Defenders of Beer || Brooklyn Brewery

By Marie Kloor & Dan Nielsen for Scrimshaw Collective

Jack Nicholson said it best: “Beer, it's the best damn drink in the world”! Can't say we disagree with the man, especially after our visit to the Brooklyn Brewery last week. A celebrated institution here in North Brooklyn, the brewery straddles the line of Williamsburg and Greenpoint. While the surrounding area has become laden with upscale hotels and clubs, the Brewery retains an unmistakable air of authenticity - reminiscent of the young entrepreneurs who decided to build in the bustle of Brooklyn back in the ‘80s and ‘90s.

As chance would have it, childhood friend of Scrimshaw, Drew Bombard, serves as Brooklyn Brewery's Lab Manager and Microbiologist. Needless to say, he rolled out the red carpet and gave us a private tour of all the inner workings and history of the Brewery. And yes, we had a drink… or five.

Drew grew up in Boulder, went to Colorado State and has spent a lot of time in the beer business. Before Brooklyn Brewery, Drew worked for New Belgium (Fat Tire shout out) and has since become an expert in microbiology as it relates to the brewing process. His workspace donned with petri dishes of yeast cultures, microscopes and other various "Dexter's Lab" accoutrements had us second guessing our life decisions on spending our days married to a cubicle desktop. Seriously though, a big part of Drew's job is creating new flavors of beer alongside the Brewmaster himself! His specialty and greatest influence to Brooklyn Brewery is the introduction of Lactobacillus, which is used often in sour beers. New to the bottle lines this year is the Bel Air Sour (trust us it's amazing) that was officially named after Drew's 63 Chevy Bel Air. Yup, his job is pretty awesome.

After the tasting room and the lab, we went on the more traditional part of the tour where you see the entire brewing process from raw material to bottled deliciousness. The HQ location in Williamsburg churns out 55K barrels of beer a year - every time you get a Brooklyn Brewery beer on tap in NYC it comes straight outta BK. Despite things getting rather scientific at points, that hardly diminished the unmistakable air of fun throughout the brewery. We were even able to crash an after work party at the loading dock (every Friday the crew gets together, pulls out the kegerator, plays corn hole, skates and barbecues). The tasting room opens to the public at 6:00 PM on Fridays and starts up again at 12:00 noon Saturdays and Sundays. As Jackie Boy said, "I don't think many people have a very good understanding of leisure and the importance it plays in our lives". So in the spirit of that, go grab some friends, order a delivery pie, and enjoy the ever rotating taps down at the Brooklyn Brewery.

Whistler Blackcomb || From Sand to Snow

Have you ever wondered what it’s like to float among the mountains and hover above the clouds?  So have we, until we didn’t have to wonder anymore.  Welcome to Whistler, British Columbia.

Trading in our surfboards and waves for a weekend, we found ourselves at Whistler Blackcomb, surrounded by fresh powder, peaks, blades, with plenty of KIND Snacks to stay energized on the slopes and for after, unlimited après-ski. With a foot of snow gracing the ground the night we arrived, hitting the slopes in the morning was an experience like no other. The conditions were almost if we were snowboarding on air in a winter wonderland.  Snowboarding on and off trails that had yet to be touched and among trees that were perfectly frosted created a rush of ecstasy and adrenalin that left us just wanting more. 

There is something so addicting and freeing about truly emptying your mind and solely focusing on the rush of the present. Snowboarding Whistler allowed us to forget about the daily grind and focus on the moment. Surrounded by good friends, a perfect mountain, drinking hot toddy’s in our ski-in-ski-out lodge (pre and post snowboarding) and exploring the local flavor of the dive bars at night made, for an ideal weekend.

