Goleta’s Beloved ‘Third Place’ Celebrates a Decade of Brewing Up Fun

Interviewing Reno King, brewer (or “Hops Wrangler” as they like to put it), and Tami Snow, media maven (or “The Storyteller”), at the bar in the original Goleta location of Draughtsmen Aleworks (DA) a few weeks out from their 10th anniversary celebration, it’s easy to see how they made it to a decade in business. Every customer moseying up for a pint stops to chat. Names are known. Jokes are shared. As King puts it, “We ended up a community center rather than a brewery.”

That’s, of course, overstating the case a bit, as King and crew have offered up more than 90 different beers since DA opened in 2016, currently pumping out 750 barrels a year. Draughtsmen has locations in downtown Santa Barbara at Mosaic Locale and in Solvang, plus pours such as their core IPA Awesome Possum are served in fine establishments such as The Daisy. 

“Over the past 10 years, Draughtsmen Aleworks has built its business around a simple idea that great beverages can bring people together,” Snow says, “and that connection can be a force for good.”

Bringing people together is in the brewery’s DNA, as it was founded by five friends — King, Snow, “Ombudsman” Scott Stefan, “The Fixer” Chris Van Meeuwen, and “Assistant Keg Washer” Kris Turner — who are all just as committed to the project. 

“We all still like each other,” King says. 

Discussing how she knows how to tile and put in floor after their initial build-out the whole team toiled on, Snow claims, “We figured out a way to do it that was sustainable.”

Snow says that sense of camaraderie seems to set the tone, “that for all these other communities, we become their third place.” King and Snow list off just a few, starting with many groups from nearby UC Santa Barbara: the departments of psychology, mathematics, history, even a regular Friday meeting of the Crab Lab. Packs of bicyclists fuel up. And then there are the since-the-opening more formalized events such as Yoga on Tap (Snow thinks they were the first local brewery to do that), Rhythm and Brews, and Science by the Pint. At a time when alcohol consumption in the U.S. is at its lowest in 90 years, you can understand why Snow is pleased to claim, “Drinking has gone down, but we’re the experience now.”

What’s more, the Draughtsmen drinking experience itself has grown well beyond suds. Star Pine Wines, made in collaboration with Brian McKinnon, began in 2021. “Everybody has a friend who doesn’t like beer,” Snow observes, “and we knew we could [make a] small batch and sell it.” Hard cider soon followed. King, clearly the itchy creator, says, “We get bored really easily, so like finding new projects.” Most recently, they teamed up with local tea partner Galen Macdougall and his brand Teeccino to brew up some 0 percent ABV hop tea with flavors such as Hopbiscus, crisp with additional notes of lemongrass and Citra hops. King says, “We are baby-stepping, doing the daily work and soon you’re down a long path.”

But at the heart of the DA path has been a commitment to giving back. From day one, there’s been a beer-a-month that’s the Good Karma tap — a buck from every draft is donated to a featured organization, from the Bucket Brigade to Doctors without Walls, Heal the Ocean, and Habitat for Humanity. Both King and Snow were quick to stress they live here and want the best for all the community, not just their customers.

As just one example, Snow brings up a partnership with the animal shelter DAWG to help address a shortage of adoptive homes. “We created a series of ‘WANTED’ posters featuring beautiful black-and-white portraits of individual dogs, each paired with a short, personality-driven description of the ‘human’ they were looking for,” she said. “The campaign was both humorous and heartfelt. Many of the featured dogs were adopted, and the increased visibility helped drive additional adoptions, volunteers, and donations to the shelter overall. A win-win!”

Partnerships also power Draughtsmen’s preference for food purveyors. Long a spot for food trucks, it’s now been almost a year that DA has more permanently hosted Zapp Thai in its “front yard.” While Zapp’s talented chef-owners Nui Pannak and Buck Thananaken are from Bangkok, this region has savored their culinary skills from Empty Bowl and Wabi Sabi in the Public Market. How could a big plate of drunken heat noodles (Pad Kee Mao) not cry out for a quenching pint of Czech, Please! Pilsner to douse the heat?

For the anniversary celebration May 2 and 3, Zapp will be joined by a host of favorites such as Mylestone BBQ, Goodland Waffles & Melts (also DA’s neighbor at Mosaic), and Poe & Co. Ramen Bar. 

“We wanted to be nostalgic,” Snow says, “But we’re also friends with all these people.” 

A similar thought process led to the music choices for the weekend capped by Saturday’s “late-night” dance party powered by DJ Paige and DJ Frew (who once worked for DA behind the tap) that starts at 8 p.m. Talking about having such events before Snow admits, “We’re the early place to go — we don’t want to stay up to 2 a.m. at the Wildcat.” And there will be an anniversary beer, the long-clamored-for rerelease of one of the brewery’s earliest beers, the Ogre Double IPA.

Ultimately, it seems the secret to success for Draughtsmen was to build community and build slowly. They managed accolades along the way, not the least being Assemblymember Steve Bennett selecting them as the 2021 Small Business of the Year for California’s 37th Assembly District. That year was also when a Santa Barbara Better Together (SBBT) grant helped them through the COVID doldrums by funding their canning line. In return, DA joined with Deckers — the financial sponsor of the initial SBBT funds — to brew a SBBT beer. And all its proceeds were donated to other small businesses. 

“We are inclusive. We like to bring different kinds of people together and have different communities find this as their place,” Snow sums up. “It takes all kinds, especially in this world where there is so much division. We want to be the place where people can come together.”

Draughtsmen Aleworks’ mothership is located at 53 Santa Felicia Drive, Goleta. See draughtsmenaleworks.com.