BREWMAKERS launches its Mountain View Microbrewery; World's first MINIMICRO Brewery to provide free beer samples at Gala Opening.

SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 3, 1995--BREWMAKERS(TM) today announced the grand opening of its microbrewery operation, to be celebrated in a public ribbon cutting event set for Friday, August 4, 1995, at the company's facility located in the Rengstorff Center, U.S. Highway 101 and Rengstorff Avenue in Mountain View. Earlier this year, BREWMAKERS opened the first brew-it-yourself brewery using their exclusive MINIMICRO(TM) process at the same site.

The celebration will begin at 4:00 p.m. with an official ribbon cutting ceremony hosted by Mountain View Mayor, Pat Figueroa. Mountain View City council members Joe Kleitman and Jim Cochran will also attend. Local media, customers, area businesses, and the general public are invited.

Following the ceremony, BREWMAKERS will provide free samples of its first two microbrewery-crafted beers, Captain's Pale Ale(TM) and Doc's Belgian Ale(TM). The Mayor will then be invited to craft her own beer using the BREWMAKERS state of the art brew-it-yourself facility. The event marks the unveiling of BREWMAKERS microbrewery facility and production of high quality beers for sale to the general public. The microbrewery launch will be the first time beer will be served on tap at BREWMAKERS. The company also will serve fresh brewed soft drinks and will hold drawings for free tee shirts, glassware and brewing gift certificates.

"The ribbon cutting ceremony and first tasting of our crafted beers is a milestone for the Mountain View community, and we cordially invite local residents and the public to come and celebrate with us," said Tim Cloonan, BREWMAKERS President and CEO. "Mountain View can be as proud as we are about being selected as the location of the world's first MINIMICRO brewing operation. We are very proud to be part of this community."

BREWMAKERS is the first operation of its kind to offer customers a brewing operation that combines traditional American microbrewing and Canadian style minibrewing where customers "take control of the brewery" and brew hand-crafted beer themselves. "Customers get to use state of the art microbrewery equipment throughout their brewing experience with us," says Cloonan, "and they find the beer tastes great."

"Many of our customers brewed earlier and already are back to do it again. They seem to love the facility and quality of the beer they make with our system," Cloonan added. "BREWMAKERS is positioned as the local source by consumers desiring beers that are fresh, pure, and crafted by hand."

BREWMAKERS provides customers state-of-the-art brewing kettles, quality ingredients, and commercial-style bottling machines that both purge oxygen and fill automatically to desired levels. Further, the company's exclusive LABELMAKERS(TM) kiosk is a complete system to create, design, and print attractive personalized labels for the beer bottles.

"BREWMAKERS is focused on giving customers a service and experience unmatched in the craft-beer field. Adding the Microbrewery enables customers to sample our commercial micro beers, as well as to purchase bottles of the same to enjoy at home," added Cloonan. "The entire operation -- from personal Brewcoaches, to custom color labels, to the equipment and the design of the facility is intended to make custom brewing an enjoyable, entertaining and educational experience. Best of all it is just great fun."

According to Cloonan, homebrewers and would-be homebrewers have been flocking to BREWMAKERS to brew beer for many reasons. "Many people today do not have the amount of time required for preparation, homebrewing, and the necessary clean-up afterward. Novice brewers, in particular, don't want to accept the sometimes hit-or-miss nature of brewing at home. They know at BREWMAKERS they are assured of success and quality, and that they will have the fun of brewing with others."

About BREWMAKERS

The personal brewing industry was established in Canada (called U-Brews, Mini-breweries or Brew-on-Premise operations) in the late 1980's -- to date more than 300 of these breweries have opened in Australia, Canada, China, the United Kingdom and the United States.

The BREWMAKERS MINIMICRO production process expands on the extract-only brewing process used in minibreweries in Canada and the U.S. to a full grain based brewery similar to that of all major microbreweries.

Stuart Glaun, Director of Brewing for BREWMAKERS, and his trained staff of Brewcoaches assist in each phase of the brewing process. The first visit takes about two hours -- all ingredients and information about brewing are provided. A fresh base wort is produced using traditional microbrewery equipment. This fresh wort is also the basis for more than two dozen customer produced hand-crafted personal microbrews.

"Natural hand-crafted beers are addressing a market demand that the major breweries have simply been unable or unwilling to meet. Look-alike micros by the major breweries simply do not match up to the real thing, and customers know that." Cloonan concluded "By enabling customers to create their own unique identity on their labels we are simply extending the production model of the brewery to further meet this demand for honest high-quality products."

San Jose based BREWMAKERS is a privately held California corporation established in 1994 that specializes in MINIMICRO and Microbrewery operation and equipment distribution. The company may be reached at 408-275-9117. Corporate headquarters are located at 730 Q North Ninth Street, San Jose, CA 95112. The brewery can be contacted at 415-969-6253 and is located at 1012 North Rengstorff Avenue, Mountain View, CA 94043 -0-

Note to Editors: (c) 1995 BREWMAKERS. All rights reserved. BREWMAKERS, the BREWMAKERS logo, LABELMAKERS, MINIMICRO and Venture Brewing(TM) are trademarks or registered trademarks of Venture Brewing, Inc. All other marks are the property of their respective holders.

CONTACT: BREWMAKERS

Len Zemaitis, 408/275-9117