Herlinda, Sayre & Mercedes

Mercedes Hernandez founder of the SOCO Market and Sayre Piotrkowski from HenHouse, are our guests on Brew Ha Ha with Harry Duke and Herlinda Heras.

The Freshtival is this Saturday, May 6 at Somo Village in Rohnert Park. Get tickets here, they are going fast!

As the show begins they open a Moonlight Death and Taxes that is only a few days old. Brian Hunt from Moonlight and Vinny Cilurzo from Russian River were the pioneers of quality and freshness. Today the billboard outside Santa Rosa says Welcome to Fresh Beer Country.

Sayre talks about what they call second-half beer quality. The HenHouse company mission is to improve beer quality for the end consumer and to create wealth for our community. Freshness is the one quality metric that the consumer has access to. You can see if a beer is kept cold and you can see its date of production. These two factors are vital.

Russian River Brewing Co. is open in Santa Rosa on 4th St. and at their big Windsor location. Click the logo to visit their website for up-to-date hours, menus, beers and more info.

The best place to get the freshest beer is this Saturday May 6 at Somo Village in Rohnert Park. The event is sponsored by the Bay Area Brewers Guild.

Brian Hunt says, “Fresh beer is like live music. Stale beer is like listening from the parking lot.”

Mercedes Hernandez describes how the SOCO Market started during the pandemic. Many Sonoma County businesses didn’t have a physical location so she invited eleven local makers to exhibit and sell together. It grew to over 60 vendors and then the city of Santa Rosa invited them to a market space in Old Courthouse Square that can have as many as 90. They have a market every month from April to August.

The SOCO Market with its panorama of jewelry, plants and clothing vendors lends a fun and colorful atmosphere for the Freshtival. The Art of Freshness Gallery will be showing artists who have created label art for local brewers.

The first beer tasted was The Art of Freshness, which is the name of a beer and the theme of the festival. They also taste Matiné Idol. For the rest, go to the Freshtival!

Today’s tastings on BHH.