Sunset Beer grows business by building community

Sunset Beer Company recently turned 2, and the Echo Park beer superstore and taproom has become one of the Eastside’s most popular hangouts for craft beer lovers.

You get a sense of just how much the beer business in L.A. is booming by sitting down at the shop with a pint on a Friday afternoon. A steady stream of customers, beer deliveries and sales reps flow through the shop as the beer-loving employees rotate stock, provide recommendations and pour beers at the bar.

Manager Jeff Sapsford credits the shop’s success to the sense of community that employees have worked hard to cultivate with the neighborhood’s craft beer fans. He says listening to customers -- and growing with them -- has been management’s strategy from the beginning, and the shop has seen much growth in its first two years.

When Sunset Beer Company opened in 2011, it featured a handful of glass-doored coolers holding about 200 brews with six beers on tap in the attached lounge area. They’ve just expanded to 12 taps and are about to add another cooler for an inventory of 1,000 different beers.

While bottle sales have accounted for three-quarters of revenue for the shop, they hope the addition of six more draught taps will help balance the split between bottle and draught sales, but more important, Sapsford says the six new taps will allow the shop to showcase more locally brewed beers -- especially from breweries that do not yet bottle their wares.

And it’s these local breweries that Sapsford says are his favorite things to recommend to people new to craft beer. “Whatever is local and fresh, I’ll push towards first,” he says, adding that educating his customers about the beer being made around them is an important part of growing craft culture in Los Angeles.

“Community is the most important thing” to the shop he says, and all of Sunset Beer Company’s staff work hard to make the shop a welcoming place that customers want to come to share their passion for craft beer. It’s been a winning formula so far for Sunset Beer Company, which is showing no signs of slowing down.

Sunset Beer Company, 1498 Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, (213) 481-BEER.

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