Easy Livin' in The Crescent City

January has been a very long month, especially the past week... But Scrimshaw recently hopped a quick flight south for a weekend of easy living in Louisiana’s Crescent City, the extraordinary metropolis of New Orleans! A speedy 48 hours exploring Mississippi’s Gulf Coast, led to a single overnight in The Big Easy, and boy was it worth it. Upon arrival, we happily checked into one of the city’s best new accommodations, the Ace Hotel New Orleans; an extremely gracious staff bumped us to a massive room stacked with our own record player (accompanied by a lovely personal collection of vinyl), a wicked nice guitar (that to-be-honest… remained untouched), and all the accoutrements you’d need/want (i.e. the dopest fleece robes). After catching a killer view of the skyline from their rooftop pool and bar, Alto, we hit the town.

Blackened fish and Abita beer; I need nothing else in life. New Orleans’ food scene is out-of-this-world delectable and they’ll have you rolling down the streets in no time – with a drink in hand of course! The night’s most magical 45 minutes came towards the end, with an intimate musical performance by the Preservation Hall All Stars at the legendary Preservation Hall. Tucked off Bourbon Street, on St. Peter in the French Quarter, one of the most energetic and talented group of performers I’d seen in some time, played six or so jazz tunes for our small group, and made me realized why music is so important (P.S. you won’t see any shots below from this, as there’s no recording of any kind once inside; but please make sure to play the audio clip at the top of the page – a song performed that night!).

Day two, involved lots more food, including King Cake from the infamous Sucré, getting lost in the Garden District, plus an exceptional guided tour of the oldest extant cemetery in New Orleans, St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 (which is still the site of several burials a year!). The cemetery’s past was extremely fascinating, as is its future; actor Nicholas Cage actually has a massive white pyramid-shaped grave lined up there for his final resting place (find photo below). A very brief trip to The Big Easy resulted in these photographs, but mainly solidified a new found love for such a diversely creative and historically important city in our country. Astounding music and tasty beignets, fused with to-go cocktails and loads of voodoo, are just a few reasons why we can’t wait to get back to New Orleans, LA.

The Saturday Night Bazaar

By Marie Kloor for Scrimshaw Collective

At Scrimshaw we fully embrace a wanderlust lifestyle and try to incorporate it in our daily lives. Wanderlust is more than just a desire to travel; it is a way of life that forces you to break a routine and allows for the discovery of the unexpected. Turning our desires into reality, Scrimshaw recently went on an adventure and took a trip to India. True to our style, we packed the trip to the brim with culturally fulfilling and classic tourist experiences. While the trip was amazing and full of unique experiences (some of them just for us to remember), nothing quite captured the sights, smells and tastes of India like exploring the Saturday night market in Arpora, Goa. Goa is a state on the western coast of India known for its beaches, clubs and the enormous amount of Russians that frequent it’s resorts. However, rather than hitting up one of the Western nightclubs that dot the shores, we decided to venture further inland to one of Goa’s lesser known attractions - the Saturday Night Bazaar.

We were initially lured to the bazaar by the promise of the best chicken we’d ever taste. Thus started our quest inland. But, upon taking a few steps into the brightly lit market, we were quickly led astray from our charted course by a spice merchant. Piles upon piles of spices of every imaginable color were overflowing in baskets on the merchant’s table.  It was stimulation overload between the aromas and vibrant colors. The merchant invited us to smell, then to taste. Immediately, flavors of earthy turmeric, smoky cumin and spicy masala chai consumed us. He promised that adding a dash of any of these spices to our cooking would immediately transform even the blandest dish into an Indian specialty. Bland, being the key word here, as we found that this is how Indians refer to most Western food. We had our doubts, but it was hard not to believe that spices as pungent as these would do at least something to our cooking. We decided to buy four of our favorites – fresh turmeric and mustard seeds for curries, and cloves and cassia for homemade chai.

Then came the negotiation. We found that the price of everything in India is debatable – hotels, cabs, clothes, drinks, you name it. Certainly all items at the bazaar were negotiable, with every merchant’s goal to extract as many rupees from each potential customer as possible. Indians are born negotiators, and know to take advantage of our Western acceptance of named prices (but we came prepared). We were given the inside scoop on how to price it out, and much to our success, ended up walking away with our spices for 100 rupees each, down from 200. WIN! Not bad for spice bags that were promised to revolutionize our cooking.

