Brewer remembered as legend in Fresno’s craft beer scene. ‘This is my playground’
Kevin Cox was an icon in Fresno’s craft beer scene, a pioneering master brewer responsible for some of the area’s best known brands.
“This is my playground,” Cox told The Fresno Bee in an interview in 2002.
He was talking about Butterfield Brewing Co., which he helped open in 1989 and where he oversaw production of more than 50,000 gallons of beer a year.
He could have as easily been talking about the craft beer community as a whole.
Cox died on Sunday. He had just turned 66 years old.
“We lost a legend and a rockstar in the brewing community,” Tioga-Sequoia Brewing Co. wrote in a post on its social media. Cox was a founding partner and the brew master as the company established itself as the hub of Fresno’s Brewery District. His recipes included the General Sherman IPA, among others.
“Tioga-Sequoia would not be where we are today without Kevin.”
From wine maker to brewer
Originally, Cox came from wine work and was cellar master at Heitz Cellar in Napa before moving with his family to Fresno.
Beer was a hobby.
His wife, Terry Cox, remembers it as a beers-around-the-world thing. He enjoyed trying styles popular in other countries.
The beer making started from a home-brewing kit she bought for him as a gift.
“He started making beer on my kitchen stove,” she told The Bee on Monday.
He would share the batches he made with friends, who always seemed eager for more. When he outgrew the kitchen, he moved into the garage where there was space for kegs and kettles.
His beer was award winning.
There were first-place finishes at competitions at the county fair in Napa, and then at the California State Fair. But it was an award from Zymurgy Magazine that really put him on the radar with those in the industry, Terry Cox says.
“Then, the offers started coming in.”
He got job offers to help start breweries in Salt Lake City, Long Beach and ... Fresno.
At the time (the 1990s), the American craft beer resurgence was in its infancy, says Tioga-Sequoia president Mike Cruz. The industry was dominated by American lagers and exploring other styles was relatively new thinking. There were few brewers (and few breweries) working with different ingredients like hops.
“Cox was one first to make a West Coast IPA in California,” Cruz says.
“He’s been around that long.”
From the beginning, he was interested in sharing his knowledge of the craft.
“That’s what kept him going every day,” Terry Cox says.
While at Butterfield, he started teaching classes on beer making and was a founding member of the Central Valley Worthogs, a home brew club that coalesced around a sign-up list posted at the brewery.
A lineage of brewing in Fresno area
And his influences can be seen (or rather tasted) not just at Tioga-Sequoia, but at breweries across the central San Joaquin Valley. Several brewers who worked under Cox have gone to run breweries themselves, including Rick Boucke at Southgate in Oakhurst, Matt Bolden at 1852 Brew Co. in Visalia and Tommy Caprelian at House of Pendragon in Sanger.
“Kevin played a pivotal role in my journey as a brewer,” Caprelian posted in a remembrance on social media.
“Without him, House of Pendragon Brewing Co. might never have come to life. He gave me my first professional brewing job after brewing school. His mentorship, friendship, and belief in me gave me the confidence to pursue my dream of starting my own brewery.”
In recent years, Cox had retired from brewing and taken a job driving a school bus in Caruthers.
It was a job he loved, his wife says.
Tioga-Sequoia is working with the family to honor Cox and is planning for a celebration of life as “soon as everyone takes some time to grieve.
“Until then, everyone here at Tioga will all raise a pint of General Sherman IPA in his memory.”
This story was originally published December 24, 2024 at 12:28 PM.