Nova Brewing Company

Nova Brewing in Covina Is Producing the First LA-Made Sake in Over 70 Years | Eater LA

"When I arrived at the locked gate outside an industrial complex along West San Bernardino in Covina, I thought I was in the wrong place until I saw a sign with a phone number for Nova Brewing Co. The building, flanked by auto repair shops and a storage facility, houses a small tasting room toward the end of the complex where people drink beer and fresh, on-site brewed sake in a barebones space that opens to a back alley with wooden benches and barrels. Nova opened in 2020 after founders Emiko Tanabe and James Jin—who met while studying for sake sommelier certifications—took over the REV Brewing Company facility because it already held both brewery and winery licenses; they initially kept REV beers on tap while Jin adapted beer equipment (including running fermentation tanks inside a walk-in fridge) to make sake. Their approach is deliberately Californian: they use California-grown Calrose rice (and local koji) to define a regional identity, released the Ginjo 7 beer brewed with sake yeast in June 2020 and their first sake, Gravity, in August 2020, and experiment with techniques like gravity drip filtering for a fresher, more aromatic profile. They’ve also released Eclipse (using yellow and black koji for a drier, wine-like acidity), offer flights mixing sake, beer, and Lodi wines in a taproom that reopened March 20, produce unpasteurized namazake and a creamy doburoku, and do seasonal releases like the strawberry hatsukoi; Nova sells through its taproom and online shop and, depending on availability, at select retailers and restaurants." - Fiona Chandra