We continued to wander through the various tents as our group quickly dispersed in multiple directions. We ran our hands over beautiful silk and sequined sarees, tried on beaded necklaces and gold bangles, and flipped through journals with Hindu gods imprinted into the leather. Perhaps it was the day spent on the beach drinking endless Kingfishers, or just delirious from our sunburns, but we felt intoxicated by the energy and romance of the bazaar. It was one of those experiences where the cultural energy wasn’t lost upon us as travelers. We even immersed ourselves a step further and got into the moment by beating on a bongo drum in tandem with a drum merchant.

But like any good adventure or quest, derailed by intoxicating smells, colors, and merchants, we had to get back to our original goal, which to find this legendary chicken.

We collected ourselves, rounded up our companions, and made our way to the food tents. As we finally reached our adventures goal, we came to a moment of panic. Due to the cash crisis between the government and our own habits (excessive beach drinks: Kingfishers), we had limited funds left. The Indian Government recently discontinued the 500 and 1,000 rupee notes to crack down on corruption and bring illegal cash holdings forward!  Craziness. Cash was scarce during our stay, and it was not uncommon to see 30-40 people standing in line for an ATM at any one time, which truly gave us a unique perspective as outsiders.

We had about 1,500 rupees left, which sounds like a lot, but that’s only little over $20! This would barely cover one person’s dinner in the States, but in India, we were able to get a feast for four (again, perspective). With the tent’s aroma and our travels with minimal stops for food, we were ravenous.  Of course our eyes were bigger than our stomachs and ordered all the chicken legs, thighs, wings and breasts we could eat, as one does when they are presented with infamous Indian Chicken. The chicken was barbequed on grates over a charcoal flame, with huge amounts of sauce slathered on. The sauce would drip into the fire below, making a hissing noise and sending up smoke, not only teasing the taste buds but also heightening our other senses as well. We asked one of the cooks what was in the sauce, but he smiled but said nothing.  Such a cool moment. Someday when someone asks me a question about my passion and livelihood, I want to just smile and walk away.

We were presented with our meal and sunk our teeth into the moist saucy dark meat. In customary fashion, we ate with our hands, and covered our cheeks with the sauce, only stopping for air and to murmur, “holy crap this is amazing”. It’s hard to say exactly why the chicken was so good. Maybe it’s because some of the best things in life are the most simple or maybe because we had attained our goal. But looking back I like to think it was because in that moment, we were all truly present, sharing amazing food and embracing a foreign culture, surrounded by friends and loved ones. Wanderlust is more than just a desire to travel; it is a way of life that forces you to break a routine and allows for the discovery of the unexpected.

The Spirit of Local Innovation: A Conversation with McClintock Distillers

Written By Henry Clougherty for Scrimshaw Collective

There is a certain capitalistic inevitability to our modern paradigm of consumption. Always servile to the God of More, today’s all-in-one department stores like Wal-Mart are built on maximizing sales volume, decreasing prices, and reducing profit margins to force out competition.

Did we ever ask for the concentration of the local liquor store, hardware store, butcher, baker, pharmacy, optometrist, nursery, grocer, corner store, et al? Probably not. But we normalized it and before long it became so commonplace that no one gave it second thought and many were given no other choices, leaving most of us to shuffle in and shuffle out on autopilot and consume on loop because it’s easy. Why not buy a couch and cure a hangover in the same aisle if you can?

While there is some kind of perverse beauty in that idea, its very existence undermines the incredible work being done by impossibly driven people in small towns and big cities across the country who are creating exceptional products by the force of their own unique talents and inspired passion. With that in heart and mind, I am trying to get a grip and snap the hell out of it!  It’s time to get to our roots and ignore the watered down, homologous nonsense, find our way into the niches where creativity and originality thrive, and support local businesses who pour their heart, sweat, and blood into honing their craft.

At Scrimshaw, we drink local, at Scrimshaw we drink from McClintock Distilling.

