One of the many great things about being a school teacher is the size of the extended family you adopt over the years. I’ve had well over 1,000 students come through my classroom doors, and then go back out again into their adult lives. To stay in touch with them and watch their many successes makes me feel like a proud Papa.
I must of course also endure the pain of their hardships, but today I want to focus on the good stuff. Young and funny Nick here is now my boss as editor of the Benicia Herald. I couldn’t be happier or more satisfied with him at the helm. He has a hyper focus on his tasks at hand, and he’s a brilliant wit at the keyboard. May he last forever.
Thanks to friending on social media, I’m able to watch former students graduate from prestigious colleges, get professional jobs, start up organic ranches, travel the world on foot, publish novels, create art, gain wide recognition, and fall in love. Some live nearby, some live far, far away.
Today I’d like to share one individual’s long-term commitment to a dream that is about to become a reality. Former backpacking president and poison oak gonzo expert Mark Keller from the Class of ‘94 is about to open a craft brewery right here in beloved Benicia.
I’ve been tracking his progress since 2014, and this coming Friday at 4 p.m. they open the public doors to BRÜEHOL Tap House not far from my front door in the Industrial Park, just past the Benicia Grill and across from the Tip Tap Toe.
Mark’s adventures began in 2014 when he and two fellow home brewers, Steve Northcutt, a plumber, and Mark Ristow, a Vallejo high school math teacher, were sitting around appreciating each other’s latest batches. “Everyone’s beer tasted so good, we decided to go for it,” said Mark.
It has been a long, slow, painful yet rewarding process. I recall Mark sending out pictures of himself in southern Nevada picking up kettles and tanks and driving them home to start brewing first at the Vallejo home of friend Jared Hope. However, Vallejo didn’t have any programs for allowing residential breweries to brew for commercial bars, so they moved to Benicia, where Mark said, “We were welcomed with open arms.”
They moved their operations to Mark’s house and began brewing for Dennis Cullen’s 1st Street Pub in 2015, later providing beer to Lucca’s, Rookies, The Chill, and other pubs in Napa and Concord. He has also provided brews to our annual Cinco de Mayo backyard barbecue bash for several years. His Maritime Pale Ale is a big hit with all our friends.
Mark invited Susan, me, our son Adam and Tony Acosta, both former schoolmates, out to his tap house last week for a tour. You’re going to like it. The walls are decorated with rustic icons, saw blades, birds, and railroad spikes for coat hangers. His tables and bar are thick wood slabs coated in epoxy resin. He embedded LED lights into the bar epoxy for a mystical effect that’s a real eye catcher. The other eye catcher is that visitors can see the bay from the front door.
In the back room, Mark was busy sanding a tall stack of wood slabs for more tables and wall decorations. “These trees all came down around Benicia in the recent windstorm,” he said. “We talked to home owners who let us haul them away for free, and I want to thank them for that.”
“I’m so appreciative of the local community for supporting us that we’ve designed our logo and tap room to represent the best of Benicia,” said Mark.
Their logo is the bridge view from the end of First Street with rippling waves and bridges in the distance. It’s surrounding by nautical images, chain link, pier posts, and pipe. “We have [Benician] Gilbert Ruiz to thank for that. He does all our branding and marketing.”
Mark also wanted to publicly thank Lisa Farina of Leadership Vallejo for introducing him to the local business opportunities, and Cam Vigil of local Vigil Mechanical for help constructing their walk-in cooler, and Robert Contreras, a local distiller who has plans in the work for a Benicia distillery. Robert offered them their tap house space rent free for the time being.
I remember us driving out East 2nd Street for the tour. “Boy, I sure hope this brewery is a big success,” I said to Susan. “They’ve worked so hard. It all depends on the beer.”
As I’m fond of saying, if the beer is good, business will be good wherever it’s located. Microbreweries often open far from Main Streets, back in industrial areas, along railroad tracks, and down country roads, but when you get there, they are always packed with happy people enjoying themselves. Fans will drive for good beer, and the high ceiling industrial settings fit well with the craft.
At the end of the tour, Mark offered us a taste of his four current selections, a Helles lager, a pilsner, a black ale, and a pale ale. Guess what? The beer is good.

Steve Gibbs is a retired Benicia High School teacher who has written a column for The Herald since 1985.

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