Interview: Eagle Rock Brewery co-owner Ting Su

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Craft Beer Los Angeles

Photo courtesy of Andrew Bakofsky

INTERVIEW CONTINUED FROM PREVIOUS PAGE

How did you figure out what you would be best served doing with Eagle Rock Brewery? And has it totally shaken out at this point?

For the most part it’s shaken out. To get to that point, probably a lot of arguments. Certainly between Jer and I…Jer, for all intents and purposes, really manages the brewhouse production side of things. For all intents and purposes, I manage the business side of things. Steve’s strength is really kind of making sure the place is operational. His strengths are really, all of the equipment. He’s the master of that type of stuff. So you kind of have the physical building aspect of it, to keep it operational…Then the brewhouse side and front of house, events, logistics type things as well, are really kind of my strength overall. We kind of ended up dividing it that way for everybody’s sanity. When we first started out, we tried to more clearly define our roles and what everybody’s strengths were. There was a lot more stepping on toes, and trying to make decisions in some areas you might not have been particularly savvy at, or might not have been particularly strong. For me to go back to the brewhouse and make any kinds of demands is not necessarily the best idea. I can describe to a T what I’d like the boys to do, but as far as the technical brewing aspect of it and how to get it there, I leave it to their expertise.

What was your interest level in beer when you first started seeing Jeremy?

I loved beer. I started drinking beer well before I was legally allowed to, and just really got into the flavors. I discovered craft beer when I was an undergrad in Georgia. Decatur, this little town I was living in and going to school, there was this microbrew festival they had every year. The first time I went to it I was probably 19 or 20, and started trying out different styles of beer then and really, really got into thinking, “Holy smokes. There is so much more flavor in these beers. There are so many different types of beer and styles of beer than the average population is aware of.” So at that point I really started exploring beer. When Jer and I met and he was already really into beer, and even into brewing, I was like, “This could work.”


Craft Beer Los Angeles
Was it one family restaurant growing up, or multiple restaurants?

Multiple. There was one that was the mainstay and the workhorse of all the restaurants, if you will, but everything from the little Chinese food stand at the mall to larger format restaurants with a little bakery attached, our parents had owned at one time.

What was the workhorse?

The workhorse seated 120. Still around. My mom actually just sold it about five or six months ago. We laughed because we said we retired at the same time. She retired in the true sense and I retired into working harder.

What’s the name of the restaurant?

Su’s Garden. We were all working since we were like 14, I think. Even before that, because I was always really good at math. My parents taught me to count money very early on. At 12, I remember standing behind the cash register. My parents would put me for a couple hours at a time. I was basically at the mall food booth to take orders and make change for people. I basically started there and worked my way up to bussing tables, waiting tables, and eventually got to the point where I would have to manage the restaurant when my parents were out of town, occasionally.

So that’s how front of house comes easily to you?

Very much so. The business aspect to it, the hospitality aspect of it, came mostly from that background.

When do you open a restaurant?

When I go insane again. Starting the brewery, people were like, “What was the impetus behind that?” Insanity. I think we were a little crazy, but it worked out to our benefit. Our initial plan was to open a brewpub. After breaking everything down and thinking about it, we were like, “What are we crazy? We don’t have the resources, whether it be the financial resources or the brainpower, to focus on both.” So we decided financially it would be a lot more sane to start one and possibly expand later if we felt so inclined. At that point in time, it was frightening and too crazy to try and focus on both.

What’s your favorite part about owning a brewery?

Really, it’s watching it grow and develop. It’s probably true of any business. You think of the really humble beginnings. Jer and I still remember the first time we sent a keg out. Ryan Sweeney from Verdugo Bar said, “Yeah, I’ll try it your beers.” He’s always been super supportive throughout the start-up process, so he took our first keg, whatever came out of our brewhouse. Delivering that precious, precious keg over to Verdugo Bar, nervous as all hell, oh my gosh, the two of us were a mess that day. We were so nervous. “Oh my gosh, how is this going to be received?” I remember he put it on, he gave us the first sample of it, and we looked at each other with complete horror: “It’s under-carbonated!” Fortunately, they’re only a mile away so Jer rushed back and got another keg and it turned out fine.

What was that keg?

Solidarity. Solidarity was our flagship. I think from back to those days and see the very humble beginnings where we had these dairy tanks from AleSmith and just how tiny everything was. We were self-distributing, so we were running all the deliveries ourselves in a beat-up 4-Runner and in Steve’ CRV. All the beers were going out in some beat up old car. It’s to the point now where we’ve got 30-barrel fermenters, a 30-barrel bright tank. We call it Large Marge out there, the box truck that’s wrapped with our logos. I think just seeing the growth and development of the business is probably the best part of it. And seeing how, with regards to Jer and Steve, way back when, dreaming up a brewery and making it all come to fruition.

What’s the biggest challenge about operating a brewery?

Everything else. The biggest challenge of operating a brewery is probably just the day to day operations. For us, knock wood, it’s fortunate that one of our biggest problems right now is actually managing the amount of product we can actually produce. Trying to overcome the growing pains, so to speak, because we did grow and had to re-invest a lot of the revenue while we were still overcoming the initial debt from the start-up. It was a really difficult start-up. It took us two years, so trying to overcome the start-up and overcome the growing pains while we’re reinvesting every penny we have to try to keep up with the demand. It truly is the best problem to have, but it is a problem nonetheless. Trying to manage that and make sure things are running as smoothly as they can. Because the hiccups are, “Hey, we ran out of money for the month.” Or phone calls from accounts, “We’re waiting for this beer. When is it going to come back out?” Those are the daily challenges of managing a brewery.

If you could only drink one more beer, and it wasn’t an Eagle Rock beer, what would it be and how come?

Oh man, that’s a tough one. Who wants such mad props right now? I would say it would have to be – okay you can ask me this quarterly and the answer would change from one quarter to the next – lately I’ve really been digging…if I were going to die tomorrow, if I had a bottle of Logsdon Seizoen Bretta, I would be a happy camper.

Address: 3056 Roswell Street, Los Angeles, CA 90065
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Joshua Lurie

Joshua Lurie founded FoodGPS in 2005. Read about him here.

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