For the brother-sister brewing duo Gregory Zobel and Alex Zobel, beer was their ceasefire.
> As siblings who grew up in separate households, Alex at their dad’s house in Concord and Gregory at their mother’s in Napa, their relationship blossomed over a pint of brew.
“Reconnecting as young adults over beer was really important to us,” Alex said.
Thus arose the name of their brewing company — Armistice, meaning a truce or ending of a war. The brewing company opened its taproom in Richmond in 2017 and a second location in Napa last fall, but their move into wine country was a long time in the making.
The road to Napa began in Los Angeles. Brother and sister spent a good amount of time living in separate places, but by the time they were in their 20s, Alex and Gregory both found themselves in Southern California. Gregory was working in the television and film industry, while Alex was getting her doctorate in 16th and 17th-century English literature from UCLA.
They went from drinking to brewing on Alex’s 26th birthday, when Gregory gifted her a homebrewing kit. Naturally, it wasn’t a gift only for Alex.
As all little brothers do, I said, ‘I want to do this too. You can’t do this by yourself,’” Gregory said.
They started off brewing at Alex’s place in Culver City, experimenting with amber ale, a beer style that the siblings agree is forgiving due to its sweetness. They also agree their first beers weren’t very good.
“We were hooked from that point on,” Gregory said.
Since then, the two have brewed around 400 beer recipes from India pale ales to English ales and raspberry smoothie beer — the list goes on.
Alex said that they try to bring a homebrewing ethos to their process, and don’t like to make the same thing again and again.
“We have a lot of flexibility to brew a lot of different styles and to be constantly tinkering, which is a little unusual,” Alex said. “Most breweries have flagship or core brands.”
They have the flexibility to brew so many different styles of beer because of their business model. The siblings said that since they are a small brewing operation, most of their money comes from taproom sales rather than retail.
But it wasn’t beer that brought them back to Napa.
Alex and Gregory’s mother had been battling breast cancer since the 1990s. By 2013, the cancer had metastasized to her brain and she needed full-time care. Gregory quit his job and moved back north, and Alex was working on her dissertation, which allowed enough flexibility to also move back.
Outside of caring for their mother, Gregory and Alex had more time to brew, and joked around about making it bigger than a hobby.
“It was a lot of work taking care of mom, but it was also a lot of waiting for her to wake up. So we were sitting there thinking maybe we should bang out a business plan,” Gregory said.
Bang out a business plan they did. During that time, the two began getting their “tool kit” in order. Gregory got a job working at the Windsor brewery St. Florian, gaining as much knowledge as possible before embarking on their business venture.
“If we’re going to think about opening a brewery, one of us should probably have worked in one so don’t kill ourselves,” Gregory said.
Gregory worked his way up from keg washing to brewing, while Alex worked in the taproom briefly. Gregory also worked at PRESS in St. Helena to get a feel for the hospitality side of things.
When their mother died in 2015, living long enough just to hear the business plan, the siblings got to work staking out a location. Napa had always been a priority for them because of their ties to the community, but the market was too expensive. A big chunk of their budget was tied to the life insurance money they collected after their mother’s passing.
“It’s not exactly the easiest place to open a business. It’s one of the most competitive alcohol markets,” Gregory said.
The two eventually landed in Richmond in 2017 and saw success selling beer and Mexican food through a partnership with El Garage, a viral Richmond-based brick-and-mortar operation known for quesabirria.
Gregory said that he and his sister never stopped looking in Napa, and the two were able to secure their spot at 1040 Clinton St. last fall.
“We never took our toe out of the market here,” Gregory said. “If a building is available between 2015 and 2023, we’ve looked at it.”
Their Napa space feels inviting, the blue walls adorned with images from the English broadside ballads, which were lyric sheets sold on the streets of London in the 1700s.
The location has a selection of around 16 beers and seltzers that are in continuous rotation — here one day and gone the next. Alex and Gregory both agree their favorite beer to drink is usually something easy and crisp like their Rich City Pils. It’s a German-style pilsner and the only beer option that is always on the menu.
One of their more interesting selections currently is called a Raspberry Coulis, a smoothie beer made with 51% beer and 49% fruit. The siblings said that although the fruit changes, they usually have one smoothie beer on their menu at a time.
Outside of beer, Armistice also offers a smaller selection of French and Italian wines. The siblings like the idea of continuing to add something different to the Napa scene, as there are already a plethora of local tasting rooms that provide the classic Napa Valley wine experience.
As for the brewery itself, the siblings said they have a wish list of things they’re hoping to get done, which include creating a private event space and adding more social events like karaoke on top of their established game and trivia nights. The siblings take pride in their appeal to locals, which Alex calls their bread and butter, and feel they’ve found the right place in Napa after all these years.
“Being here in downtown is great because there’s tasting rooms on one side and on the other side, it’s residents. So locals will come here, they’ll just be walking down the street,” Alex said.
Armistice Brewing’ Company’s Napa location at 1040 Clinton St. is open from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday through Thursday, and stays open until 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday.
