Stop for a sample at relocated beer supply shop with craft brewery plans in Modesto
Lots of folks dream of making their own beer. Lots more folks could turn those dreams into tasty reality if they knew Luke and Megan Henslick.
The husband-and-wife owners of Renegade Brewing Supplies have been helping home brewers in the valley make their own beer for the last three years. At the start of this year they relocated from their original Turlock shop to a new Modesto site. The move will allow them to open their own commercial brewery, albeit on an intentionally small scale, in the same space and sell their beer regionally.
Home brewing for some 16 years, the couple opened their brewing supplies shop in 2017 on West Monte Vista Avenue in Turlock. Then about a year later they bought out the region’s other longtime brewing supply store, Barley & Wine. Still all long they wanted to open a nano brewery to let the public try the hoppy fruits of their labor. And, of course, they wanted make a place where home brewers could talk at length about their favorite subject — beer.
“We want this to be where beer nerds are going to come to hang out,” said Luke Henslick, an Air Force and law enforcement veteran. “I’m not trying to end up on Safeway store shelves. We never want to lose the things we love about beer.”
The brewing supplies store — which sells everything from wheat, malt and barley to kettles, pumps and hoses — is a one-stop shop for home and commercial brewers in the region. Contentment Brewing Company founder and brew master Alejandro Serrato even popped in to buy some sugar during my interview.
So, yeah, brewery folks know brewery folks.
Besides selling the accessories and ingredients to make beer — as well as wine and cider-making supplies — they also sell self-made brewery kits and regularly teach brewing classes for beginners and intermediates.
They’ve been open in their new space just off downtown Modesto in I Street for about a month. The shop shares space with Edith’s Gourmet Baking Co., which also owns Crust & Crumb on Main Street in Turlock and sells its baked goods at regional farmer’s markets.
Since last fall Renegade Brewing supplies has been supplying Crust & Crumb’s beer for its weekly super club. Without their commercial brewing permit, the Henslicks are only able to give their beer away — which they do to more than a dozen local groups and organizations for charity or other fundraisers.
Once their brewing permit is approved, which they hope to have done sometime in the next year, they’ll use Turlock’s Crust & Crumb as their taproom with some half dozen of their beers on tap there. They also plan to do tastings and sell pints and growlers from their small brewery space in Modesto.
As is, they have 31 original beer recipes that they share freely (though, always ask nicely) for brewers to try and experiment with on their own. It’s the kind of open-source, do-it-yourself attitude that has fueled Renegade. The name is also reflected their philosophy. Their brewery walls are spray painted anarchist-style with sayings like, “Give yeast a chance,” and they have a yellow “Don’t tread on me” flag above their entrance.
The walls are also proudly display an array of military patches and police badges they’ve collected from their travels and customers over the years.
The brewery is being launched as a one-barrel system that can brew about 30 gallons at a time. It’s essentially a beefed-up home brewing set up. By comparison, Modesto’s Contentment Brewing and Ceres’ Blaker Brewing have 7- and 15-barrel brewhouse systems, respectively.
“I’m fortunate to be brew professional-style beer on dollhouse equipment,” Luke Henslick said.
That small scale puts them more in line with Modesto’s other homegrown nano-brewery, Persuasion on Seventh Street.
It’s that kind of hands-on brewing — their first attempt was in a over-sized spaghetti pot — that excites the Henslicks. Their shared love of crisp, flavorful European-style beers, which they first experienced in 2005 when Luke was stationed overseas in The Netherlands, became a shared love of brewing together.
“From that point on, we’ve been partners in this adventure and we learn from each other,” he said. “And we opened as Renegade because that’s exactly what home brewers are, renegades.”
The Henslicks have settled on the name Desert Fox Brewing (Renegade Brewing was already taken, alas). But the name has both personal and political overtones. It is the nickname of famed World War II German General Erwin Rommel, and also the name of their beloved late German Shepherd/unofficial shop mascot — who passed away shortly after last Christmas.
Rommel the general was an acclaimed military strategist who led many successful campaigns for Nazi Germany, before being forced to commit suicide for alleged disloyalty to Adolf Hitler. And Rommel the dog was, as his owners would say, a very good boy.
The Henslicks aren’t sure when they’ll have their brewery permitting completed. But people who would like to sample their selection — which includes military-themed names like Spec Hops IPA, Standard Issue Pale, and Scout Sniper Stout — can stop by the shop and they’re happy to offer complimentary tasters.
Renegade will celebrate its big move with a grand opening event from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 29, at the shop. While the location, in an industrial building surrounded by a barbed-wire fence just across the Highway 99 overpass, may not seem homey now, they want to make sure all brewers feel welcome.
“We believe that our customers can do better than what you can buy on the grocery store shelves,” Megan Henslick said. “Honestly if we can do it so can you. It’s not that hard, it’s just beer.”
Renegade Brewing Supplies, 400 I St. in Modesto, is open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesday to Saturday. For more information call 209-678-9167 or visit renegadebrewingsupplies.com.
