Around The Horn Brewing Company was mused about in 2012, envisioned in 2014, founded in 2017, and finally brought to life in 2020. The brainchild of Andrew Sabatine, Rachel Sabatine, and Shirley Horn, it's the intersection of the trio's love of craft beer and their love of the beautiful California Sierra.
Rachel Sabatine (nee Horn) came of (drinking) age in 2011, around the same time that the number of craft breweries in the United States started to skyrocket. She and her mother, Shirley Horn, spent a number of years in Southern California, together exploring the breweries in the region. On weekends, they could be found outside of Yosemite in the quaint Gold Rush town of Groveland, the location of the family's vacation home. Throughout their travels, Rachel and Shirley often visited breweries in towns just like Groveland, and Rachel pondered: "There should be a craft brewery in Groveland." Shirley challenged her to do it.
In 2015, Shirley retired (in a true mic drop sorta way) and said "peace out" to the Los Angeles traffic by moving full time to her home in Groveland. Around that time, Andrew Sabatine found his way into their lives. Rachel and Andrew met in line for beer at a Chris Young concert at a casino near Palm Springs. An avid fisherman and frequent visitor to the Sierras, it didn't take Andrew more than a few brewery visits and a trip to Groveland to get on board with the plan.
In 2017, the now-married Andrew and Rachel Sabatine moved to Nashville, Tennessee. Rachel enrolled in Vanderbilt University's Owen Graduate School of Business to fulfill her promise of getting an MBA. Andrew made a career change, leaving his job in real estate management to work at Southern Grist Brewing Company, one of the South's most successful startup breweries. While he finished up his time in Tennessee, Andrew also completed his formal beer education by earning a Brewing Technology Certificate at the Brewing and Distilling Center in Knoxville.
After Rachel's graduation from Vandy and Andrew's completion of brewing school, they joined Shirley full time in Groveland. In December of 2019, they officially moved into the building at 17820 State Highway 120, which once housed great establishments such as the Big Oak Restaurant, Bobbie's, and the Oak Grove Inn. With a lot of help from local vendors and Sonora-based construction company Plum Construction, they transformed the building from a corporate Subway franchise to a rustic taproom with an attached brewhouse.
Andrew, Rachel, Shirley, and the rest of the Around The Horn team are excited to welcome you and your family to enjoy our dream. Cheers!
Groveland, California is just 30 minutes from the Big Oak Flat Entrance to Yosemite National Park. This picturesque mountain region was settled in 1848 by a group of gold seekers lead by miner James Savage. The area was appropriately deemed “Savage Diggings.” Within Savage Diggings was a settlement called “Big Oak Flat” (named after a 13-foot-diameter oak tree) and another settlement named “Garrote” (a more macabre name meaning “death by strangulation” in Spanish).
In 1860, the Golden Rock Ditch was built, bringing water from the nearby Tuolumne River to these towns, allowing them to continue growing in population. In 1874, the road into the Yosemite Valley was completed, the predecessor to Highway 120. It brought with it increased tourism and industry.
The population of Groveland/Big Oak Flat ebbed and flowed into the early 1900s, reflecting the booms and declines in mining. Then construction began on the Hetch Hetchy Water and Power project, which would bring fresh water to the city of San Francisco. Naturalist John Muir staunchly fought against the development of the Hetch Hetchy Valley, but he lost the battle, and the O’Shaughnessy Dam was built. Almost 100 years later, Hetch Hetchy continues to provide delicious, pure mountain water to San Francisco and to Groveland.
Today, Groveland is a favorite weekend destination for San Francisco Bay Area residents looking to escape city life. Many of the houses in Pine Mountain Lake, a gated community within Groveland, are vacation homes for these part-time visitors, their families, and friends.Groveland’s downtown is located directly on State Highway 120, the main thoroughfare to Yosemite from the Bay Area. Upwards of one million tourists visit Groveland each year, making this the second largest of Yosemite's gateway towns.
- Around The Horn Brewing Company's namesake comes from a phrase that dates back to the Gold Rush. To go "around the horn" meant to take a ship from the East Coast, down around Cape Horn at the tip of South America, up to San Francisco. This was a common journey for gold seekers (lasting an average of four to five months), as the Panama Canal was not opened until 1914. The term later became associated with baseball.
- Yosemite National Park became the United States' third national park, on October 1, 1890 (Yellowstone and Sequoia are the first two parks, respectively.) But its origins as protected land go back to 1864, when President Abraham Lincoln signed the Yosemite Land Grant. It's thought that this act was the predecessor to the creation of the first national parks. Thanks for that, Abe!
- Groveland's first brewery was started in 1853 by a gentleman named Ferdinand Stachler. A few years later, a German immigrant named Eugene Mueller purchased the brewery from him, and it became known as the Mueller Brewery. In addition to serving the needs of the local community, the Mueller Brewery supplied beer and gin across the treacherous Sierra Nevada to the mining town of Bodie.
- Groveland's original name was "Garrotte," derived from the Spanish word for "strangulation." It was changed to "Groveland" in 1875, named after the town of Groveland, Massachusetts.
- According to the California Division of Mines, the placer mines of Big Oak Flat, Groveland, and the surrounding areas produced over $25,000,000 in gold during their heyday. That's over $700 billion in today's market!