Programs Report
January 19, 2018

Mike Reiling and his business partner loved drinking and brewing craft beer and figured the only way their wives would let them drink beer in the afternoon would be if they opened their own brewery—and so Mt. Lowe Brewery was created. There probably is a lot more to that story, but Mike jokingly shared this with us as our featured speaker at our January 19th meeting.

When the two friends set out to open their brewery, they wanted to have a name that was from local history. They considered several names such as Arroyo Seco, but decided on Mt. Lowe which has quite a colorful history. Back in the late 1800’s the Mt. Lowe Railway went from Lake Avenue in Pasadena to the crest of the San Gabriel Mountains. At Mt. Lowe there were two structures called Alpine Tavern and Echo Mountain House. There also was a zoo! Fires and natural disasters such as a flood destroyed the buildings and railway but pictures from it’s hey day depicts quite a remarkable location.

Mt. Lowe Brewery is Arcadia’s first Microbrewery which offers 20 beers on tap after just one year in business. Many of their beers are named after Mt. Lowe’s historical features such as “Alpine Lager”, “Inspiration Point” and “Red Line Barley Line.” They are served in over 15 restaurants including BJ’s and Wood Ranch in Arcadia. They just obtained a canning line machinery and will be distributing their beers at the local Grocery Outlet and other stores. While they do not serve food at their family and pet friendly location, they have different food trucks come to the brewery offering customers a wide variety of food choices.

Mike also explained how beer is made from taking the malt grain thru filtering, boiling, fermentation and everything in between until you have the finished product. We learned that an IPA takes about two weeks to make, while a lager takes about 3 week and that yeast is the magic ingredient to all beers. Craft beers make up about $22 billion of the $106 billion overall beer market. We are quite lucky to have our very own microbrewery in Arcadia.