ABOUT

If you're along for the ride, let's pour over the early details.

Adam Tissot has been an avid cyclist for over 25 years. Following a football injury in his freshman year of high school, Adam began cycling as therapy, which quickly grew into a passion. He raced competitively, and started his first job at Diamond Bar Cyclery. He also worked on the 50th Anniversary Black Phantom Schwinn and trained at the Olympic Training Facility in Colorado. More recently, Adam worked as a receiving manager at Jenson USA, a local bicycle retailer. A pilot by trade, Adam has a knack for following procedures and a respect for precision which made him an instant success at homebrewing. He recently completed the World Brewing Academy's Course in Brewing Technology. Adam’s answer to everything is, “because I can”, which propelled him to follow his dream to brewery entrepreneurship.

Bud Thatcher has been a resident of Yucaipa for 51 years. Bud graduated from Yucaipa High School in 1975, and worked at Law’s Coffee Shop in Oak Glen throughout high school. Eventually, Bud married his high school sweetheart, Jill, who many in the community know from her 27 years of service as a teacher in the Yucaipa/Calimesa school district and her continued volunteer work with youth programs. Bud is no stranger to entrepreneurship. In 1989, Bud started his own civil engineering company in Yucaipa, Thatcher Engineering. After over 40 years in the engineering business, instead of quietly retiring, Bud simply asked “what’s next” and immediately jumped at the chance to manage Hops & Spokes. Bud is a member of the men’s club at the Yucaipa Golf Course, and can be found there every Wednesday! A member of the Rotary Club of Yucaipa for the last 10 years, Bud is dedicated to serving his community, and is excited to visit with his life-long friends at our beautiful new brewery.

Yucaipa-native and 2001 YHS graduate, Kristin Tissot, is Adam’s wife and Bud’s daughter. She followed in her dad’s footsteps, became a landscape architect, and eventually partner at Thatcher Engineering. Kristin loves all facets of design and being creative including planning and hosting parties that would put Pinterest ideas to shame. She is most proud of her recent project, redesigning a fixer-upper to create their dream home, complete with a bicycle to hold the sink in the guest bathroom. When she’s not working, she loves to visit breweries with her family, and she enjoys tasting different beers almost as much as she enjoys checking out the decor. Mom, wife and full-time career woman, she lives by the motto: work hard, play hard, so she figured why not own a brewery too?!

The wheels were set in motion and an idea was brewing.

After 12 years of homebrewing and perfecting recipes, it was becoming clear that Adam had a talent that should be shared. It was also clear that his blackberry wheat recipe was a winner. Kristin and Adam had completely remodeled their fixer-upper with the exception of one room. What did they need? A 16-seat bar, of course! While vacationing at our favorite spot in Maui, sipping beers over a sunset, Bud came up with the name “Hops & Spokes” for the bar. Soon after, with Kristin’s creativity and Adam and Bud’s handy-work, we had the ultimate cycling-themed home-bar where all of our friends could enjoy Adam’s yummy beer, served by the friendliest bartenders, Adam and Bud!

It was time to get into gear and tap into our talents.

With all of the positive feedback received from friends on the beer and the bar, we decided to turn our passion into a business. The three of us would make the perfect team, with differing, but complementary talents. There were some things we already knew; we wanted to serve great beer to our home community of Yucaipa, and we wanted to create a space as comfortable, cool and unique as our home bar.

So we put the pedal to the metal and started barreling down the road.

We were pretty excited when we were able to secure a location that was not only in the heart of downtown Yucaipa, but also conveniently located at the gateway to various cycling routes including Crafton Hills Conservancy and Tour-de-California leg, Oak Glen. After all, nothing is better than an ice-cold craft beer after a good ride. Even more exciting will be the brand-new patio fronting Yucaipa Boulevard, and various food options nearby.

We’ll put a new spin on things 'cause we go against the grain.

Without giving you all of the details (you will need to see for yourself) here is a sneak peek: Hops & Spokes will deliver unique beers in an exciting and comfortable space. There will be ample bicycle parking, a bicycle repair area with tools for basic adjustments, and basic replacement parts for purchase. Hops & Spokes will offer (far-from-the-usual) games, kids activities, beer-to-go, and really-really-awesome merch. Bring your pooch and enjoy the patio, or sit at the bar and catch a game! Consider joining the Hops & Spokesperson Club or reserving the 14-seat community table! Hops & Spokes Brewing Company would be honored to host your private event, too. We’re family, so we consider you our family too, unless your family drives you nuts. In that case, lets be friends!

Crossing the finish line, but this is just the beginning and not the bitter end.