San Diego’s professional and amateur brewing communities are closely linked. Many pros started as homebrewers and regularly converse, consult and even collaborate with recreational fermentationists. (Some as part of San Diego Beer News’ annual Homebrew Summer program.) In 2019, Savagewood Brewing owner Darrel Brown invited a trio of friends and award-winning homebrewers working under the collective handle Voodoo Child Brewing to brew up a beer at his Scripps Ranch brewery. By the end of the year, Savagewood and Voodoo Child had teamed to craft five different yet equally well-received beers. It was enough to inspire the homebrewers to go pro. They looked at various sites for their business, but ended up finding a situation that worked for them when Brown asked if they’d like to become part of the business care of an alternating-proprietorship agreement. They signed on, allowing Brown to move forward with plans to move out of state. Now, Voodoo Child’s Justin Buckingham, Jake Deardorff and James McCanna have taken over day-to-day operations in Scripps Ranch, redoing the tasting room to exude a blend of Louisianan and tiki cultures. With the transition complete, we sat down with Deardorff and McCanna to get the details on this somewhat unorthodox partnership and find out what Voodoo Child is all about.
How does your team split responsibilities?
Jake Deardorff: There are three of us on the Voodoo Child side that I jokingly refer to as the “brew shamans”. I cover a lot of the behind-the-scenes business operations as well as being the lead on our recipes and brew schedule. Jake handles marketing, graphics, merch design and many of the general PR and customer-facing duties, and Justin is our resident jack-of-all-trades and works on a lot of our core facility items and upkeep.
How does your partnership with Savagewood work?
James McCanna: The partnership that we are in with Savagewood is pretty much the same business and the same staff, but with two brands under the same roof. The menu is split between the Voodoo Child and Savagewood brands, and depending on events, there will be an ebb and flow between whichever one covers more taps. But we will always have something on and available from each. We are very grateful to the brewery staff as all of them wanted to and have continued to work with us after we joined.
What is Voodoo Child’s overall thematic and brewing MO?
JD: The theme of the brewery is somewhat eclectic. I grew up in the deep south and have spent a decent amount of time in New Orleans and Louisiana, in general. A lot of the bars and other places there have some of the most bizarre décor I’ve ever seen. That is where we are getting a lot of our inspiration. We want people to feel like our tasting room is a fun, weird but welcoming place to come enjoy a good beer and hang out with their community. That eclecticism is also reflected in our beers. I personally love IPAs, Justin loves wheat ales and lighter beers, and James is a fan of European classics.
JM: If there is anything we want people to say about our beers, it’s that they are balanced and easy to drink. None of them, regardless of style, should be difficult to finish if you have a full pint. We also want to make sure that when you see a particular style, and expect that style, you should get that style.
What are some of the beers you tapped when debuting Voodoo Child’s tasting room?
JM: For our launch, we wanted to showcase a wide variety of beers that represent the different tastes that all three of us have. The most noteworthy of the beers on tap is our Voodoo Savages West Coast IPA, a remake of our original Savagewood collaboration beer we made in 2019 in honor of both breweries. In addition to that, we have Yardbird British golden ale, which took second place in a state homebrew competition, and Dixie Highway cream ale, both with and without coffee. There’s also Thanks for Hoppy By double IPA with Galaxy and Chinook, Shadow Guide oatmeal stout and Four Masters Irish red ale. Those will be followed by two Mexican lagers, one amber, one black; a red IPA, hazy IPA collaboration and couple of seltzers.
Now that Voodoo Child is operational, what are you most excited about?
JM: For us, t’s an opportunity for us to join and help build a great community we have been consumer members of for many years. For me, it’s an opportunity to build something from the ground up that can last and I can share with others. Beer can definitely bring the world together, and that’s something we need more of in these times.