The Biggest Brewery You’ve Never Heard Of,
BY ALEX CANTATORE
IN A SLEEPY TURLOCK BUSINESS PARK,
ANCHORED BY AN INDOOR SHOOTING RANGE
AND AN INDUSTRIAL TOOL SELLER, A FEW
LOCAL RESIDENTS ARE BREWING UP A
REVOLUTION.
With four big beers and momentum booming,
Turlock’s Sandude Brewing Co. could be the
best-kept secret in the craft beer scene.
“It’s the biggest brewery no one has ever heard
of,” Sandude Brewing Co. owner John Freitas
says with a laugh.
Freitas points around the massive warehouse
space, chock-full of gleaming steel brew tanks
and kegs emblazoned with the Sandude logo. He
talks proudly of how the warehouse is laid out
for maximum efficiency, with lots of room for
expansion.
If anyone knows about building a brewery, it’s
Freitas. He used his 15 years of construction
expertise to build Sandude Brewing Co. from the
ground up, walls and all.
Freitas even built the business park that Sandude
Brewing Co. calls home. He rented out most of
the spaces, but saved one to start the brewery of
his dreams.
That dream started one lazy day at a friend’s
house, sitting by a backyard pool. Freitas found
out that a friend of a friend – Terry Chladek –
was a homebrewer, and asked if he could take a
look.
So Chladek invited Freitas over for a brew that
Saturday. And Freitas jumped right in, taking
notes on every detail as he worked to produce
his first brew alongside Chladek.
“I was hooked,” Freitas said.
It was the science that appealed to Freitas, the
chemistry that transforms hops and grains into
beers that can taste drastically different. It was
building something, with a whole new flavor.
“I told him that day I was going to open up a
brewery here in town,” Freitas said. And two
weeks later, Freitas had built his first
homebrewing rig, a tiny, three-pot system that
looks like something you’d find in your buddy’s
garage.
The brewery’s name had long since been decided.
Friends and family have called Freitas
“Sandude” since he was 18 years old, going to
Pismo Beach at any opportunity to ride quads
with his now- wife Janette.
“I go down to (Turlock) City Hall, and even the
fire marshal calls me Sandude,” Freitas says.
Freitas points across the warehouse to a dimly
lit corner. Sitting there, he still has that first
homebrewing rig.
Not too long ago, that rig was Sandude Brewing
Co. Freitas built his brewery from that tiny
setup, working 12 hours a day to fill three kegs
daily.
Today, that setup looks comically small next to
the massive, industrial brewing system that
dominates the room. Now he can brew 60 kegs in
four hours.
Freitas admits he’s only using about 5 percent of
his brewing capacity. But if business keeps
booming, Sandude Brewing Co. will be
expanding again before long.
Sandude’s beers are already in bars from Los
Banos to Lodi, Twain Hart, and Copperopolis. It
was a contract with Turlock’s Applebee’s that
started this period of rapid growth, along with
successful sales at Mike’s Grillhouse in Modesto
and Red Brick Cafe in Turlock.
And now, just since January, Sandude’s beers are
available in bottles. Sandude brews are
distributed in grocery stores around the region
like Save Mart, Costco, O’Brien’s Market, and
Village Fresh. Within the next 2 months,
Sandude will be on sale in more than 200
locations, with 30 new accounts added each
month.
The reason for Sandude’s growing popularity is
obvious: The beer tastes good. And not just to
beer nerds.“We like smooth, full bodied,
drinkable beers,” Freitas said.
Sandude Brewing Co.’s beers are formulated so
everyone can enjoy them, Freitas says, not just
the “hop heads” who like bitter beers. But
Sandude caters to beer nerds as well, with their
big, bitter Double IPA. “We want to appeal to
everybody,” Freitas said.
The brewery is focused on its four core styles,
each with a beach-inspired names: Suntan
Blonde, Shades of Amber, Woody Brown, and
Sandude Double IPA. Each has its own unique,
eye-catching label and tap handle, crafted with
the sort of style and finesse rarely seen from an
independent brewer.
One day, Freitas overheard some beer patrons,
“There’s no way that’s a local beer,” they said.
Sandude may be local, but Freitas is already
setting looking to expand. He hopes to sprtas is
aeadSandude’s beers across California, taking
root in beachside communities – and those that
wish they were. After that, he says expanding
distribution to another 17 to 20 states should be
easy.
“Tell him, John,” an employee shouts in our
direction. “You want to be sitting in Hawaii
drinking your beer.”
Turlock may not be Hawaii, but running a
brewery is miles away from Freitas’ old
construction gig. Freitas references an old
Samuel Adams ad, where the founder Jim Koch
says “Do something you love and you’ll never
work a day in your life.”
“It’s true,” Freitas says with a smile.
