Meet Menifee’s new employee – a craft brewery ‘ambassador’ - Press-Enterprise

Menifee wants to tap into the craft brewery industry to build and diversify the young, fast-growing city’s economy.

And, to do that, the city of 95,000 has created a position of brewery and distillery ambassador.

Chasing craft breweries isn’t all Joel Hermosillo, the city’s inaugural ambassador, does. He also works as a management aide in the economic development department.

But Hermosillo, 24, said he spends 35% of his time contacting breweries, knocking on their doors and developing advertisements for trade magazines to get their attention.

His message is simple.

“Hey, we’re here. We’re open for business. We want breweries here,” he said.

The reason for the strategy also is simple: Menifee residents spend $54 million a year buying beverages at establishments outside the city, Gina Gonzalez, the city’s economic development director said, citing an outside firm’s analysis. 

“We equate that to an untapped opportunity,” Gonzalez said. “That’s the money that we are trying to capture.”

At the same time, Menifee residents are asking for more places to go to close to home, Hermosillo said.

It’s not that there aren’t any places to go to. Mason Jar Brewing Company makes its home in Menifee, near Newport Road and the 215 Freeway.

“We have one brewery, who we love,” Gonzalez said. “But we’re trying to create more than just one.”

Gonzalez said the city is looking to land a cluster of breweries similar to those in San Diego, Anaheim and Temecula.

The city has had promising discussions with potential operators, she said, but so far none has decided to expand into Menifee.

Kirk Medeiros, owner of Craft Brewing Company in Lake Elsinore and Temecula and vice president of the Inland Empire Brewers Guild, said he welcomes the campaign.

“I think it’s great that the city is trying to do something,” Medeiros said.

He added that a cluster would attract customers who like to bounce from brewery to brewery to sample different beers, like those who enjoy wine tasting at different wineries in close proximity to each other.

His son and co-owner Nick Medeiros said the strategy makes sense.

“With all the new homes being built out there, people are going to want to have places to go to,” he said.

And, as for the brewery and distillery ambassador position, he said, “what a great title.”

Craft breweries have been popping up all over.

Bill Steinkirchner, owner of Stone Church Brewing in Corona and Temecula and president of the Inland Empire Brewers Guild, said there are more than 1,000 craft breweries across the state now and 77 in Riverside and San Bernardino counties. He said there are 15 in the Temecula-Murrieta-Lake Elsinore-Menifee area — two-thirds of them in Temecula.

Offering a taste of the local economic impact, a study by Cal State San Marcos last year found that Temecula’s breweries generated $24.7 million in sales during 2018.

Steinkirchner, who also serves on a committee for the California Craft Brewers Association, said craft breweries have become popular in part because of the rich, diverse taste of their brews.

“What is it about craft beers that people like? With craft beer, there are no two beers alike anywhere in the craft beer world,” he said.

As welcome as a municipal campaign may be, he said, what’s more important is streamlining a city’s process for reviewing applications and issuing permits. Depending on the city, Steinkirchner said, it takes six months to a year for a new craft brewery to get the required approvals.

Gonzalez said city officials are aware of that concern, and a while back the Menifee City Council created a “Streamlined Menifee” initiative to simplify and shorten its review process for all types of businesses.

“We are growing leaps and bounds. We’re the fastest-growing city in southwest Riverside County,” Gonzalez said.

And Menifee, which is welcoming a 14-theater movie house with a giant screen, a bowling alley and a franchise hotel, is looking to add an industry that is popular with many families moving to a community where the average age is 36.

“And we felt that rolling out the red carpet and creating an ombudsman program was a way to show, coupled with Streamlined Menifee, that we’re serious about it,” she said.

Let's block ads! (Why?)

"craft" - Google News
February 03, 2020 at 10:00PM
https://ift.tt/31keekJ

Meet Menifee’s new employee – a craft brewery ‘ambassador’ - Press-Enterprise
"craft" - Google News
https://ift.tt/2YrY2MS
Shoes Man Tutorial
Pos News Update
Meme Update
Korean Entertainment News
Japan News Update

Bagikan Berita Ini