Brett Keating
August 8, 2022
Just forty-five days after getting the keys to Gunwhale’s old production facility, four longtime Orange County beer vets have opened Everywhere Beer Co., a brewery and tasting room in Orange.
Everywhere is a new project from Jeremy Grinkey, Daniel Muñoz, Stefan Weber, and Keith Pumilia, all former employees at Placentia’s The Bruery/Offshoot Beer Co. Grinkey spent ten years as a winemaker before taking a job at The Bruery in 2014, eventually became the Production Manager there, before breaking off to lead the beer program at Everywhere. Muñoz also worked in wine as an importer, before starting a beer e-commerce company, and joining The Bruery four years ago. Each founder had worked at the Bruery since at least 2018, bringing a tremendous amount of knowledge to the new project.
Muñoz said that from the day they first entered the space in mid-June until their soft opening on July 30, the founders had been in the brewery every day to prepare for opening.
This space is giant, bright, and welcoming, with booths, bar seating, and plenty of communal tables. Illustrations line the walls, and clay tile details cover many surfaces. The team also beautified the outdoor space and installed lots of shaded patio and picnic tables beneath three giant olive trees.
Behind the bar is a 20-tap system, which will slowly fill out as the brewing team ramps up production. Their opening list included five beers – a lemon and orange radler, a West Coast IPA, a New England IPA, a pilsner, and an imperial milk stout – plus two fruited hard seltzers.
La Ventanita, the milk stout, is brewed with Tahitian vanilla, lactose, and local coffee, immediately brings to mind an affogato’s sweet, roasty creaminess, while Moment Of Truth, the WC IPA, has a piney nose and smooth-but-bitter finish that should impress old school California IPA lovers. The team plans to add wine and craft soda into the mix, and – as you might expect from Bruery alums – they already have beer in barrels aging for future releases.
On a recent episode of Good Beer Hunting’s podcast, Muñoz said that the team wanted to create a space that can be a gathering place for locals who might not traditionally think to spend time drinking beer, or going to a brewery. In early visits, they seem to be on their way to achieving that goal – customers have been coming in big groups, and communing in the open booths and the giant picnic tables outside.
They’ve also crafted an early beer list that is accessible for someone who doesn’t typically opt for a beer. That’s a tough balance to strike while also trying to impress traditional beer drinkers, but the level of thought and quality in the brews so far has hit that happy medium. Their agua fresca-inspired Jamaica Lemonade, for example, is dry, refreshing, and tart, like a good berliner weisse, and bursting with flavors of fresh hibiscus and lemons (which were picked fresh from Daniel’s family lemon tree).
This is the second recent brewery to be opened by former Bruery folks – the other, Radiant Beer Co., made its much-acclaimed debut last January in Anaheim.
Everywhere Beer Co. is open daily from 11am-10pm, with daily food pop-ups and events.
