Welcome Back My Friends….
Wow… how time flies. Many changes since I started CFB, Contributing Factor Brewing, enjoying a Nuno’s Bearded Stout on April 19, 2019. Since then, the site and my home brewing have been dormant. We went through COVID, which was an absolute shit show, but I spent a lot of time drinking beer and compiling a great list of #30SecondBeerReview on Twitter… uh, sorry, X, as I guess it’s called now. I spent many hours with friends abroad, sharing stories — the highs and lows — and drinking beer online. I was buying ungodly amounts of beer to get new reviews in, and to be honest, I can’t remember much of it.
Now, shift gears to 2026 — we’re early in the year. I’ve moved from Oakley, 250 miles southwest, and taken up residency in Paso Robles on the Central Coast. It’s an amazing town with an up-and-coming wine scene, where beer takes a backseat. Don’t worry, though — I’m already a club member at my “home away from home,” California Coast Beer Company, located in downtown Paso. Amazing people. Amazing beer.
So what happened to the brewing? Life. Divorce. Work. More work. Then, finally, retirement. I retired on Halloween 2025 and had made a promise to myself to get back into home brewing once I did. That time is now — but the problem is, there are no grain, hop, or supply shops in SLO County (that’s San Luis Obispo County). I still have ties to NorCal and the East Bay, but I’ll probably have to order online and have things shipped to Paso. That’s not a problem — I’ve got all the time in the world now.
What does the future, or at least 2026, hold? Hopefully a return to brewing with a few batches. I thought about trying winemaking, but holy shit, you need to wait about a year after you bottle the wine. It’s hard enough waiting 4–6, maybe 8 weeks. Plus, the wine in Paso — much like the beer — is really top-notch. But I’m back, so let’s see how things move forward. My girlfriend loves to drink beer, which is awesome, so I’m thinking of a new series of beers. Hopefully I can get started in early April, once I pull the equipment from the storage unit, take inventory, and buy what I need to brew.
Cheers to beer, my friends.