WORKING -- Dennis Midden

-- Story by Angelique Flores

HE IS

Brewing and baking

BREAD-Y TO GO

Midden runs BrewBakers, a shop in Huntington Beach where anyone can come

in to brew beer and soda or buy a loaf of freshly baked bread.

“It started with a dream to tie beer and bread together,” the 47-year-old

man said. “It’s a celebration of yeast.”

Baking bread is second nature to Midden, who grew up in the baking

business.

“I’m a baker first and a brewer second,” he said.

Midden’s father was a baker who taught all seven of his sons the ins and

outs of baking.

Thirty-four years later, Midden has stuck with it. He loves it, and it

shows -- from the pretzel-shaped handle on his bottle opener to his

bread-loaf clock, both of which sit on the bar at the brewery.

Though customers can brew their own beer, Midden is more protective over

the loaves, which only he bakes.

OUTSIDE THE BREW SHOP

Midden is one of 10 children and grew up in St. Louis. He has been

married to his wife, Linda, for 15 years and now has three daughters.

Midden loves to fly and used to own his own plane. While he was living in

San Francisco and working in Southern California, he commuted by plane.

After living in the Bay area for seven years, he moved to Huntington

Beach 11 years ago. He picked Surf City because, at the time, it was

close to an airport.

When he’s not baking or brewing, Midden works for a business development

consultant company as an analyst manager. Before running the brewery,

Midden was a food broker selling bakery products to supermarkets. He

picked up his sales skill when he sold real estate for four years.

JUST BREW IT

“I prefer making bread more, but I prefer drinking beer more,” Midden

said.

To share his yeasty love, he has the BrewBaker Coach, which he drives to

make home deliveries to local residents.

Each day, Midden comes into the brewery for all the behind-the-scenes

preparations that must be done before the customers come and do their

brewing.

“We’re the garage. We take care of the mess, and they do the fun part,”

he said.

THE DARK SIDE

Midden admits that he wasn’t much of a beer drinker until the “beer

movement” of the 1980s brought out the flavored beers.

New customers usually come into the Heil Avenue store and have samples of

beer to pick the one they’d like to try brewing.

Once the brewing begins, it takes two hours before Midden will ring the

loud bell above the kettle to proclaim: “Another fine batch of beer.”

After two weeks of letting the beer ferment, customers return for the

bottling.

DISASTROUS BREWS

Each weekday, the shop brings in about four brewers, with the number

rising to about eight on the weekends. A “brew angel” hangs above the six

copper kettles, which are named for Midden’s six brothers.

Midden keeps an eye on his brewers to make sure their batches come out

just right. Even if the customer errs in the process, Midden can quickly

fix it -- except for one occasion when a customer turned the wrong valve.

The valve released water into the almost-finished batch of beer.

“It was all over,” Midden remembers. “It made me cry.”