McClintock Distilling, started by two friends, Braeden Bumpers (from here on out known as Bumpers) and Tyler Hegamyer, who sought to create local spirits, using organic grains, while revitalizing a warehouse in Frederick, Maryland; embodying local craftsmanship.

Recently, I was lucky enough to chat with Bumpers, who was able to set aside distilling for their grand opening on December 3rd, to chat with us for a little. McClintock Distilling is a company truly committed to this ethic of local quality, and Bumpers’ passion, talent, and expertise became self-evident about 30-seconds into our talk. 

Scrimshaw: Let’s get started. Can I just get an overview of McClintock – what’re you guys doing, why the name McClintock? Just explore the space a little in the early going…

Bumpers: Sure! So I’ll start with the name and then get into what we’re doing right now. McClintock is named after McClintock Young. He was a Frederick resident in the early 1800s and was very influential in turning the town into a legitimate city in Maryland. He was an inventor – had like 200 patents, he invented the pieces for the “”Velocipede” you know that goofy bike with the huge front wheel? He invented the modern day fire engine when he was 13. So, we kind of took his name to steer (ha, get it?) our company in his image – the spirit of innovation. We’re doing a lot of unconventional things in an industry that really hasn’t had any major changes in 200-300 years. We’re using state of the-art equipment, fully organic grain, and we’re experimenting with some small batch stuff that nobody has ever seen before. 

Scrimshaw: I’d love to hear more about what specifically you guys are doing that is so innovative and unconventional, and how that informs the direction of your company. Could you elaborate a little on state-of-the art equipment and what organic grain does to differentiate your product?

Bumpers: We use fully organic grain in all of our product. For all of our whiskeys, we actually mill in-house. We have a Stone Burr Mill – there’s only a handful of distilleries that use them. Rather than having a bunch of blades that chop up the grain and heat it to 130-140 degrees. It’s basically two giant granite blocks that grind up the grain. When you heat it up with an old hammer mill it kills off a lot of the enzymes and natural flavors of the grain. Whereas our process keeps it cool, so a lot of that character is preserved, and that carries over into the spirit. And for most people, you should actually be able to taste the difference. From there we are doing pretty much everything in-house for our whiskeys, so it’s grain-to-glass. For our gins we’re using a lot of unconventional ingredients in our botanical mix – it’s called Forager Gin, and it’s actually named after this time we went into the Appalachian wilderness with an old botany book and sampled a lot of native botanicals and herbs that grow wild up there, and that experience inspired our botanical mix. So, we’re using a bunch of stuff in there that has isn’t really used so much anymore. We’re trying to revive a lot of these old ingredients, and it really results in a truly unique flavor – it’s an American-style gin, but it’s really incomparable to anything else on the market right now. It has some citrus elements to it, some floral notes, but I can’t say it’s like Tanqueray or like Hendricks or like anything else.

Scrimshaw: Would I need to be a gin fancyman to be able to tell the difference, or will the average drinker be able to notice the different botanical mix?

Bumpers: Any consumer should be able to tell the difference between our products versus anything else that’s mass-produced and commonplace. We also vapor infuse the gin. Most distillers macerate or “bath tub” it – so you take neutral spirits like vodka and you throw all of the botanicals into the mix and let it steep for a few days, and then distill that and it really oversaturates the gin with a lot of the essential oils and other compounds that you don’t want in the product. We have a basket in line in our production still and we fill the basket with our botanical mix and it picks up the oils and essence of our mix as a vapor. You hear people say they hate gin because it tastes like Christmas trees? That’s a way oversaturation of the essential oils of the juniper. So we’ve eliminated a lot of that problem.

Scrimshaw: So it sounds like, when you say state of the art, that usually implies a movement towards technology, but it sounds like you guys are taking things back to basics and getting down to the essence of the product here. Is that accurate?

Bumpers: Yeah, it’s kind of two-fold, in that the basic ingredients, we’re definitely taking it back and using stuff that comes straight from the earth – but the actual process itself is state of the art.

