There Does Not Exist…Or Does There?
There is (or isn’t) a new brewery in town, where tasty concoctions are conjured into existence.
Built in the burgeoning business district behind Trader Joe’s on Earthwood Lane, There Does Not Exist crafts personal and purposeful brews there. The exterior gives no hint of the treasures to be found inside, from the fascinating farmhouse ales, pale ales, pilsners and stouts, to the clean and inviting space adorned with street art-inspired Shepard Fairey works (the artist behind the iconic Hope artwork from Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign).
The brewery started with a simple love of beer, set off by an almost cosmic coincidence. For Max Montgomery, this love led to a year of extensive research and reading about brewing before trying his hand at creating his first batch of homebrew. As fate would have it, a neighbor happened to drive by while Max was playing with an early recipe in his garage with the door open wide. The neighbor saw the boilers, the wort separators and chillers and stopped to take a closer look. To Max’s surprise, his inquisitive neighbor turned out to be Matt Brynildson, brewmaster of Firestone Walker Brewing Company. They tossed around ideas in the garage, and Max’s passion and study of brewing was immediately evident.
Matt encouraged Max to delve deeper into the study of beer, which resulted in Max travelling to Chicago for three months and then to Munich, Germany for two months to attend the Siebel Institute of Technology. The Siebel Institute is a premier vocational school that has helped brewers develop their skills since the mid-1800s.
It was in Munich, surrounded by breweries over 300 years old, that Max began to truly appreciate the history of beer and juxtapose this history with the current state of the brewing industry, and to start to define his own space within it.
Max attributes much of his brewing journey to Matt, as they worked alongside each other at Firestone Walker for five years. It was at Firestone that Max learned to brew on a larger scale and received support and direction to make the leap to There Does Not Exist. When asked about competition in the industry, Max is quick to point out that Matt is both a mentor and friend, and that the industry has been nothing if not supportive. “There really is no competition. What I have experienced is more of an environment of support and sharing knowledge and resources.”
There Does Not Exist brews traditional-style beer, but Max is always looking at creating new and interesting libations for guests to enjoy. He recognizes there is “a very precise way to make traditional beer, which is great. I find pleasure in thinking about what I love about my favorite beer, and then like to reverse engineer the subtleties I enjoy most about a particular beer, while still paying homage to beers of a different time.” This can be exemplified through his brew Early Peoples Vol. 1, his first foray into eccentric and existential yeasts of farmhouse origin. This low-alcohol content beer (4% ABV) is a throwback to a time when beer was safer to drink than water, made for consumption by farmworkers seeking refreshment after a toilsome day in the fields. It is light but complex and easy to drink, perfect for knocking back a few with friends or co-workers at the end of a long day.
Farmhouse ales were traditionally made from ingredients readily available on local farms. Oftentimes the yeast was stuck to the paddles used each year to brew on these farms, so the living yeast was inadvertently passed down from generation to generation. Because local ingredients varied based upon the location of the farm, today there are fewer rules as to what constitutes a farmhouse ale. This allows for creativity in creation, and provides fewer guidelines and rules created by tradition.
In fact, there are some parallels to draw between the farmhouse ales created by There Does Not Exist and the way the business is conducted — opting to respect tradition while deciding to play by their own rules. Max explains, “We want to shake things up and re-imagine what a brewery can be. Sometimes people follow a formula that works, but we didn’t necessarily want to do that.” Not to worry though. They still keep with some traditions, like feeding the spent grain to some local cows, which is a treat the cows love.
With clarity now on the brewery’s beginnings, processes and spent grain distribution, one big question lingers. What’s in the name? It’s the question that always seems to bubble to the surface, adding even more intrigue to the new establishment. Why the name, There Does Not Exist? Max acknowledges that “it is a little spacey and a little out there. The name is relevant in diverse ways to different people.” It can be fun to ponder what the name means while exploring existential matters over a Lunar Pollen, which is out-of-this-world delicious. There Does Not Exist does not rely on traditional marketing, as they believe the beer should speak for itself, and it certainly does. There is a strong focus on “drinkability, balance, nuance and subtleties. And of course, pushing the envelope is cool.” You won’t find any flagship beer here either.
While many breweries are driven by time in terms of adhering to a production schedule, There Does Not Exist lets purpose and creation guide their brewing process. Innovation and intentionality are very much a part of what makes There Does Not Exist so much fun.
