History

Our love of craft ale started back in Chico, CA with cheap pitchers of pale ale during happy hour in one of our favorite watering holes. Living in "Mecca" taught us to appreciate these fine craft ales. At the point of graduation in 1992, we only thought of craft beer in a “go to the store and buy it” sense and never thought of brewing it ourselves.

It wasn’t until Christmas of 1995 when the love of brewing craft beer came to fruition. We had both moved to Folsom,CA after college and lived there for a short time. It was a gift that started the home brew passion: A brew kit from The Brewmeister in Old Town Folsom. Little did the wives know what this gift would turn into in the years to come!

Two friends getting together to have a good time socializing while watching football and brewing: What could be better? In early 1996 the first stove brew was a pale ale that turned out decent enough to drink. This was pretty good for a couple of rookies. By the way, the first step in home brewing: Pour yourself a home brew!

For the next year brewing became a monthly event. We mixed up the varieties and had an exceptionally good time giving gift baskets of home brew to friends and family. The more we brewed, the more we bottled. Brewing, bottling, brewing, bottling.... It was becoming apparent that the bottling was going to get old after a while. While patronizing the The Brewmeister for ingredients we were introduced to full grain brewing and kegging. That was it; we put the stove kit on the shelf and decided to invest in a full grain system.

About that time, a friend's Dad was closing down a manufacturing plant and had to get rid of some excess angle iron. A rack was designed on paper and two months later it was built. The finishing touches were put on the rack and some draught equipment was installed on the garage fridge.

A few brews into it, we decided to come up with a name for our so-called “brewing company”. We figured that fun could turn into opportunity at some point! Living in Old Town Folsom, there was much history to draw from. One night while brewing we heard a lockdown bell ring from the prison and Lockdown Brewing Company slid off of someone’s tongue. Being Johnny Cash fans, we became the “Home of the Folsom Prison Brews.”

The brewing continued on with many varieties: Scotch, Red, Brown, Pilsner, Wheat, Stout. The favorite was the oatmeal stout, Breakout Stout. Of course, the wives needed their favorite- blueberry ale-thus we named it B.B. Blueberry. Those in "The Know" don't have to ask.

So here we are today and as the saying goes, the rest is soon to become history!