Scrimshaw: What I want to know next is how this all came together. Give me the McClintock creation myth.

Bumpers: So, Tyler (co-founder) and I had been home brewing for a number of years. And the part about it that we loved wasn’t so much about the beer. It was taking raw materials and turning them into this complex finished product. Making something with your own hands. I guess that’s not super common with people our age – people want to make apps, tech, whatever – we really love working with our hands to create some physical thing.

Scrimshaw: I don’t even like brewing my own cup of coffee, man.

Bumpers: Exactly! So that was our goal. That we like to do – to actually make something. And spirits were something we both felt strongly about. A few years ago, Maryland legalized distilling for the first time since prohibition, so this was Tyler’s brainchild and he thought Frederick would be the perfect place for it. He convinced me to quit my job way too early, but we’ve been working on the business now for about four years and we’ve been in this building for about a year and four months. The majority of the initial time was spent doing research, and so much changed during that time, but even more time was spent getting the money together. Neither of us are super loaded, so we had to get a little creative getting financing from the bank, but once we got that we were able to get this incredible historic building in downtown Frederick. And that’s when we pivoted our business plan to include a more upscale tasting room, and being able to host events – weddings and stuff. We’ve been in construction for well over a year now – mostly done ourselves. We’re very satisfied with the way it turned out.

Scrimshaw: How do you envision the market-space for craft distilling – similar to craft beer? Where do you fit into the industry?

Bumpers: Something similar to the craft beer boom is kind of our hope. We went to a distilling conference out in Seattle, and I hate saying it – the west coast is way ahead of us in terms of craft distilling movement. Kings county where Seattle is – King’s county alone had like 88 distilleries. Portland has a bunch. And we were looking at all this and saw room for us on the east coast. The numbers we’re seeing kind of point to a similar mark as the craft beer trend – it has so far. A few years ago craft spirits represented about .5% of the market, when we first started it was a little over 2%, and now it’s 3% - which is really similar to the craft beer trajectory. It’s a little bit different in that there are a lot of customers that have been drinking Maker’s Mark or Jack Daniels for their whole lives – it’s tough to win people over. There’s such crazy brand loyalty in spirits that I don’t think you see as much of in beer. But with products and unique spirits that are truly different, your typical mega-distillery can’t matchup. So the space is out there. The problem is that all of the major labels are owned by huge conglomerates and they all work together. Everyone says “oh Jack Daniels is family owned” –it’s not. It’s owned by a giant corporation out of Italy – and almost all of these products are. I think the more transparent that becomes to people, the more will be turned off by these mega distilleries. They start looking at the craft products for what they want. Because it’s local, it’s handmade, people take a lot of care, it’s a passion-project, and it’s not just lining the pockets of some giant corporate mogul.

Scrimshaw: Yeah man, you can see, you can pop into the distillery and see who’s putting this stuff out and making it. That’s part of what draws me to the whole buy local ethic.

Bumpers: And they care about it. You know? People don’t get into the craft beverage market because they want to make a lot of money, I can tell you that. Because it is tough. It is really tough. But, people get into it because they are really passionate and they think they have a really great product, and we fit into that same boat.

Scrimshaw: I can tell just by the way you talk about this stuff that there’s an artistry to what you’re doing. It’s the same way a painter approaches a canvas – you’re trying to communicate something. What are you hoping your product line communicates to the customers? When someone sits down with your signature spirit, what do you want them to come away with?

Bumpers: Well, first and foremost, we want to make the best possible product on the market. The nice part of being at the scale we’re at is that we get to personally test every bottle that goes out – hand labeled, hand-signed it. We personally inspect every bottle to make sure it is the best possible product that we can put out there. In terms of the other aspects of our distillery that we want other people to see is the actual craft – everything we put into the spirit. We’ve also got a triple bottom line that really minimizes our wastewater, promotes our sustainability, and our distillery is totally wind-powered. (WHATTT?!?!) Also our involvement in our community – we sponsor a lot of events here in Frederick. We want people to see that and be proud of it – there’s a distillery in my hometown and its producing great product as well. But it all funnels back to the number one overall goal – to put out the best product that we possibly can for anybody.

