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Steve Sartori likes beer. With hard work, a keen palate and scientific bent, Sartori opened Altamont Beer Works in 2012. A Livermore success story. Sartori’s most popular brew, Maui Waui (Mowee Wowee) is easy to say, understand, and drink. It is a smooth beer with notes of guava and mango.
Unlike many craft breweries, Altamont’s portfolio of craft beers is not extreme, meaning it is not overly bitter or overly light. Sartori also makes gluten-free, fruit-forward hard seltzers called Maui Water and non-alcoholic kombuchas.
Maui Waui is a West Coast Double IPA (India Pale Ale). This means the beer has a considerable number of hops, a key ingredient in beer along with malted grains. Maui Waui features a selection of hops which impart the tropical flavors. Fussy about hops, Sartori regularly visits a supplier in Yakima, Washington.
Given that cooking is one of Sartori’s favorite pastimes, he compared selecting ingredients for a new beer to opening the refrigerator door at dinnertime. “If chicken and broccoli are inside, I’ll make a pasta. With beer, I check the dozen or so hops on hand to consider the overall flavor profile I want from the beer.”
The palette of beer hops numbers over 300 varieties and range from citrus, tropical, and floral to herbal, spicy, piney, resinous, and earthy. All hops naturally possess bitterness to balance the sweet notes of malted grains, but the bitterness level depends on the amount of a specific acid in the plant bud. The smooth finish of most Altamont beers such as Maui Waui is related to adding the hops at the end of production, aka dry hopping, which results in less bitterness.
Maui Waui was one of the first beers produced in 2013 and comprises 60-percent of the brewery’s production and sales. Another popular, early product is Hella Hoppy, the hoppier big brother of Maui Waui.
Located around the corner from the Vasco Row of wineries, the taproom exudes a casual vibe with kid and dog-friendly policies, knowledgeable staff, TVs, daily food trucks, and Football Sundays. This ambiance attracts a large crowd that can order from the 30 draft taps including staples Maui Waui and Juice Above the Cloud, another clear and not hazy Double IPA with a soft finish.
A customer at Altamont since the opening, Livermore resident Geoff, remembers Shot Away, the first beer Sartori produced which occasionally is on tap. The name Sartori chose, Altamont Shot Away, reflects local history. The former Altamont Speedway, a 20-minute drive away, was the site of the infamous Rolling Stones Free Concert in Dec. 1967. Fifteen years later, one of the first, large scale sustainable energy operations launched nearby at Altamont Wind Farms.
“The original name of Shot Away was Shelter, named after the Rolling Stones song ‘Gimme Shelter,’ released a day before the concert,” said Sartori. “But another brewery had trademarked the name, so we called it ‘Shot Away,” a refrain from the song.
At the taproom, home brewer Geoff told me that he visits often to sample Sartori’s rotating and seasonal beers. As he petted his dog, Brewer, Geoff sipped Bines of Death, a West Coast IPA made in collaboration for Halloween with Ghost Town Brewing of Oakland. “Bines” refers to the climbing stems where hops grow and evokes the phrases “bonds of death” or “vines of death.” Skulls populate the black and white label, and the name is splattered across the front in red. Jagged spikes encircle the standard Altamont logo of a fanciful, dancing windmill.
Beach Snack, a popular rice lager with rice added to the malted grains, has palm trees protruding from a skull’s eyes and mouth; the logo is the third eye. Nutty Operator, a peanut butter infused, oatmeal stout-style beer, has a rendition of one of the staff’s faces. A Mexican-style lager is named Cerveza Murrieta in honor of local legend Joaquin Murrieta.
Seasonal Altamont Festbier honors Oktoberfest. Crafted in a traditional German style, the label features bines of hops framing the tall windmill and its smaller offspring. The effect is like an arched European cathedral with a choir of windmills and hop buds posing as congregants atop beer barrels.
After sampling several Altamont beers, I named Rich Mahagony, a rich, red ale, as a new favorite. When I mentioned pairing the beer with the crispy baby back ribs at Sons of Liberty in Livermore, Sartori, the cook, said that Rich Mahagony, with a touch of sweetness from the malted grains, has enough hops to stand up to anything made with a glaze or barbecue sauce.
Sartori is ever-expanding the portfolio. After nudging Sartori to make a German-style Kölsch, a friend tasted Kottonmouth Kölsch recently and declared it comparable to its European cousins. Kaptain Kush, a specialty Double IPA described as a golden-hued beer with danky [sic} and tropical notes. Along with other brews such as Maui Waui, the name evokes cannabis strain, but the label states the beer has no THC or CBD. Once a year, Sartori makes Altamont Scarcity, a Triple IPA which calls out Russian River Brewing’s cult beer Pliny the Younger.
A graduate of Livermore’ Granada High, Sartori makes friends easily and knows how to have fun. During a recent taproom visit, a half dozen customers greeted him.
While at Sacramento State, he worked at an extreme sports shop and made friends with folks who tasted one of his first barrels of beer and encouraged him to go professional with his home brewing.
After graduating in business from Sacramento State, Sartori returned home to work in his Dad’s trucking business which he expected to take over one day. Yet he was drawn to the beer culture, attending beer festivals, meeting other hopheads, who loved hoppy beer, and others working in the business. Sartori bought a starter kit with a five gallon container, basic ingredients, and a plastic spoon,
With a straight-A science background at Granada High, Sartori was hungry to learn the technical, geeky elements of fermentation after college. He started working three jobs at the Wente golf course, the former Good Brew Shop in Livermore, and his Dad’s trucking business. He also spent time with his mentor Tony Lawrence, owner of Boneyard Beer in Bend.
Armed with a sample of his home brew, Sartori went to First Street Alehouse in Livermore and asked owner Ron Witherspoon whether he should open a brewery. Witherspoon said yes and was one of the first to carry his beer.
Livermore was overdue for a brewery; Altamont was the first brewery since Prohibition. Sartori signed the Altamont lease in late 2011. With sweat equity, he built the original brewery. A tiny taproom opened in 2013 with a major expansion in 2018.
The business has grown rapidly at a pace of 15 to 20 percent annually. In 2024 Altamont opened another production facility in Livermore four times the size of the original. At the smaller brewery, Sartori has branched out to produce gluten free hard seltzers such as prickly pear Waui Water Pearadise Coolers, kombuchas, and more styles of beer.
“We already distribute throughout California, but now we can expand our distribution footprint and increase production and sales. We are looking at distributing beer in Idaho and other Western states,” said Sartori.
In the meantime, Sartori enjoys dreaming up new brews, greeting regular customers, meeting new ones at events, and supporting the community. In the summer, he closes the parking lot for free, monthly Block Parties with concerts, local crafters, artists and food trucks. His periodic beer and cheese pairing events with The Cheese Parlor in Livermore are popular. Sartori donates bikes for the annual Livermore Chamber of Commerce Bikes & Brews event and other groups.
Pleasanton’s Halloween zom-Brew Crawl reveals itself on Oct. 25th. Be prepared for spooky-labeled beer, Maui Waui and more.
