What does a craft brewery mean for Mountain View?

James “Dr. Fermento” Roberts, Alaska beer enthusiast and columnist, stopped by Resolution Brewing Company’s Friday evening soft opening and shared his thoughts on neighborhood beer.

Mountain View Post: In all your experience writing about beer, did you ever expect something like this to come to Mountain View?

James “Dr. Fermento” Roberts: It would have been very low on the list, along the lines of Fairview, deep in Spenard maybe, and for all the obvious reasons that we know but we’re afraid to talk about; we’re afraid to bring into the open. But I think that it’s a good fit, aside from all the stigma that comes with this locale. I think it’s in a good centralized location, it’s got a good hook right down below with [Glenn Square]; I just heard there might be a new bus stop right out here, how convenient does that get?

Post: Do you think there’s something unique that comes with having a brewery in a different location –somewhere you might not expect? 

Dr. Fermento: Craft beer is a good thing. It’s not designed as an intoxicant as it is a social drink. So having these in neighborhoods — especially in Alaska — we’re getting more like Europe than many other communities in the United States because we’re starting to see … a brewery that is really designed to serve a smaller subset of a community. I think it’s a positive addition.

Post: Can you think of any other place like this — a small brewery and tasting room so close to a residential neighborhood — in Alaska?

Dr. Fermento: I think that it’s going to be the wave of the future. I really think that, give this 25 years, and you’re going to be seeing neighborhood breweries. It’s happening in San Francisco. If you go to San Francisco and you look at the nanos and the pico-breweries that are down there: They’re small neighborhood breweries, maybe with a one-barrel system, and their goal isn’t global domination. Their goal is to be entrenched in a neighborhood rather than a community and serve a smaller subset of very loyal people that will sustain them.

Resolution Brewing Company