Mountain Views News, Sierra Madre Edition [Pasadena] Saturday, March 25, 2017

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Mountain View News Saturday, March 25, 2017 


Walking Sierra Madre…The Social Side 

by Deanne Davis

R.T. ROGERS BREWING CO.


“I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they 
can be depended upon to meet any national crisis. The 
great point is to bring them the real facts, and beer.” 

Abraham Lincoln

“Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.” 

Benjamin Franklin

Friends and neighbors, good news! We are going to 
have a new craft brewery here in Sierra Madre by 
late summer....just when we’re going to need it most. 
Think of horrendously hot days, when you think you 
might melt, but relief is in sight. At the end of those 
days, you can stop in at 38 E. Montecito and enjoy a 
glass or two of RT Rogers beer. Oh, and what beer 
it is going to be! Ryan Rogers, the brewmaster of 
RT Rogers beer, has been brewing beer, working on 
his blends, tweaking, perfecting, tasting, sampling, 
tweaking again since he was 16 years old, fermenting 
grains in his closet and experimenting in the kitchen.

 Meeting Ryan, his mom, Joanna and dad, Kelly, 
along with lifelong family friend Dave Bergman was 
splendid. Ryan and Dave were waist-deep in a trench 
there in Units 1 & 2 of the Montecito property, getting 
ready to install pipes for the new restrooms, which 
will be ADA compliant (yep, handicap friendly and 
big enough to turn around in) and, in short, gearing 
up for the arrival of the cement trucks to lay the new 
floors in what will be their tap room and brew area. 
RT Rogers is going to be the place to go as they are 
planning so many great things to do, in addition 
to producing amazing beer. There will be a walled 
garden with partial shade, pleasing the sun lovers and 
the shade seekers, right outside the glass doors of the 
main tap room where one can sit and enjoy a moment 
of peace or a game of Quoits – the traditional game 
which involves the throwing of metal, rope or rubber 
rings over a set distance to try to land over or near 
a spike – in case you didn’t know. Inside there will 
be two standard dart boards and, for all the bicycle 
enthusiasts who make Sierra Madre their destination, 
a hanging bike rack on the outside wall. The Rogers 
family has thought of everything to make their guests 
feel at home. 

 Pasadena residents, the Rogers have been searching 
for the perfect place to realize son, Ryan’s, dream of 
a craft brewery. Son, Jesse, who is the family artist-
webmaster-social media guy, discovered Mother 
Moo’s and brought his mom and dad up to check out 
the best ice cream anywhere, right here in town. They 
fell in love with Sierra Madre, which is only natural, 
and started thinking maybe this could be the place. 
Sierra Madre realtor, Bill Derrick, brought them to 
the vacant units on Montecito and the new home of 
RT Rogers Brewing Co. was established. 

 Kelly and Joanna are both retired from the Los 
Angeles Unified School District where he started as 
a maintenance engineer and worked his way up to 
Complex Projects Manager, while Joanna was that 
woman no school can do without who ran the book 
store, got all the text books ordered and, in general, 
made it work for the teachers. Jesse, the Mother 
Moo fan, is an art teacher in the LAUSD and his 
wife, Deanna, is a speech pathologist. And Ryan is a 
brewing genius!

 The Rogers family has become fast friends with 
another of the Sierra Madre treasures, Ramon 
Navarro, our local coffee roaster up in the canyon – 
Java Madre. They met at last year’s Wistaria Festival. 

 I learned a lot about beer chatting with Kelly and 
Joanna and I’ll pass a few facts along. Brewing is 
complicated! Ryan is planning to start with a 15 
barrel system producing stouts and IPA’s. Starting 
with an on-line course in brewing, Ryan has read 
everything there is to read on grains, hops and yeast. 
For instance, California IPA’s are very heavily hopped, 
creating a brew which is higher in alcohol, not sweet, 
leaning toward a bitter taste. Hops lend aroma, a 
fruity or bitter taste and the amount of roasting the 
grains undergo create the tastes of chocolate or coffee. 
Let me go back to that brewing is complicated thing! 
There is no facet of brewing upon which Ryan is not a 
consummate expert. In short, best craft beer any of us 
has ever experienced is coming our way!

 RT Rogers Brewing Company plans to open their 
doors at 4:00 on weekdays and earlier on weekends. 
Our public parking lot is right across the street. They 
won’t be serving food as they are not licensed as a 
restaurant, but there will be peanuts and guests can 
bring in goodies or order in and there is talk about a 
future connection with a food truck. You can check 
out their website at rtrbrew.com or come by and say 
hello. This will be such a nice addition to our town as 
we haven’t had our own craft brewery for years since 
Sierra Madre Brewing left us and all the Rogers family 
are anxious to become involved in the community.

 I’m close to the end of Rise of the Rocket Girls: The 
Women Who Propelled Us, From Missiles to the 
Moon to Mars, which is the One Book One City 
selection, and finding myself overwhelmed with 
awe for these young women, the computers at JPL 
who transformed rocket design. So many failures to 
achieve success. And, in case you haven’t noticed, 
wistaria is blooming all over town now and looking 
just fantastic! We live in a beautiful place, don’t we!

 My book page: Amazon.com: Deanne Davis

Blog: www.authordeanne.com

 “A Tablespoon of Love, A Tablespoon of Laughter” is 
now available at Sunrise Books + Coffee at Pasadena First 
Church of the Nazarene – just down the road on Sierra 
Madre Blvd. Kindle readers, give yourself the gift of: 

The Crown – An Easter Story It’s on Amazon.com on my 
book page!

 Follow me on Twitter, too! https://twitter.com/@
playwrightdd

SIERRA MADRE POLICE BLOTTER

During this time, the Sierra Madre Police Department responded to approximately 272 day and 
night calls for service. 

March 14th, 2017 - 00 Olive Ave 

The garage at a home in the area caught on fire. Police and Fire responded and the fire was put out. 
No foul play was suspected at the time. 

March 16th, 2017 - 00 Lowell Ave 

A resident’s mail was stolen; a credit card was fraudulently activated, and approximately $2000.00 
was charged on the card. 

March 17th, 2017 - 100 E Highland Ave 

An unknown suspect(s) vandalized a vehicle by slashing the tires and scratching the paint. The 
incident occurred between 0200 hours and 1743 hours. There were no witnesses and no security 
recordings were located. 


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Mountain Views News 80 W Sierra Madre Blvd. No. 327 Sierra Madre, Ca. 91024 Office: 626.355.2737 Fax: 626.609.3285 Email: editor@mtnviewsnews.com Website: www.mtnviewsnews.com