It’s midafternoon on a weekday in 1994. A lanky young man is huddled in a phone booth, the receiver sandwiched between his ear and shoulder as the mercenary device sounds out ring after unrequited ring. Where is he? He knew I was coming. I called him an hour ago before leaving Temecula. C’mon, man, answer. I need to get back and I really need the stuff!
Just then, the unmistakable sound of a handset being lifted from its cradle registers from the other end of the line. That you, Vinnie?
Relief flows through Vinnie as he confirms his identity and lets his supplier know he’ll be heading up the hill momentarily to meet up with him at “their spot”. No further words are exchanged; after all this time both parties know the drill. Vinnie hangs up then hustles across the Mobil station and back into his vehicle.
Five minutes later, he pulls into the student parking lot on the south end of the UC San Diego campus. Chris is waiting right where he always does, brandishing a smile and a nondescript paper sack. Vinnie pulls up beside him, rolls down the driver’s side window and, as if choreographed, the bag and its precious contents are exchanged for a wad of cash.
The pair exchange the most modest of nods. There’s no time for pleasantries. Vinnie needs to get back. There’s big business afoot, and besides, he knows he’ll be right back here picking up more product from Chris in no time.
Vinnie mashes the accelerator and heads for home, while Chris turns and hurriedly makes his way back to his dorm room. He’s determined to cram for his upcoming biochemistry midterm, but it’s getting harder and harder to concentrate on school these days. His side-hustle is really taking off.
Over the past year or so, Vinnie’s been joined by a number of other regular customers, all of whom are hooked on Chris’ homegrown wares, to the point where the doctoral student feels emboldened to put the degree he’s working on to work on something that could change the world…or at least an emerging niche industry. It’s where his passions lie, after all, so why not go for it?
Such were the humble beginnings of one of the craft-beer industry’s most influential suppliers, San Diego’s very own White Labs.
This year, Dr. Chris White’s eponymous yeast-production concern is celebrating three decades in business. Much has transpired over that lengthy span, with the Miramar operation growing dramatically, spawning offshoots and developing new products that, like Chris’ initial pitchable liquid brewer’s yeast, have gone on to revolutionize the craft-beer and beverages industry.
“I have fond memories of my yeast pick-ups from Chris when he was going to school at UCSD and growing yeast on the side for [homebrewers and] a few of us in the industry,” says Vinnie Cilurzo, the founder and award-winning brewer behind Windsor, California-based Russian River Brewing. Back in those early days, the yeast White provided was for Vinnie’s initial beer project, Blind Pig Brewing, at his family’s Temecula-based vineyard, Cilurzo Winery.
“It had to have looked like a drug deal, which is pretty funny to think about in hindsight,” recalls Vinnie. “Thirty-one years later, we have a pretty technical lab and we do all our own yeast propagation now, but back then it was great to have Chris in our backyard. It’s wonderful to see the success of White Labs and what it has become as a global yeast supplier.”
Like many, Vinnie first met Chris through homebrewing channels. Back then, recreational brewers had very little access to beermaking supplies, and even fewer options where yeast was concerned. Ditto the fermentationists at the county’s commercial brewing operations, such as Vince Marsaglia, who converted his Solana Beach restaurant, Pizza Port, into a brewpub in 1992.
“In the early days of Pizza Port, materials for brewing weren’t as easily attainable. I had to drive up to Great Western Malting in L.A. on Wednesdays to get 2-Row in these bulk bins they would fill from their silo. Wednesday was the only day for 2-Row. The other days they were filling railcars of 6-Row for big brewers,” says Vince. “Back then, different yeast strains were only available from Wyeast in these ‘Smack-Packs’ we had to propagate just to homebrew, and propagate from there to actually get enough yeast to pitch in a seven-barrel batch at Pizza Port. It was a constant battle of timing to keep the brewing on track.”
In those days, Chris and his wife, company co-founder Lisa White, regularly came to Pizza Port with their friends Jack White and Yuseff Cherney, the duo behind San Diego County’s premier outlet for recreational brewing supplies, Home Brew Mart, which was also the launchpad for their other business, Ballast Point Brewing. The quartet met when the Whites attended an all-grain homebrewing class at the budding Morena business, and became fast friends over their love of beer. Soon, they were homebrewing 15-gallon batches every weekend, enough for Chris to have four beers on tap at his small college apartment, which was also where he began banking yeasts from around the world with the intention of producing better homebrew. It worked and was quite the accomplishment, but it was just the beginning.
