By Jake
Poinier Bolt Brewery began in 1987, when Clint Stromberg, at just 19, launched his brewery in San Diego County.
While Bolt’s brews earned a loyal following, the business challenges eventually became insurmountable, and Stromberg had to shutter the business. He transitioned into building and installing brewing equipment, eventually working on about 200 breweries worldwide.When Stromberg met his now-wife and co-owner Molly Rust in 2011, he had just finished working on Coronado Brewing Company’s tasting room on Knoxville Street in San Diego.“When we first met, he told me, ‘I want to open a brewery,’” she says. “I’m an accountant, so I thought to myself, ‘OK, we’ll see.’” Then, when we’d been together for about three months, we were walking in Little Italy and stopped in front of what was then the North End Lounge. He looked at it and said, ‘One day, this is going to be ours.’”
Bolt reinvented
Fast forward to fall 2014 and the couple was on track for the reinvention and launch of Bolt Brewery in La Mesa in December.“
I was living in La Mesa, and that’s where Clint was born and raised,” says Rust, who managed the accounting, licensing and paperwork, while Stromberg handled the design and building. “We wanted to start it somewhere we had roots.”
Then, like a bolt from the blue, the building in Little Italy came available…just three months before opening day in La Mesa.“
We’d never sold a beer and we had already signed our lease on our second location,” Rust says. “We had no money, but Clint and our other business partner at the time outvoted me. But man, what a good decision they made!”
Starting up two breweries just a few months apart wasn’t for the faint of heart. Business was a bit slow for the first year or so, but by the third year, they’d hit their stride—and Rust’s financial acumen helped them weather the difficulties of the pandemic.
That and the relationship the couple has with California Bank & Trust. “We have been very impressed with the level of service CB&T has provided us over the years,” she says. “Our banker Joe Snyder is always available and prompt to deliver excellent service. The relationships we have with CB&T means everything to a small business like ours.We know they are rooting for us, and it is good to have them on our side.”
Something for everyone
While the two locations feature the full range of Bolt’s beers, the vibe is distinctly different at each. Bolt Brewery & Beer Garden in La Mesa is an outdoor beer garden with picnic tables and cargo containers, and a steady rotation of live bands and food trucks. A Quonset hut houses all the brewing equipment and supplies both the La Mesa and Little Italy locations.
Befitting a more touristy location, Bolt’s Little Italy Eatery & Tasting Room includes liquor, wine, seltzers and ciders, as well as 15 to 20 Bolt brews on tap. The Little Italy location offers a full restaurant menu, with munchies such as giant Bavarian pretzels, wings and spicy pickle fries to a full lineup of burgers, sandwiches, burritos and tacos.
On the tap list, hopheads gravitate toward Stairway to Hazyville IPA and Tropic Thunder IPA. But there’s something for everyone, from the popular Mango Me Crazy blonde ale to porters, sours and lagers. “We just got back from Germany. Clint is always working to improve his Pilsner,” Rust adds.
Bolt also introduced So Fly Seltzer in the spring. “There was a lot of resistance in the industry to brewing seltzer a few years ago, but now everyone’s doing it,” she continues. “You need to be innovative and brew what people want.”
If you’re looking to expand your palate, there’s always something new at Bolt’s rotating taps, too. “Every few months, we’ll experiment with something and, if it sticks, we’ll stay with it,” Rust says. “That’s what happened with our Red Eye Monkey Ale, and they’ve really got the formula locked in now. [It] sometimes takes a couple of batches—you brew, you tweak it like any recipe, a little more of this, less of that, until you find the right balance.”
It’s all about the brew
Bolt differs from many of its brewery competitors in a couple of key respects. First, you won’t find their beers in stores; you have to go to one of their locations (if you’re hankering to bring some suds home, they do offer growlers and crowlers).“
Foot traffic is key to our business, since we don’t have our beer in stores,” says Rust. “Lots of people look for breweries, so we really count on people walking by to find us.”
Second, you won’t find them entering contests. “Clint’s been in the industry for so long, he’s just not interested in that kind of stuff anymore,” Rust says. “We’re really concentrating on brewing great beer, and we let our customers be the judge of how we are doing.”
What’s next for Rust, Stromberg, and Bolt Brewery & Beer Garden? The dream is a third location, Rust says. “We can’t give all the details yet, but the plans are for another tasting room in a high-traffic area—more similar to Little Italy than La Mesa.”