With Ojai Valley Brewery about to open its taproom and beer garden on Bryant Street this October, the time was right to catch up with Jeremy Haffner. He's been perfecting his hopless, local botanical beers for years, and selling them at the family restaurant Azu, which he operated with his wife Liz and mother-in-law Laurel Moore until the beloved institution was sold this month. 

Haffner has been using Ojai-specific herbs like sages, mugwort, yerba santa and sumac to give it the characteristic bitterness and flavor notes that beer enthusiasts crave. He also uses local water and runs his facility on 100 percent renewable energy, making only small batches to keep to an Ojai ethos of a sustainable, environmentally conscious, artisanal economy.

We also talked about his travels as the frontman for Oedipus, a hard-rock band with a devoted following in Europe as well as America, Ojai's future, growing up in Los Angeles, our musical interests, drugs and creativity, witches and a design college for the old school district headquarters. We did not talk about the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Sir John Franklin's Arctic expeditions or non-fungible tokens.

https://ojaivalleybrewery.com/