Flash Tour: The Rise of Humble Sea

May 2016 under Nick Pavlina’s grandma’s carport. From Left to right - Taylor West, Nick Pavlina, Frank Scott Krueger and Matthew Swinnerton

Nick Pavlina had been home brewing beer for four years when he decided to turn his long-time hobby into a business. In 2014, Pavlina found the perfect business partners in his longtime friends Frank Scott Krueger and Taylor West. Starting from under grandma’s carport, Humble Sea Brewery began its humble origins, the rest is history.

And then came the pandemic. Breweries among many other social gathering places shuttered to stem the spread of COVID-19. While Humble Sea has grown into a fixture of the Santa Cruz beer scene and beyond, ambitions of expanding were put on hold. Right before the pandemic hit in early 2020, Humble Sea was getting ready for it’s big three year anniversary at their popular Swift Street location. Of course that did not happen. As time went on and more restrictions went into place, limited capacity guidelines strained many in the industry. So what did they do? In classic, Humble fashion, the team retooled to go from carport, to taproom, to e-commerce, shipping and delivering to a far greater customer base than ever before.

While we have heard rumors of the Humble team’s massive success in shifting their business, we had the opportunity to investigate. Watch this video with co-founder and designer of all the super cool labels - Frank Scott Krueger as he walks us through the brewery and canning operation. Learn how they actually increased their business during 2020 and lessons all businesses can glean from their example.

Text co-authored and edited by Adrian Dolatschko