Scrimshaw: So then what kind of product line are you launching here on December 3rd? Any super-secret small batch experiments you can divulge?

Bumpers: I can tell you the specifics of what we will have available. The three products that will be available right away will be our Epiphany Vodka – distilled from Northern Italian wheat – so it’s different than a lot of other vodkas out there that are distilled with corn or potatoes – fully organic as well. We have custom plate filters that we put it through, after we re-distill it to reduce any impurities that we can – we get down to .5 micron, so it’s literally the purest vodka you can possibly make. Then we have the Forager Gin which I talked about earlier. And we are also going to have Maryland Heritage White Whiskey, which is a rye-based white whiskey. Some people will call it moonshine or white dog – that just means unaged whiskey. Most of what’s out there right now is corn based and really syrupy and sweet to the taste – we did not want to do that. Our rye base gives it a more peppery taste, a lighter finish, and we also filter that for smoothness and drinkability. We’re aging a bourbon and a rye in-house – no names yet – because we’re not taking any shortcuts. Aging them out the old-fashioned way in 30 gallon barrels, so they won’t be ready for 2-3 years probably.

Scrimshaw: Being so local, where are you sourcing the ingredients from?

Bumpers: So, right now we were initially hoping to get our grains from local farmers. But, there isn’t enough farms or incentive for farmers to become organic certified grain farmers. So, it’s hard for us, in terms of the quantities we need – around 36 tons of corn, wheat, and rye – close to 100 tons a year. So it’s tough to find a local, organic certified supplier for that. We are in talks with a few farmers to start growing grains for us in the future so we can keep our supply chain in western Maryland.

Scrimshaw: Well, the last thing I want to end on – give me your hopes for the future. What’s the McClintock five year vision?

Bumpers: We want to be in distribution early next year. We’re going to start in Maryland, DC and Virginia. Ideally, we want to grow the brand across the US – within 5 years, we want to be on shelves in specialty spirit stores across the country.

Scrimshaw: Last word, give me a parting thought for people to come out and support local businesses.

Bumpers: Our main message is that we don’t care if you buy our specific product, but we want to see consumers buying local however they can. It doesn’t need to be our product, but supporting anyone who’s following their passion in life is immeasurably more valuable to the community, and to that person, than anything that one more tick on the Jack Daniels stock line can ever be. It just makes such a huge difference. One bottle to a craft distiller can be the difference between life and death sometimes.

Consider the care and attention Bumpers is putting into his work and product. His parting words say it all – one bottle, one shirt, one necklace, one cake – can make all the difference to these artisans. So, next time you’ve got some cash to spend, look to your local craft distillers and brewers, your hand-crafted jewelry makers, fashion designers, chefs, restauranteurs, farmer’s markets, food trucks, woodworkers, bakers, and musicians for inspiration, passion, and a way to really make a difference in your community. Embrace them. It doesn’t make you a hipster, it doesn’t make you a snob, and it doesn’t make you some bourgeois kook detached from reality. To me, it makes you an activist and someone who takes pride in your home town, appreciates the value of your own hard-earned dollar, and possesses a commitment to lasting quality over blind engorgement and planned obsolescence.

We want everyone to visit McClintock Distilling and keep an eye out for them on the shelves! Make sure to visit McClintock Distilling at the address and times below and DRINK LOCAL!

35 South Carroll Street
Frederick, Maryland
(202) 557-9914

Wednesday – Friday: 4PM – 8PM
Saturday & Sunday: 2PM – 7PM

Fresh Air in the Windy City || Chicago in the Raw

Here at Scrimshaw we immerse ourselves in the grit and grind of NYC while we gather with friends for micro-adventures within New England and simultaneously surf and backpack up the California coast.  Sometimes we forget that our motto, Sand Meets the Street, can apply to hidden gems outside of the coasts that we know so well.  With the Sand and Street on our mind, and the wanderlust traveler within, we found ourselves exploring the windy city of Chicago.

