It’s commonly accepted knowledge that much of the craft movement exploded on the Pacific side of North America and rolled its way east. Absolution Brewing Company co-founder, Steve Farguson cut his teeth on the San Diego craft scene in the early days, watching and learning from the innovators and staying ahead of the curve. His business partner, Nigel Heath, flew over to the Los Angeles area from his home in London, UK, with a view to checking out the California brewing scene. His first impression was predictable — macro-beers were everywhere and people seemed to be indifferent about what they were drinking. Farguson and Heath noted that Los Angeles seemed to have missed the whole West Coast craft beer scene. They were determined to fix that situation. Joining forces, they scouted out an area in L.A. that could facilitate such a challenge and began brewing beer, with the expressed goal of educating the people of L.A. about something the rest of California was already celebrating —great craft beer. Spotlight on Business spoke with Absolution co-founder, Nigel Heath about the West Coast craft beer scene, their successes, and their determination to rid the Pacific West of bland beer, one pint at a time.
By John Allaire W hen I first came to Los Angeles from London in ’94, I thought I was going to last here about two weeks because everyone was drinking the bland yellow fizzy stuff. I couldn’t believe that, seven years ago when Steve Farguson and I got together in L.A., the sec- ond-largest city in the land, with its massive disposable income and a pretty intelligent population, they were all drinking machine made mass produced fiz bombs!”
up arms. It’s all about market share, and being from the area where the movement basically germinated means the stakes feel higher than in the rest of North America. Breaking L.A. of its macro- beer habit has taken more work than one would think at first blush. “The whole craft revo- lution that started in San Diego sort of leap-frogged L.A.,
Arguably, that ‘yellow fizzy stuff’ has been the catalyst for craft beer revolutionaries, and their main reason for taking
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NOVEMBER 2017 • SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS MAGAZINE
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