directed upwards towards ‘big beer’.” This means a huge win for those who were riding the craft wave when it first started on the west Coast as well as for the newly initiated. For the consumer, there is a huge smorgasbord of choice.” So we’re back to market share again. In a huge market like the Pacific Coast, how does a brewery distinguish itself from the dozens of others vying for a place on the increasingly sophisticated consumers’ palette? “We’re an English-American crossover brewery using the best of Old World recipes and the best of new-world ingredients. Our Head brewer will be the first to tell you that he never gets any instructions from me to cut ingredients costs or buy the cheapest of anything. He has a free hand to buy the best ingredients anywhere on the planet. Which is definitely dif- ferent from the ‘big boys’.” Absolution is proud to stress that they use natural ingredi- ents and no preservatives. Heath explains that, as a lifetime connoisseur of finer ales from all over the world, he contin- ues to ensure that quality natural ingredients are the key to successful brewing. “The beer that I grew up drinking as a young man in England was all natural drawn from a cask and the only CO2 present was from Mother Nature. The beer was a natural food product. There were no chemicals, addi- tives or stabilizers.”
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The whole “new world ingredients and old world tech- niques” sets Absolution apart from many other smaller
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landed in San Francisco, Portland, Seattle and north… one in eight pints in San Diego was a craft beer pint when we started seven years ago. North of L.A., they were pouring 10- 12% craft beer pints. L.A. was less than 4%. So basically only one in every 25 pints poured in L.A. was something other than mass produced big beer.” “When I first came to Los Angeles… I thought I was going to last here about two weeks because everyone was drinking the bland yellow fizzy stuff.” The gloves came off, and Absolution was born in 2013. Heath and Farguson assembled the team, acquired their space in the Torrance area of greater L.A. and began the battle to fight the fizz. And spoiler alert: the craft movement is taking a stronghold in L.A. The number of craft brewer- ies in the area has gone from 0-60 (almost literally!) in a little over half-a- decade. And how did this happen? Heath explains that co-operation amongst craft brewers played a significant role. “The thing about the craft beer industry is, it’s really a frater- nity. So we help each other out if they’re short of supplies, equipment or what have you. Sure, all business exists in a competitive environment, but most of the competition is
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SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS MAGAZINE • NOVEMBER 2017
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