It’s true for every microbrewery that there’s a story behind each beer. The smaller the operational scale, the more attention can be paid and loving cheffery applied to each release. They call it craft beer for a reason.

But at Discretion Brewing, the stories are richer because many of their releases benefit outside organizations and charities. Married co-owners Rob and Kathleen Genco do their utmost to live up to their company motto printed on every can: “Choose goodness. Have Discretion.”

I sat down with them after their 12th anniversary party at their Soquel HQ to hear some of these stories.

Woodland Critters (2015)

“The Land Trust [of Santa Cruz County] was our first beneficiary,” Kathleen says. “Rob and I have been supporters for over 30 years now. I first heard about them after my dad passed away.”

The trust was aiming to preserve the sand hills between Scotts Valley and Felton, a place her father always took her, and she thought donating to that specific project would be the perfect way to honor him.

“And then we just kept on with them because the more I learned, the more I thought, ‘I like this. I like the land around us.’”

Rob’s experience with the organization was day-to-day, if from a distance.

“I was a commuter over Highway 17 for 25 years, so I got to watch the development of the undercrossing,” he says, referring to the wildlife pathway built beneath the Laurel Curve, where so many animals lost their lives in traffic collisions before the Land Trust intervened.

The title Woodland Critters evokes the wildlife protected but also the tiny organisms habitating in the wooden barrels that age the beer. Beer is a miracle of organic chemistry, a fusion of living elements, and despite the best quality control, recipes can produce different results. This release series is a testament to that, changing each time it’s made. #9 happens to be a sour wheat ale.

“They’re almost all sours, depending on what the critters are doing in there,” she says.

Submarine Canyon IPA (2015)

Sometimes brewmaster Michael Demers and head brewer Jack Beiting theme the brew to the need, using ingredients that evoke for the consumer something about the cause that release will serve. That was the case for Submarine Canyon IPA, proceeds of which go to Save Our Shores, the Santa Cruz educational nonprofit committed to ocean conservation. That thematic recipe was brightened by Meyer lemon, with sea salt harvested from the Monterey Bay.

“Generally, it’s more ‘what do we want to contribute to and support?’” says Rob. “And then, ‘what kind of beer do we want to make for it?’”

IPAs are often the choice due to their surging popularity. But sometimes, the brew is based on absentia.

“What will fill out our list of available beers right now?” says Kathleen. “What don’t we have?”

Now everyone wants to have Submarine Canyon, so much that Discretion made it a yearly release tied to their anniversary party.

“Submarine Canyon we only do once a year and so it is a highly sought-after beer. It’s usually gone in a month.”

B.U.D. [Brewers United for David] (2017)

Some benefit beers arise to address an immediate tragedy.

When Fruition Brewing’s David Purgason was burned in a work accident at Venus Distillery, local breweries collaborated for a fundraising event at Lúpulo Craft Beer House, each brewing a hop-forward, low ABV Session IPA—his favorite—in his honor. B.U.D., aka Brewers United for David, was Discretion’s contribution, with assists from other industry friends.

“He was over the hill in the burn unit for weeks and weeks,” Kathleen says. “We were all so shocked. Brittany [Crass], who used to work at Shanty Shack, helped organize because she was a good friend of David’s partner, Tutti.”

“We knew that’s the style he liked, but everyone did their own take-off,” Rob says.

Each beer was named after him, from Shanty Shack’s “Davidade,” to Steel Bonnet’s “Airson,” which is David in Gaelic.

Pogonip Pale Ale (2018)

Chalkboard signs for all the beers Discretion ever produced are racked in their conference room, some to be seasonally reused, many permanently retired. The sheer number makes it easy to forgive them not instantly remembering every release, such as their Pogonip Pale Ale.

Kathleen unfurls the label, and she and Rob piece a story together.

“It was an event at Burger on Mission. A Homeless Garden Project thing…”

“Because they were building their garden up in Pogonip…” Rob says.

“What happened with that?”

“Well, I think it was created and they were farming it, then the city discovered an immense amount of lead…”

“That’s right…”

“From skeet shooting up there back in the ’20s and ’30s.”

After that botched relocation that would’ve required millions to decontaminate, the nonprofit returned to their Shaffer Road land plot, but as with some benefit beers, the collaboration ended there.

“It is really delicious,” says Kathleen, as if to sweetly signal it wasn’t the beer’s fault. “It’s got grapefruit zest. But it didn’t continue as a fundraising beer.”

Their next effort for the unhoused came in 2022 with Flight Dreams Pale Ale, their first non-canned beer made specifically for a local organization, Wings, an advocacy group that assists the unhoused transitioning into housing.

Kathleen knew them because of her Uncle Dave, whose namesake rye IPA is a Discretion bestseller.

“His son-in-law started the organization. They work with the bigger organizations to get people’s needs met during that transition time.”

They first gave to them via their discontinued Love Monday banner, a recurring event when they’d donate 20% of Monday’s beer sales to local nonprofits. Their commitments may be more fluid now, but their generosity remains undiluted. Just this summer alone, they’ll be working with BirchBark Foundation, Friends of Santa Cruz Parks & Rec, Capitola Junior Guards, Arukah Project, Friends of La Selva Beach Library, Santa Cruz Children’s Museum of Discovery, Santa Cruz Shakespeare, Teen Kitchen Project and Camp Campbell YMCA.

Santa Cruz County Strong (2020)

While the Gencos open their beneficent hearts to national causes, as with Free Day IPA, which raised money for the NAACP and ACLU after the Black Lives Matter protests in 2020, and Neighboring Pale Ale, for Western North Carolina hurricane relief in 2024, their focus is always on our community. Never is this more apparent than the all-hands-on-deck leadership for Santa Cruz County Strong Hoppy Blond Ale, a collaboration with eleven other local breweries to answer the devastation of the CZU Lightning Complex fire.

Since they were the “home” for the project, their brewers took point, but all voices were welcome. When the working title was “Santa Cruz Strong,” Donald Cramb of Scotts Valley’s Steel Bonnet spoke up. He suggested adding “county” as a distinction in order to encompass from his neck of the urban woods down to Corralitos, the span of breweries lending their helping hands.

A Love Story (2022)

These benefit beers can afford the brewers an opportunity to attempt something they’re enamored with, such as the Czech dark lager for A Love Story. Taproom lead Eric Wilderman brought Rob and Kathleen the idea of an ALS research benefit beer since he lost his father to the disease a few years before being hired. Unbeknownst to him, there was an uncanny cluster of ALS in the Discretion team histories: Beiting’s grandfather; taproom staff Chelsea and Elliot’s fathers; Kathleen’s high school friend.

Wilderman was an avid fan of that beer style, and so Beiting got to work, even knowing it was unfamiliar to the public. Initially brewed as a lark, “It actually is a good seller now,” says Rob. “We didn’t expect it to be.”

Because it’s “rich and chocolatey and toasty,” they schedule it for winter.

“People like it,” Kathleen says, “and they like the story.”

Discretion Brewing, 2703 41st Ave., Suite A, Soquel. Visit discretionbrewing.com to see current offerings. Some beers detailed here are no longer in regular production rotation, and others were never commercially available. Join them Saturday, Sept. 28, for A Taste of Soquel, where they’ll be pouring to benefit Second Harvest Food Bank. For details, visit tasteofsoquel.org.