Where to buy red tail ale

Lex Krauss looks out the window from the office where he spent more than a decade of his life. The Mendocino Brewing Company’s former brewing facility and warehouse – which was home for the production of the iconic Red Tail Ale – was closed last year, when the brewery went into bankruptcy.

Now, Krauss and several other former Mendocino Brewing Company employees are reviving the brand, with the help of Gary Breen, local entrepreneur, owner of Campovida and now, the owner of the brewery property, located in south Ukiah.

Though the beer is not being produced inside the cavernous, 65,000 square-foot facility, Krauss and his team have high hopes about the future, to the delight of local beer drinkers and fans of the legendary brews.

“Red Tail Ale and Eye of the Hawk are back,” smiles Krauss. The beers have recently been revived by the brand’s original brew master, Don Barkley, and can currently be purchased on tap at a few inland Mendo locations: in Ukiah at Crush, Cultivo and the Sports Attic; in Hopland at Campovida; and once again, where it all began, at the Hopland Tap, where the ales were originally served more than three decades ago.

Krauss was the packaging manager at the Mendocino Brewing Company for over a decade. Today, Krauss and two other former employees – facilities manager Ben Mansell and cellar man Ben Delgado – are working with Barkley and Breen to re-launch and distribute what is deservedly described as an iconic beer brand.

The original brews, marketing schemes and business models were developed by a group of county locals including the late Michael Laybourn, who died last year. Even as his health declined, Laybourn, who remained a board member with the company, remained hopeful that it would rebound from its travails.

The history of Mendocino Brewing Company began in the 1980s, when Laybourn, J. Holden, Norman Franks and John Scahill opened the Hopland Brewery, at the Tap House’s current location. The Hopland Brewery was the first post-Prohibition brewpub in California, and one of the first in the United States. Hard work and heady, early successes helped propel the business. The beer’s signature labels, consisting of beautiful pictures of local birds, were as treasured as the golden liquids inside their bottles.

But in just a few years, the nation’s single craft brewery was now competing with thousands of others. According to Krauss, Laybourn said that to save his company, the prudent decision was to sell it. In 1997, billionaire Vijay Mallya of Asian beer giant United Breweries of India purchased the Mendocino Brewing Company, along with a second brewery in New York.

“United Breweries is a global beer corporation that at the time didn’t have a foothold in the states. They brew Kingfisher, the largest beer brand in the world. Their intention was to have an East and West Coast brewery – to be the first automated craft brewery to expand across the country,” says Krauss.

During the early years, there was enough money to support employees like Ben Delgado, who was hired in 1992. “My dad’s friend was working the bottling line in Hopland. He helped me get a summer job, which I started one day after my 18th birthday.” Delgado learned everything about the business. “After about five years, they sent me to UC Davis, where I became a certified brewer.” He motions to the brewery building. “We built this place a year later.”

Between the Ukiah and New York locations, the breweries had the capacity to produce nearly 100,000 barrels, or 3.1 million gallons of beer. But the changing face of beer necessitated a nimble response to the exponential growth of the craft beer industry, as breweries opened across the country at an astounding rate.

“It didn’t take long before the money ran out. The company was floated for about a year. We kept the brewery running on tape and bailing wire,” notes Ben Mansell, a former employee who is now handling facility and maintenance for his former employer.

“We knew the handwriting was on the wall when they cut the numbers of brewers from 12 to 4,” says Delgado.

The team is divided on whether the business failed due to malfeasance or poor decision making. But they knew what they saw. “Many, many times over the years, Michael told me that the logo art popped. It hurt Michael when they changed the beer label. People actually didn’t recognize the beer anymore. That label was iconic,” says Krauss.

“When it came to making beer, no employee input was ever part of the decision-making process,” says Delgado. “Choices of what beer to make, when to make it and how much to make – we were not included in those decisions.”

Mendocino Brewing Company was a union shop. “Unfortunately, the union created a huge divide between management and line staff. Admin would never talk to any unionized employees,” says Krauss.

“When I started with the company, there were some good years. Sales were doing well – in fact, they were on the rise,” says Krauss. But he stayed through what he describes as “the long decline.”