“At some point, Yuseff asked me if I could make yeast for Home Brew Mart, pitchable liquid yeast that homebrewers could use the same day they bought it. That did not exist at the time,” says Chris. “Liquid brewer’s yeast existed from a couple of suppliers, but it took several days for homebrewers and pro brewers to grow it to the size needed. I started slowly with just one yeast strain, WLP001 California Ale Yeast, which is commonly referred to as ‘Chico’ yeast today.”
Chris says he tweaked every batch of California Ale Yeast, homebrewing with each one to learn what propagation conditions created the best yeast, the best fermentation and the best beer. In the beginning, he produced 50 units of yeast per week and sold all of it to Home Brew Mart. Despite getting 100% of that stock, the shop regularly sold out of it the same day it was delivered. Jack asked Chris to start making more, but he turned him down.
“I said I had to stay focused on my graduate school lab work, because I did not think this would be more than a hobby business,” says Chris. But after meeting Vince and seeing his setup and struggles at Pizza Port, it occurred to him that he may also be able to provide pitchable liquid yeast for commercial operations. “I took a business class at UCSD Extension, my parents loaned me $15,000 and I started working on my business plan. Pizza Port would soon become my first pro-brewery customer.”
The rest, as they say, is history, a rich legacy made possible by countless industry professionals that shared Chris’ passion for maximizing the quality of craft beer and other fermented beverages (White Labs also produces yeast for winemakers and distillers) and appreciated his continuous efforts to advance its most quintessential ingredient, even when it wasn’t all that lucrative of a venture.
“It took a decade to become profitable. I remember the first month that we sold $5,000 of yeast. It was so exciting that I wanted to keep going. It was not easy, but we did it,” says Chris. “My mission has been the same for 30 years: to serve the fermentation needs of the brewing industry and to run a growing, happy company. I thought if we worked to make the best yeast in the world, people would want to use it.”
And they did. Beginning in 1998, White Labs began selling more and more yeast outside of San Diego County. The Whites funneled their increased profits into the hiring of professionals in all areas, many of whom are still with the company today, and investing in new equipment, techniques and locations. White Labs now has over 100 yeast strains in production, two patents for its FlexCell and Pure Pitch Next Generation innovations, and has since expanded to include bases of operation in Asheville, North Carolina, and Copenhagen, Denmark. But even as an international enterprise, the company remains local at its core.
“White Labs is a very San Diego story. Nothing could have happened without the friends, family and homebrewers that believed in me here. I am proud to have grown our company along with the San Diego craft-brewing industry,” says Chris. “When I started traveling for business and beer-judging, people would make fun of West Coast beer styles. They don’t anymore.”
Recently, Chris invited some of the very people who helped elevate San Diego’s craft-beer reputation ‒ early clients who, like him, have gone on to achieve a great deal as brewers and industry entrepreneurs ‒ to take part in the collaborative brewing of a 30th anniversary beer at White Labs’ in-house brewery, which was added to its Miramar headquarters in 2012. That esteemed assemblage included Jack, Yuseff, Vince, Home Brew Mart vets Jim Johnson and Colby Chandler, Karl Strauss Brewing co-founder Chris Cramer, Stone Brewing co-founder Steve Wagner, Puesto Cervecería Head Brewer Doug Hasker, Premier Stainless Systems owner Rob Soltys, and former White Labs employees John “Johnny O” Oliphant, Joe Kurowski, Paul Cesena and Tomme Arthur. The latter is best known as the owner of Vista-based The Lost Abbey Brewing, but before opening that business or making a name for himself with Pizza Port ahead of that, he (like other famous local brewers, Jeff Bagby and Lee Chase) worked for White Labs when the ‘90s-era downtown San Diego brewpub he headed, Cerveceria La Cruda, closed down.
“I did some R&D work on new strains and some sales. Heck, I even lived with Chris and Lisa for a hot minute. Working at White Labs in the early days is something I will always cherish,” says Tomme. “The landscape for yeast has changed over the years, but White Labs has remained as a shining example of how a company can find success in their adherence to great customer service and quality. They continue to excel at being awesome members of the San Diego brewing community.”
WLP001 California Ale Yeast remains the top-selling liquid yeast in the country 30 years after its debut, and that venerable strain was used to ferment the 30th anniversary beer, a red ale called Still Classy. That beer will debut as part of a special event being held at White Labs’ Miramar tasting room the third week of April.
“White Labs was born out of a need and fueled by a passion for a knowledge of brewing and beer styles unknown to so many here in the U.S. It was the start of the great surprise that the world of brewing became to so many people, which continues to this day,” says Vince. “White Labs has and is still innovating new and better ways of doing things while still preserving the importance of the past.”
White Labs Brewing is located at 9495 Candida Street in Miramar