You love to drink craft beer and are even making some pretty cool specimens with a buddy in your kitchen. Probably time to start your own label, eh? Well, you’ll get little encouragement from Joel Elliot and Rich Marcello, the founders of Torrance-based Strand Brewing Co. who detail their own personal hell in getting their beer business to catch on to The L.A. Times today.
After working 100 hours a week for three years without vacation, maxing out their credit, pestering friends for money, and only just now starting to get a whiff of success as their draft-only brews spread across L.A. restaurants and bars, the guys tell The Times to think twice before putting a toe into the hop water. Detailing their door-to-door approach to get this fledgling local beer label off-the-ground, Elliot tells would-be beer stars, “Don’t do what we did. We are insane.”
Funnily enough, Strand Brewing may not exist if not for a fudged-up communique between Elliot’s wife and that of another brewer, who lead the guys to believe he wanted to start a brewery today. Elliot and Marcello jumped prematurely on the idea, telling the paper they had no budget, experience, or business plan. “We just knew we had to get some money,” Elliot claims.
Strand Brewing is tasting success after years of struggle [LAT]
