Santa Cruz Mountain Brewing sold to owners of Sante Adairius, Private Press

Eighteen years after founding Santa Cruz Mountain Brewing, owners Emily Thomas and Chad Brill have sold the neighborhood brewery to Adair Paterno, owner of Capitola-based Sante Adairius Rustic Ales, and Brad Clark, owner of Private Press Brewing in Santa Cruz. The acquisition will be finalized at the end of the month. 

Santa Cruz Mountain Brewing will continue its regular operations under Paterno and Clark. Brill will stay on through the transition, while Thomas is moving on to new adventures after obtaining a law degree in 2022. Many aspects of the brewery will stay the same, including most of the staff. Paterno and Clark plan to streamline some of the beer recipes, and beers from Sante Adairius and Private Press will be added to the draft list, Paterno told Lookout. 

“While the decision to sell has been incredibly difficult, we couldn’t be happier to sell to Adair and Brad,” Thomas said. “We believe [they] will innovate, expand our reach and continue providing our loyal customers with exceptional craft beers.”

On Sunday, Jan. 28, the community is invited to celebrate Thomas and Brill at “Emily and Chad’s Last Call” at the brewery. 

It’s a bittersweet moment for longtime SCMB fans. Thomas and Brill have been fixtures in the craft beer community for almost 20 years and it’s hard to overstate their influence on the local industry. 

When Brill and Thomas opened SCMB in 2005, the craft beer boom was still a decade away. The Swift Street Courtyard complex was home to a few scrappy businesses and wineries, but it was years from being the vibrant neighborhood destination it is today. 

In the early 2000s, SCMB became a community gathering place and its taproom was known for its friendly, down-to-earth service. 

With Thomas at the helm, she and Brill founded several annual community events that highlighted other local businesses, including Sausagefest, an Oktoberfest-style festival, and Wing Ding, a chicken wing cooking competition. SCMB’s most ambitious event was Twisted Tasting. At this themed beer festival, attendees were invited to brew and serve their most innovative and weird creations. At the most recent space-themed Twisted Tasting, at the Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium in 2019, brewers poured hundreds of guests beers made with candy cap mushrooms, funky wild yeasts and aged in gin barrels.

The brewery frequently hosted fundraisers for local organizations, like its monthly “Ales for Tails” event for the Santa Cruz County Animal Shelter.

Thomas was a spokesperson for the craft beer community, and women in the brewing industry in particular. She hosted “Strong Women Brew Strong Beer” women-only homebrewing classes with other female members of the local brewing community, including Paterno, and made a point to always have at least one female brewer on staff. 

Several other local breweries were born over a few pints at SCMB. Rather than stifle any new competition, Thomas and Brill would often lend a helping hand with advice, ingredients and equipment. 

SCMB was also committed to sustainability, and was one of the only certified organic breweries in the state. 

“One of the many reasons we wanted to acquire SCMB is because we understand it’s important, not just to brewing history in Santa Cruz County (18 years!), but also to the community as a whole,” said Paterno in an email. “Emily is a dear friend and I have a mountain of respect for her and the community she built at her taproom, and through her fundraisers and events.”

The new owners will not renew SCMB’s organic certification due to the limited range of available organic hops and malted barley. “We want the flexibility to be able to brew with a wider range of ingredients, and unfortunately the beer industry hasn’t caught up with the rest of the market in terms of array and availability of raw [organic] materials,” said Paterno.

It’s hard to imagine two people better suited than Paterno and Clark to take the helm of the Westside institution. Thomas and Paterno have been close friends for many years, and have worked together to promote the Santa Cruz County craft beer community. 

Paterno is also on the board of directors of the California Craft Brewers Association, a nonprofit trade organization that represents the state’s craft and specialty brewing industry. She and former business partner Tim Clifford founded Sante Adairius Rustic Ales in Capitola in 2012, and it now also has locations in Santa Cruz and Oakland. When Paterno purchased Clifford’s stake in Sante Adairius in 2022, it became one of America’s few entirely women-owned craft breweries, joining just 2.9% of the industry. 

Sante Adairius is considered one of the best breweries in the nation; in 2020, it was ranked the ninth-best brewery in the world by RateBeer, a beer-ranking site and app. It’s known for its well-constructed beers and attention to detail. And while it specializes in Belgian ales fermented with wild yeasts, it also produces more approachable beer styles, including IPAs, pale ales and lagers.

Clark, Paterno’s husband, is a respected and skilled brewer known for his barrel-aged beers. He founded Private Press Brewing, a nano-brewery that produces imperial stouts and barleywines. Private Press’ barrel-aging facility is also located in the Swift Street complex, although the brewery sells its beers only to its club members and does not have a taproom. 

Both the craft beer industry and SCMB have grown and changed over the past 18 years, but the brewery maintained a welcoming, inclusive community. Paterno and Clark aim to preserve that tradition. 

“[SCMB] is currently the oldest continuously operating brewery in Santa Cruz County, and I have long admired the craftsmanship and dedication of its owners,” said Paterno. “We look forward to collaborating on new and exciting beers that showcase the best of both our breweries.”

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