Underwritres Profile By Doug Kelly
KVMR Listeners Guide Feb/March 2008
The most comfortable eating and drinking destination in all of midtown Sacramento is undoubtedly Rubicon Brewing. It isn’t elegant in a white-tablecloth sort of way, but it is warm and welcoming, with the consistent hum of friendly conversation as a genial backdrop. If you’re looking to engage in some of that conversation, your best bet is a seat at the bar—the focal point of the establishment.
For 20 years, Rubicon Brewing has been offering some of the best beer in Northern California. Rubicon owner Glynn Phillips first became interested in brewing at the age of 15. He and some friends attempted brewing their own beer when their parents wouldn’t allow them to drink beer in the home. They began patronizing the local homebrew supply and soon patched together a small operation—although Glynn will be the first to tell you that their beer was never very good!
Glynn continued brewing experimentally into his college years, after which he took a corporate job in Reno. He began frequenting the Great Basin Brewing Company, where he eventually secured a part-time job to be a bit closer to the brewing experience he’d come to love. In 1994, he quit his corporate job and went full time at Great Basin—taught himself the ins and outs of the business and the industry, and went on to become the generalmanager. Fromthere, Glynn was recruited to be GM at Marin Brewing in Larkspur.
As Glynn made his way up the ranks of the microbrew industry, he kept close contact with Rubicon Brewing, started in 1987 by Ed Brown, the uncle of Glynn’s best friend. Glynn asked Brown to consider selling the business to him, and while still working at Marin Brewing, Glynn got the call that Rubicon was up for sale and he was getting first crack at the purchase. Glynn jumped at the opportunity and officially became the owner in June 2005.
It is common for patrons to freak out a bit when their favorite eating and drinking establishment changes hands. But in the case of Rubicon Brewing, regulars were happy to find that nothing changed except the ownership. Longtime brew master Scott Cramlet remains on board after 17 years, still crafting award-wining traditional brews—the most recent being Rubicon’s High Mountain Belgian Sour Cherry Ale, which earned the goldmedal at the Great American Brew Fest in Denver.
Cramlet is joined by fellow brewer Al Griffin, who also got his start in homebrewing. Glynn Phillips credits Griffin with stretching the boundaries in Rubicon’s brewing department. Current offerings on tap at include Irish Red Ale through St. Patrick’s Day, the Dunkel Hefe-weizen, a dark, sweet wheat beer, the Belgian Sour Cherry ale and Rubicon Cask Conditioned Beer, which is aged in a cask rather than a storage tank. While you’ll nearly always find Rubicon’s Flagship India Pale Ale (IPA) on tap, a few of the brews change over every month or so to allow for something new or seasonal.
Currently the big news at Rubicon Brewing is that the Flagship IPA is now available in 22- ounce bottles at finer food and beverage shops everywhere. Glynn says that over time, more of Rubicon’s brews will be bottled and available outside of the pub.
On the dining side, Rubicon Brewing will unveil a new menu beginning in February. In addition, Rubicon Brewing serves breakfast (and beer) every weekend starting at 8:30 a.m.
Whether you go to the pub or pick up a bottle of Rubicon IPA at your favorite beverage outpost, when you taste the first mouthful, you’ll know that “You’ve crossed the Rubicon.”