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Partly cloudy. High 84F. Winds NW at 10 to 20 mph..

A few passing clouds. Low 59F. Winds NW at 10 to 20 mph.

Beer Billy's, a new brewery on Rosedale Highway, will start with five beers for its grand opening on Friday.

Beer Billy's, a family-owned brewery, opens Friday on Rosedale Highway, run by head brewer Aric House, right; his dad and business namesake, Bill House, left; and stepmom Marissa House. Family dog Argos, a Hungarian Vizsla, will be a frequent visitor at the dog-friendly business.

The Gooder beer is an IPA that will be one of the initial offerings at Beer Billy's, which opens Friday off Rosedale Highway.

Beer Billy's, a new brewery on Rosedale Highway, will start with five beers for its grand opening on Friday.

Beer Billy's, a family-owned brewery, opens Friday on Rosedale Highway, run by head brewer Aric House, right; his dad and business namesake, Bill House, left; and stepmom Marissa House. Family dog Argos, a Hungarian Vizsla, will be a frequent visitor at the dog-friendly business.

The Gooder beer is an IPA that will be one of the initial offerings at Beer Billy's, which opens Friday off Rosedale Highway.

How does a new local brewery stand out in a market of award-winning contenders? If you're Beer Billy's, which opens Friday on Rosedale Highway, you start by knowing your target audience.

"How we have thought about it is there is a lot of good craft beer in this town, but Bakersfield is a Bud Light town," said namesake and partner William "Bill" House, noting that the Anheuser-Busch brew continues to rank high in overall U.S. beer sales.

"Our goal is to convert those people, not take away business from those other local brewers."

A catchy name — a play on "hillbilly" and "beer belly" may also help draw in business to the brewery located in the same shopping center as Hooters and La Imperial Taqueria.

Before plans began fermenting for the brewery, beer making was a hobby for House's son, Aric, who is a partner in the business along with House's wife, Marissa.

"We started doing that on the weekend," Bill House said. "We thought our beer was as good as anybody else's."

All had other jobs — Aric was an oil field electrician, Marissa handled contracts for Chevron and Bill worked on land restoration projects — but after three years of home-brewing, they decided to make the leap into small business.

"You really need three people (to run a brewery)," Bill said. "Someone who can make beer and is good at it, someone who can make things happen in the back office. There is so much paperwork, permits and contracts. The most important job is mine because I have the name."

They joined a local home-brewers association, connecting with brewers from Crusader Brewing and 2nd Phase Brewing.

"They've been really instrumental (in helping us). It's really cool when those who ought to be competitors are your best friends."

When the brewery opens, it will offer five beers, ranging from Ain't Right amber ale to Covfefe coffee cream stout.

"No one knew what that (word) was supposed to mean so we gave it a definition," Marissa said of the dark breakfast beer named after a viral 2017 tweet from then-President Donald Trump.

Necessity was the mother of invention when it came to Lemon Ale, a lightly tart ale that is not a classified sour beer.

"My dad had a lot of lemons in the backyard and wanted to make a beer with it," Aric said. "We went through whatever leftover grains we had on hand. It was a really spur-of-the-moment thing. Even the recipe I wrote down, it looked like chicken scratch, all vague to me. Now we've got it all figured out."

"We didn't know it was going to be that good," Bill said. "It's my favorite, easily. On a hot summer day, that's what I want to be drinking."

And there are plenty of those hot days coming, with Beer Billy's offering Bakersfield another spot to stay cool and enjoy local craft beer.

Friday's grand opening will be a fun affair with an acoustic performance by outlaw country band Angels Roost and Zepeda's Stone Fire Pizza selling specialty pies.

In the future, the Houses plan to follow in the footsteps of other small breweries who partner with a rotating list of food trucks and vendors.

The business owners also want to get involved with the community for events and other activities.

For now, the Houses are excited to share their hard work with Bakersfield beer drinkers. And hopefully convert a few from their Bud Light ways.

Stefani Dias can be reached at 661-395-7488. Follow her on Twitter at @realstefanidias.

Grand opening: With Zepeda's Stone Fire Pizza, performance by Angels Roost at 6 p.m., 4 to 10 p.m. Friday

Where: 4208 Rosedale Highway, Suites 207-208

Regular hours: 4 to 10 p.m. Monday through Saturday

More information: beerbillys.com, @beerbillysbako on Instagram or facebook.com/beerbillysbako

Positive Cases Among Kern Residents: 247,229

Recovered and Presumed Recovered Residents: 241,371

Percentage of all cases that are unvaccinated: 76.19

Percentage of all hospitalizations that are unvaccinated: 83.37

Source: Kern County Public Health Services Department

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