While there is no surf in Chicago, there is a certain ambiance that makes it so damn desirable from the months of April-October.  It has a certain rawness in its outer burrows with transformed record store bars, beautiful street art, and gorgeous architecture. We were able to travel with friends through the beautifully graffiti riddled streets of Logan Square with our cappuccinos in hand (constantly searching for the best cap) admiring the sheer talent and color that lined the city walls.  We made our way down through the city, stopping for signature cocktails in trendy warehouse bars and tiki lounges. Getting a little loose we were able to open our eyes and appreciate what most people pass by on their daily grind. 

With the mix of caffeine and Old Fashion’s in our veins, the sun shining, and inside jokes growing by the minute, we found our way onto bicycles, and explored the coast of Chicago where the Sand Meets the Street.  Here is Chicago through Scrimshaw’s eyes:

London In Colour: Street Art of Shoreditch & Brick Lane

Amidst the overcast skies of June, life was blooming with colour against a mix of restored warehouses & shops in London's buzzing neighbourhood, Shoreditch. We loved meandering the streets of Shoreditch, especially down Redchurch and our favourite, Brick Lane, to scope out the vibrant collection of murals and street art - plus some serious people watching!

Scroll down to check out our top pics from our afternoon exploring the East End of London Town. And remember, on your way out, exit through the gift shop. ENJOY!

Craft Beers + Brands: A Scrimshaw Event

Scrimshaw recently had a collaborative Surf Night event with Culture Brewing Co. at their brewery tasting room in Solana Beach, CA.  The event featured the creatives and the talent behind the brands Be Kind Vibes and NUERA swim.  Surf night couldn't have been complete without, It's Raw Poke serving up some tender Ahi Tuna and a succulent arrangement class from Rivers Eden.  As people poured in (beer pun) to drink craft beer, they got a fresh dose of two unique local brands with more than merchandise to offer.

Be Kind Vibes is more than just a local SoCal brand with American made apparel, they are a tribe of ocean lovers, mountain lovers, and lovers of wild open spaces.  Through their American made, eco-friendly apparel, they aim to inspire and promote conscious adventures.  Not only does Be Kind Vibes have a loyal following of environmentally savvy Tribesmen, they also have incredibly comfortable and creative gear.  Their hand drawn designs are inviting and simple, appealing to the wanderlust within.  Check out Be Kind Vibes HERE!

NUERA is a swimwear brand that combines sexuality and functionality into one kickass neoprene swimsuit.  Katelyn, the designer, model, and creative behind NUERA made it her life's mission to create swimwear and surf wear that will withstand anything the ocean has to offer while flattering the female figure and exhibiting a contemporary design.  She undoubtedly bridges the gap between high function and high fashion in the swimwear industry.  This local San Diego brand has humble beginnings, but is definitely destined to take the surfing world by storm.   Check out NUERA's gear HERE!

Rivers Eden is the perfect combination of bringing the outdoors into a social environment. Rivers Eden is a succulent arrangement class that allows you to create a succulent box out of reclaimed wood while drinking beer or wine!  Arranging the succulents allows for people to share their love of nature and show the value of sustainability all while enjoying an afternoon libation.

The night was an absolute blast and a massive success.  From the beers to the brands with Monster Children films being shown the entire time, what could have been better.  Stay tuned for articles on each of the brands and make sure to check out their gear, it's incredible!

I Left My Heart In San Francisco

A city built among the hills and the sky.  Scrimshaw took a weekend trip to San Francisco to breath fresh NorCal air and to see what the city had to offer.  Between the hidden coffee shops, incredible architecture, and wondrous sightseeing,  I realized that I had left my heart in San Francisco, yearning to go back.


Oh the Places We Will Go: Lake Tahoe

Sometimes, a picture can explain the entire story.  When you are standing at an elevation of 6,225 ft. looking at the largest crystal blue lake you have every seen, it is impossible not to be amazed.  This is Lake Tahoe.

Emerald Bay || Lake Tahoe