As the Thomas Fire choked our skies with soot last December, Rebecca and Trent Hammell and Aimee and Mike Kielborn left town with their young kids to catch some fresh air for a few days, and wound up brainstorming business ideas. All four have fairly involved careers already — Rebecca is an ophthalmic technician, Trent is in finance, Aimee teaches at Ellwood School, and Mike is an engineer — but they also share a love of homebrewing and have made beer together for years. They knew that the South Coast was home to many homebrewers and yet not home to a homebrew supply shop — ever since Brew Buddies in Goleta closed a couple decades ago — so the couples decided to dive into that niche.
A frantic five months of long nights later, they opened BYOB! (Brew Your Own Beverage) in May on upper State Street, inside a former uniform shop on the strip mall best known for Farmer Boy. The region’s homebrewing scene is rejoicing, no longer having to buy their grains, yeasts, and other supplies online or to head up to Valley Brewers in Solvang, the only other homebrew supplier in Santa Barbara County.
“In a strange way, this is a rebirth from that fire,” said Trent. “It’s a family affair and a passion project. We want this to be a pantry for all the homebrewers in town, and a nucleus to bring together a fragmented brewing community.”