Mojave Brewing Company Story

Griff: After 30 years of brewing, drinking, and sharing his own beer, John “Griff” Griffith began his path toward opening his own brewery and cider house. Griff began to study the art of making beer better and better. Steps along that path included joining the local home brewers club, SNAFU, winning medals in home brewing contests, becoming a nationally recognized BJCP beer judge, and traveling to compete at The Great America Beer Festival as a Pro/AM entrant with Joseph James Brewery (2015).

With a business plan and interested investors, Griff decided to focus on getting a feel for brewing on a 10-barrel brewing system. This was the system size that many craft brewers use, and it is the same size as the system that Griff now works on at Mojave Brewing. Griff heard from a friend that Joyride Brewing in Edgewater, Colorado, was looking for a brewing intern, so he sent them some of his beer. After tasting Griff’s beer, they decided that he would make a great addition to their team. Within days, Griff was working alongside skilled brewers. This allowed him to improve as a brewer and get experience with the system that he knew he wanted to eventually use in his brewery.

Griff and his wife, Kristi, decide to make Mojave Brewing Company a family-owned business. The decision to proceed without partners or investors meant more freedom to follow their dreams, but it also meant many more challenges. At this point, Mojave Brewing Company became a registered business in Nevada, and the real fun began!

After an exhaustive search around the Las Vegas Valley, Griff and Kristi signed a lease for a section of the old Bank of America building at 107 South Water Street in the historic Water Street Neighborhood in Henderson, Nevada. Which leads us to making the great beer we do today.

Nate: Nate started homebrewing in 2011, and his passion for making beer took off. However, his love of beer came from the time he spent in Heidelberg, Germany, as a 14-year-old kid. He was there as a military brat with his Mom and Dad. At the age of 14, in Germany, he was able to sneak off base and grab some of the delicious beer from the local area. Nate ended up leaving Germany and moving to Utah to finish out his high school and college years at SUU, where he graduated with a bachelor's degree in Criminal Justice. Not knowing what to do with his degree, he decided to go back to school and get his Master's Degree in Education, where he taught for nine years. After nine years of teaching, he decided to open his own brewery, and this is where Griff and Nate's friendship started.

Nate contacted Griff, and they met up at Astronomy Aleworks for a beer, and the rest is history. They hit it off, and Griff was kind enough to invite Nate into his adventure. And now here we are!