“We went from 10 trucks per week to one truck per month,” he explains.

Competition for space on the shelves belonging to premium accounts is a big deal, according to Krauss, and mistakes can be irremediable. “There were a lot of inefficiencies. We couldn’t meet deadlines. If you can’t send Eye of the Hawk to Safeway or Costco, you’ll get dropped. If you can’t package because you’re robbing Peter to pay Paul and not purchasing labels, there’s going to be issues.”

He also feels the company was slow to jump on trends. “We were a little late on the IPA bandwagon, which was typical for the company. At the end, specials would be launched with no advertising. Red Tail Ale was born at Reggae on the River. There was a 20th Anniversary issue. We got dropped. It took a little legwork to get it back, but it became my responsibility to capture those markets – work that was supposed to be handled by district managers.”

When the company shut down last year, all three of the team lost their jobs. “Ben Mansell got a job at Sonoma Cider in Healdsburg. They needed employees, so Ben Delgado and I jumped on board. We were super-excited. Sonoma Cider appeared to be what we imagined this place could have been,” says Krauss. “But within two months, they hit the perfect trifecta of financial burden, and we were all laid off.”

Following Breen’s purchase of the building, he made a wise decision by asking the trio to help close down the remaining operation of Mendocino Brewing Company.

“They needed people who knew the lay of the land. Each of us has our points of expertise. We pitched in to get the place cleaned up, take inventory, palletize remaining products and track everything,” says Krauss. Conversations ensued with Breen about the idea of relaunching the beer, and he was excited by the idea. An LLC was formed to create a structure for the transfer of information and ownership.

“We’re using the same initials for the new LLC as the old one. We are now the Mendocino Beverage Company, or MBC,” says Krauss. “The initials are the same, but our goals are very different. We have the exclusive rights to produce the beer locally. The beer-making will stop being a contract, and will be made by this company. We’re self-distributing the beer, and we’re paying Mendocino Brewing Company a very small royalty. This enables us to keep the brand licensed and the trademarks alive. The idea is Michael’s idea: to bring the beer back to the people, where it all began.”

Currently, Barkley is brewing Red Tail Ale and Eye of the Hawk, stored in canisters to preserve flavor and freshness. There is discussion about a potential expansion into a newly-formulated Blue Heron. “All these beers are basic: full-bodied, full-flavored and clean tasting. The Red Tail is now at 6.5 percent and the Eye of the Hawk is at 8.1 percent. The key elements have come back together. They are being made properly,” says Krauss.

Krauss notes that the new/old formulations are already receiving positive press from beer publications. “We’re letting people know we’re back, and people are happy to hear it.” Krauss has been organizing successful “pint nights” at the Ukiah outlets, and more will follow.

He is committed to re-pairing Laybourn’s original art with the brand. “We want to go back to the original logo, with Michael’s logo on the tap handles.”

For now, the newly-formed company is continuing to assist with the closure of Breen’s facility. Currently, the building is being leased out for storage of bulk and case wines. “We are planning on moving the original tanks back to Hopland. We’ll have a 15-barrel kettle system in Hopland, where it all started,” says Krauss. Meanwhile, the CEO of Mendocino Brewing Company works with one employee to complete the closure of the business. And according to media reports, billionaire Mallya is cloistered at his lavish estate in Great Britain, where he is fighting extradition to India, where he faces allegations of fraud and money laundering to the tune of over $1 billion.

Krauss has located all the photos of the scores of bands that played at the Hopland Brewery during the pub’s heyday. He has perused the stacks of employee files. “The entire punk population of Ukiah must have worked here at one time or another,” he smiles.

“Michael knew about the relaunch before he died. He had every intention of being a part of this. He talked about it all the time for the past couple of years. Michael’s idea was keep this launch extremely local, so we’re looking at Willits and possibly Lake County. He said, ‘Someone’s going to pick this back up, and we’re going to do it locally.’ Our motivation, in part, has been to honor Michael. We served the first batch of Red Tail at his wake.”

Krauss points to a number of hawks, squawking and soaring just outside the window of the company Michael Laybourn made famous. “The raptors are still here,” says Krauss. “They never left.”

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