Federation Brewing – Aram Cretan

#020 – Today we talk with Oakland resident and entrepreneur Aram Cretan of Federation Brewing, a producer of award winning craft beer. Aram created Federation with his childhood friend and then roped in his retired “banker” dad to keep the books.

What started as a home brewing project over 10 years ago grew into brewing for friends’ weddings. I asked Aram when he thought he had a business:

“You start to realize that you have the germ of a business here when all of a sudden you’re spending every weekend on something. That’s not, you know, more than a hobby, but less than a profession.”

Before the pandemic, Federation was selling kegs to restaurants and pints to customers in their Jack London tasting room. When the pandemic hit, they lost 95% of their business. The pandemic required Federation to pivot to a manufacturing and canning business, selling through distributors – a much different business. The result was they grew 3x.

“When COVID started, we were just driving our kegs around Alameda and Contra Costa. That’s what we were doing. We were a little East Bay brewery. Now you can get our beer in cans from Paso Robles up to Redding. We signed on with two distributors. We produced three times more beer by volume in 2021 than we did in 2020.”

You can visit the brewery and tasting room at 420 3rd St. in the heart of Oakland’s Jack London Square district. This is NOT your neighborhood sports bar, however. When you visit, be prepared to put your phone away and engage with other patrons.

Be sure to stick around until the end to hear how Federation’s mascot “Keg Bot” is fighting to keep the Town safe for independent beers.