USA, CA: Line 51 Brewing Company holds soft opening of its Oakland brewery

Line 51 Brewing Company's tie to AC Transit is certainly apparent in its name, but the brewery's appreciation for public transportation takes on new heights with the soft opening of its Oakland brewery, SF Gate reported on February 7.

The owners of Line 51, PT Lovern and his wife Leti Lovern, have finally opened the doors to their new 7,500-square-foot brewery and bar space in Oakland. Front and center, the couple have placed a loving tribute to the bus line they once hauled kegs of their brew on in the early days, when bringing their product to the bars.

That tribute: an authentic, restored AC Transit bus from 1972, complete with beer taps installed onto the side of it.

"We took the beer on the actual AC transit bus from American Steel Studios [in Oakland], which is where we distributed out of our warehouse. We rode the 14 to the 51, and then we rode it down in the 51, with a 15-gallon keg of beer," PT Lovern recalled of those early days.

Seeing someone lugging an entire keg onto public transit was quite the sight, and Lovern said the moment was captured on someone's phone and "went viral." The transit company, in turn, seemed tickled by the idea that Lovern was using public transportation to deliver his beer, and he said a few members from AC Transit showed up to their official opening to support them. With that, they leaned into the concept of promoting the bus line as a way of imbibing responsibly.

"I only distributed it to, at first, [bars within] walking distance from the AC transit line," PT Lovern said. "So the idea was, if you want it, you should ride the bus; you can walk to it. You're not even going to use your keys."

The new space is a dream come true for the Loverns, who have run Line 51 since 2012. The brewery is in a soft open as of Feb. 6, and the Loverns are eagerly waiting to welcome their customers, both new and old. There's plenty for beer fans, sports lovers — there are plenty of TVs and benches with room for drinking — and those looking to grab a bite alongside their pint. (There are plans in place for a small deli kitchen to open and serve food in the space, and is expected to open in a month, but a food truck is currently selling food there in the meantime.) They have a limited selection of their beers at the moment during the soft open — the Short Dog pale ale, One Inch Punch IPA, Red Death red ale and DubNation IPA are all currently on tap — as they get used to the larger space, but they plan to expand the taps into their larger roster of beers shortly.

It's all come a long way from the beer that had initially grown out of PT Lovern's early college homebrewing days in the '90s — pre-Internet, Lovern noted, when he could only rely on brewing books and tricks and tips he gleaned from other brewers — to today's full-blown obsession and brewery. But it always seemed headed this way: Before the Loverns began contract-brewing their beer with a brewery to legitimize their beers for retail using PT's recipes, their family basement housed a 31-gallon steel vat for brewing, an indicator of how seriously the Loverns were veering into the beer business.

"[Brewing beer] is like one of those hobbies that you can't quit," Lovern said. "You have to stay on; you have to do it. You have to be very diligent about what you're doing. You have to take notes and there's not a lot of hobbies you have that you're like taking avid notes on that — at least hobbies that I was into."

In the early days when the Loverns were rolling kegs onto the 51, they were holding day jobs as teachers. PT Lovern was a middle school teacher, while Leti taught math at a local community college (which she continues to do). They eventually graduated from taking kegs onto AC Transit and purchased two school buses, or short buses, for their deliveries; an unplanned, yet cute nod to their jobs as teachers. PT has since left teaching to focus full-time on the business, and together they've both grown it to where it is now, a family-owned business, while raising their young children, 4-year-old twins Valentine and Victor, 2-year-old Viviana and 18-month-old Vincent.

"The deal I made with my wife was, if we thought the brand had a chance to be successful, then we would take the next step — and that's where we are now," Lovern said. "It took a lot to get here and be family-owned. It was quite an endeavor for four years and four buildings [that fell through as brewery options], and [with] this building, we've been in construction for over 18 months. It's been an uphill battle, but it's all worth it now cause we have our space that we're so ready to share with everybody. It's pretty much exactly how we want it."

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