Price St., is brewing six beers and has others on tap from Enegran Brewing Company, Central Coast Brewing and more.
“Our brewer is always writing the next recipe,” co-owner Jennifer Harris said. “Writing recipes is like writing music.”
One of the brewery’s popular selections is called “Sonnenschein” — a Hazy IPA with a West Coast influence and fruity flavors, according to Harris.
Another offering is an amber named “Lokale Kreatur” — a mahongany ale with toasty flavors of cacao and cherries, Harris said.
Each beer is named in German and balances with the flavors of the brewery’s menu, according to Harris.
“A lot of people think of wine pairing with food, but beer is a really great pair for food,” Harris said. “It’s fun to have that creative opportunity to think about what’s on our menu and what beer plays nicely with those flavors.”
Kulturhaus Brewing Company makes pickles and sauerkraut in-house to serve alongside sausages by J&R Meats in Paso Robles and fresh buns and soft pretzels by Grover Beach Sourdough.
For owners Jennifer Harris and Eric Kirchner, opening the brewery is “a dream come true.”
“We’ve been talking about this for eight years, to have a pickle and beer emporium,” Harris said.
Owners met in Sonoma County
Harris grew up in San Luis Obispo County before moving to Sonoma County, where she met her future life and business partner, Kirchner.
While Kirchner was the lead brewer at Russian River Brewing Company, Harris taught monthly fermentation class where she showed people how to make fermented foods at home.
“Fermented foods are a part of many cultures’ healthy diets,” Harris said. “Some of the longest-living civilizations and people with the lowest number of autoimmune disorders are cultures that have fermented foods as part of their normal diet.”
Everyone has a microbiome within the digestive system where different types of bacteria live, Harris said, and a standard American diet does not always include raw vegetables and living organisms to enhance that microbiome.
“Beyond just digestion, all sorts of body chemistry, systems and functions rely on that diverse microbiome to perform tasks,” Harris said. “The more that we eat fermented foods in our diet, the more that all our bodies systems can work most efficiently.”
As Harris and Kirchner spent time making fermented foods together, their friendship turned into dating.
They soon enrolled in the Business of Craft Brewing program at Portland State University.
While Harris’ background was in early childhood education, she founded the Sonoma County Fermentation Festival and helped small artisan fermented food companies develop marketing plans.
Later, a brewery startup contacted Kirchner to make the recipes for its business. The same brewery offered Harris a position as director of marketing.
In 2018, the two moved to Albany, Georgia, to work for the “farm to fermentation” brewery, where a farming family grew its own hops and grains to make beer, according to Harris.
“It was our practice run in starting our own business,” Harris said.
That year, Harris found out she was pregnant and the couple moved back to the Central Coast to start their family and a business.
Kulturhaus Brewing Company opened this summer and now the brewery makes its own beers, which is their passion, according to Harris.
The meaning of the brewery’s name is twofold, Harris said. Kulturhaus Brewing Company is a celebration of people who created fermented food in place that’s welcoming to everyone, and a place of cultured products, like cheese or yogurt.
Kulturhaus Brewing Company is closed Monday and Tuesday and open Wednesday from noon to 9 p.m. and Thursday to Sunday from noon to 10 p.m.
For more information, call the brewery at 805-295-6171.
This story was originally published December 21, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
