40 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY JUNE 25-JULY 1, 2026 www.montereycountynow.com FACE TO FACE Kevin Wright has been brewing beer at home for about 20 years, which is not unusual. But as of March 18, he made the jump from hobbyist to what he considers a dream job as the new brewer at Hops and Fog Brewing Co. in Pacific Grove. “I think every homebrewer has the fantasy of opening their own brewery at first,” Wright says. But he goes on to explain that those dreams often dissipate when met with the reality and demands of running a business. Becoming the brewer at a pub—becoming a professional—is not something he sought, originally. Hops and Fog owner Mike Durrant began as a homebrewer. He recognized in Wright an attitude. Even when brewing was a hobby, beer was a focus of Wright’s life in more ways than one. He co-hosts the weekly live radio show Pub Talk on KRML at Alvarado Street Brewery locations, and admits he has to restrain himself from nerding out about beer. To him, it’s not only the science behind brewing that attracts him to the craft, but the conversations it creates between strangers, friends and communities. Weekly: What’s it like to go from homebrewing to doing it professionally? Wright: I joke with people that it’s surreal. It’s like watching your favorite movie. Mine is The Goonies. I can quote that movie forwards and backwards. You know it. You can quote it, but now you’re watching it in French. It’s like something is off—like you follow, but you don’t follow. It’s the same process: Brewing is brewing, temperature is temperature and fermentation is fermentation. But now it’s 10 times the size. And on top of that, this is someone’s livelihood. At home if I mess up a batch, I dump five gallons, but here it’s 120 gallons that goes down the drain and all the money that goes with it. So there’s some pressure. There are also more people to cater to now. [Gesturing to the patrons in Hops and Fog.] We’re probably looking at 40-50 people here. There’s a different pressure because all of your friends will love all your beer no matter what, because it’s free. They’ll tell you every time they love it. I’ll sit at the bar once in a while and not tell anyone who I am just to listen and get the unfiltered truth. That’s a lot of fun to hear what people genuinely think. Is this more rewarding than homebrewing? I try not to tell my wife about my day at work because I love it so much. A couple weeks ago I probably had one of the worst days I’ve ever had here. Mike [Durrant] was here and the nozzle of the hose had blown off and fallen to the bottom of the fermenter into probably a foot-and-a-half of hop sludge. I couldn’t see it and it had clogged the fermenter so it couldn’t drain. That slowed my day for probably about three hours. I had to take four coat hangers to fish it out and I was so frustrated, but Mike and I were laughing the whole time. He was like, “Yeah, how fun was that?” That was the best worst day ever. In the end I’m creating something with my hands and I love the physicality of it. That side of me is always listening, seeing and feeling, and Mike says you always have to have that to understand the pulse of the building. Do you have other hobbies besides brewing beer? I say that I collect hobbies. I have ADD so I don’t sit still. I work with wood, epoxy, resin and glass. I love doing artsy things and to me, brewing has always been an art. You tell stories when you have a beer. And you create stories when you have a beer. I think every beer I make should have a story of the spirit of me or who I was brewing with, or the person I was thinking about or brewing for. It’s always a little hard to give a stranger my beer because a little part of my self-esteem is in that pint glass. It’s kind of weird. What’s your favorite beer to brew? I really like a beer where you can sit at a table and have three or four of them, tell stories, walk home and remember the stories and the night. Session beers fit into that category. They’re low-alcohol. I’ve sat at bars where I’m having a conversation and the guy next to you who you’ve never met will butt in on the conversation, and now the three of you are talking. That’s the type of beer I like—where you can hang out and everybody is enjoying the conversation. Brewing Up A longtime homebrewer, Kevin Wright now calls craft beer his job, as head brewer at Hops and Fog. By Sloan Campi At home with his new equipment, Kevin Wright says the biggest differences between brewing beer at home and for a brewpub are scale—the tanks are bigger—and that people are more willing to give feedback. DANIEL DREIFUSS
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