Fighting Fire with Beer

Firefighters are celebrated because they run toward danger to save lives while everyone else is running away. Ventura City Fire Dept. Captain Preston Andreini is applying that same fearlessness to the Red Engine Brewing Company, which plans to open in the spring.

“When I was younger it was a dream to ride on a fire engine. I would always watch them with the lights on, probably going somewhere dangerous,” says Andreini. That attitude will be on display at Red Engine Brewing Company, where “we will definitely jump in the fray to ensure the best products, employee and customer experiences possible,” it says on the webpage.

Andreini explains that while he loves his career as a firefighter, he always wanted a way to express his creative side. He found it in brewing beer. “I think for people who do start breweries a lot of the stories are similar,” he says. “I started home brewing, which developed from a hobby to a passion. Then, after I attended the American Brewers Guild in Vermont, I felt confident to pursue this as a profession.”

Andreini grew up in Santa Clarita and graduated from Saugus High School in 2000. He got his first firefighting job in Montgomery County, Maryland, in 2005, before returning to California and getting a job with the Ventura City Fire Department, where he currently is a captain.

To help shoulder the financial burden of opening a brewery, Andreini has invited friends to become investors. One of those investors is Dave Mendoza, who worked side by side with Andreini for years in the fire department.

“Preston is a really good person. We’ve been in situations where I was trusting him with my life. I felt if I could trust him with my life, I could trust him with this,” says Mendoza, who retired as a captain from the Ventura City Fire Department about three years ago. “We would spend 24 hours at a time together. Sometimes after dinner, in our free time, we’d start talking. I did home brewing and he did home brewing. The next thing I knew I was at a class in San Diego that was teaching how to start a brewery.”

Mendoza said that as the class progressed, he realized he wasn’t up to all of the work needed to start a brewery. But his friend Andreini was intrigued and enticed.

“I told Preston, ‘If you start something, I’d like to work for you,’” says Mendoza, before explaining that Andreini has delegated various tasks to the various investors to get the Red Engine Brewery off the ground. Mendoza is working on finding kitchen equipment and helping to develop the menu.

Andreini says he wants to distinguish Red Engine Brewing by making it a family place with something for everyone. “We want it to be somewhere that locals think of to celebrate, catch up and gather to share ideas and enrich relationships.”

In addition to the beers, he plans to offer California wines and specialty drinks, ciders, seltzers and eventually, a beer that’s barrel-made like whiskey or kombucha. The food menu will offer artisan pizzas on hand-tossed flatbreads, charcuterie boards and salads.

But what will distinguish Red Engine Brewing will be the little extras. There will be tours, food and beer pairings and sensory panels where tasters delve into the different beers.

“I want to make really approachable beers—beers anyone would feel comfortable ordering and drinking. But we can push boundaries of flavor too,” he says. “We’ll have anything from light lagers to double IPAs. There’s a really wide range of beers. And maybe after a year we’ll do something a bit more exciting, like fruit or sour beer.”

The entire Andreini family is involved with the new brewery. Wife Elizabeth, a graphic designer, is working right at his side managing the website, branding and logo, as she homeschools their two children, Olivia, 9, and Jack, 7.

“We’ve definitely tried to get everybody involved to feel they have a part of it,” he says. “I think they see it as giant project. Sometimes it’s fun and sometimes it’s not. They’re proud of it. They speak of it as if it’s their brewery.”

In the meantime, Andreini says he’s excited to finally see his vision come to life after two years of planning and work.