Having lived in Bixby Knolls for eleven years, Jason Van Fleet has seen the neighborhood swell into a haven of hoppy and grubby goodness: The Factory, Jongewaard’s Bake-n-Broil, EJ Malloy’s…

This is precisely why, beyond the common gastropub or sports bar, Van Fleet [pictured below] wants to bring more than just a tap list a bit north to the famed stretch of Atlantic Avenue in Bixby Knolls. He wants to being the growing brewing scene.

But there’s a catch with his proposed Dutch’s BrewHouse: you’re the brewer. That’s right, you get to home-brew without the home or, like Stein Fillers (near Lakewood and Carson), without having to purchase all the equipment. You get to borrow it all—ingredients, recipes, equipment, space, even the clean-up—courtesy of Dutch’s.

The “brew on premises” (BOP) concept is not new. Come the year 2000, shortly after the craft beer boom of the 1990s, there were over 75 locations throughout the States where the public could brew their own beer. In SoCal, that business belonged solely to BrewBakers in Huntington Beach, which opened in 1996 and still operates to this day.

Van Fleet, understanding Long Beach’s obsession with the sudsy liquid, wants to expand upon that reach and provide our city its own BOP spot at 4244 Atlantic Avenue. With over 30 recipes in hand—including root beer and craft soda recipes for the little ones to brew side-by-side the adults—Van Fleet hopes that Dutch’s becomes a Long Beach staple in the gastronomical scenery that is flooding the Bixby Knolls landscape.

The scheduling process for brewing is an easy one: setup a brew session for one to three kettles, or up to 18 cases of beer. Brew time will take somewhere around two hours and then you’ll have to vacate the premises (or take our suggestion and obviously enjoy a Dutch’s brew) and leave your precious concoction with Dutch’s for the two- to three-week fermentation process. Schedule your bottling time thereafter, pop one open, and enjoy.

“This is a very tight knit community so, when thinking of starting this business, I could not think of a better place than Bixby Knolls,” Van Fleet said. “Dutch’s BrewHouse really just started from wanting a neighborhood place I could walk to hangout with my wife or friends and that was family-friendly and affordable… I feel Bixby Knolls needs more places like this. The revitalization on Atlantic Avenue, with its several new restaurants as well as some great established ones, has helped Bixby Knolls on its way to being a destination spot.”

This isn’t to say that the brewhouse is only going to be a BOP joint. Dutch’s—though not on the scale of Beachwood or Rock Bottom further south—will be offering its own brews, which will be insanely fresh given the small batches they’ll be made in. Though Van Fleet says it is premature to determine what beer will be Dutch’s golden brew of choice, he insists that there will be both the common and the strange in their libation list.

“We will, of course, have the all standard types and some selections that will push the limits of even the most seasoned beer connoisseurs’ palates,” Van Fleet said. “We will also have a little more freedom to play with the rotation of taps… But first, before we determine a Dutch’s staple, we want to hear from the community first and build around that. I want people to feel like it is their personal community craft brewery—that is one of the most important reasons I wanted to fund part of this adventure with Kickstarter.”

Van Fleet is asking for $40K to jumpstart Dutch’s—the space for which has  been gutted and cleared for the BrewHouse, with the brew kettles and equipment already purchased—and thus far, has garnered for $3.6K. With 25 days to go and the all-or-nothing gamble that is Kickstarter, Van Fleet is determined to make Dutch’s a reality.

“I want to give the people of Bixby Knolls a sense of pride so they can say that they helped build Dutch’s BrewHouse,” Van Fleet said. “It is our community brewery! It takes a village—and I am calling on this village for their help and support.”

We raise a glass to Dutch’s!

{FG_GEOMAP [33.8335813,-118.18492750000001] FG_GEOMAP}