The origins of Leashless Brewing can be traced back to when the founder, John, was a child, growing up a mile away from the beach in the sleepy beach town of Carpinteria. Initially afraid of the ocean as a child, he fell in love with the Pacific Ocean in his teens, and by 16, he was a certified scuba diver exploring the coastline and the Channel Islands. In the winter of 1994, he caught the surfing bug and fell in love with Rincon and Pacific Beach Point. As his love for the ocean grew deeper, so did his desire to live a natural and healthy lifestyle.
Fast forward a few decades, and John had completed a term in the USMC reserves, earned two Master’s degrees, had lived, worked and surfed in the South Pacific, Caribbean, conducted fieldwork/surf trips to Panama, Costa Rica, and Nicaragua all before finding himself living outside of D.C. with his wife, Leila. It was then that John and Leila learned that it wasn’t enough to eat healthy if the food wasn’t certified organic, and so they made the conscious decision to eat as much organic food as possible. It was around the same time that John had won his fair share of amateur brewing awards from competitions like the Master Championship of Amateur Brewing that he began to work on the business plan to open an organic brewery near his hometown. Ventura was chosen because of its proximity to both Los Angeles and Santa Barbara and because of its beach vibe and great surf.
Organic options were limited in the planning stages, but John was committed to incorporating all of his ideals into this venture: his love of Belgian-style beers, surfing a longboard leashless with style and grace, hosting parties, and being organic. His goal was, and still is, to use the brewery and its beers to help turn others onto an organic lifestyle, one pint of organic craft beer at a time.
Like many stories, this one is written daily with the efforts of Team Leashless and our fans. We are constantly striving to make the best organic craft beer possible. In some cases, we spend months looking for one ingredient that can make our beers better. It’s not easy being organic, but we see no other way to be a truly environmentally-conscious, sustainably-minded brewery and use conventional materials. Organic beer existed for centuries and Leashless Brewing will be part of its return.