DISTANT KEEPS IT CLOSE

Published in the Dec. 27, 2025 issue.

This month, Distant Brewing celebrated its ten year anniversary. Ten years of food, drink and community. The Brewery hosts open mic nights on Mondays, pool tournaments on Wednesdays, and live music on Thursdays and Sundays.

    When I think of what makes Mammoth feel like home for me, Distant and the ritual of attending open mic nights immediately comes to mind. I always order a Sky Pillow IPA and sit too close to the performer, so the speaker is directly in my ear. Sometimes a friend comes with me. Sometimes I go alone.

Distant is indisputably my favorite scene in town. It’s somewhere I always feel safe.

“Maybe it’s the old police station vibe,” joked local Distant frequenter Ruby Walker during an interview last Wednesday.

Maybe.

But what I really love is the familiarity. The boys across the room playing pool, the bartender with the big silver beard who always gives me a head nod and the locals discount, the rotating cast of ultra-talented minstrels strumming ballads on their guitars, and a dog or six, brushing against my legs. Even as more people flow into town for the ski season, Distant remains reliably homey.

“They cater to the locals, which has served them really well,” Walker said.

The employees can confirm.

“We’re here for the people,” said Sergio Gonzales, the bearded bartender. Gonzales has worked at Distant for nine years.

Distant Brewing began as Black Doubt Brewing Company, founded by Drew Wallace and his then-partner in 2015. Black Doubt quickly became a Mammoth staple, churning out classics like the “Black Doubt Stout,” a peanut butter dark beer that Distant still occasionally features on its menu. People like Gonzales and Brett Mance, now the head brewer, joined the team during these early years.

In 2018, Wallace teamed up with his brother, Kirk, and the pair became co-owners. The same year, the Mammoth Lakes Police Department moved out, and the brothers signed the lease on their current spot. Distant Brewing as we now know it officially opened in 2019.

Transforming the old rabbit warren of a police department into a brewery was a complicated process. The Distant Brewing team did all the renovations by hand. Gonzales and Kirk Wallace punched out the ceiling. They re-did the walls.

“We were just like, let’s make it as cool as we can, and hopefully people will show up,” Kirk Wallace said.

The intention behind various design choices, like the mural on the wall adjacent to the bar and the mountain range constructed of thousands of stickers perpendicular to the pool table, can be explained by Wallace’s constant desire for his business to grow.

“We want this place to be constantly changing,” Kirk Wallace said. “Our goal here is for it to be different every time you come.”

Even the beer list changes weekly, Wallace continued.

Walker noticed these changes at open mic, which she attends and performs at almost every Monday. She described the seasonality of the crowd, like the consistent group of people jamming during the summer.

“Shoulder season was my favorite, because it was not as busy and the people were all locals I knew,” Walker said. “It felt like less pressure and people actually listened to the people performing.”

Now, the crowd has shifted again. When I attended open mic last week, there was not an empty chair in sight.

“I have to be ready to socialize with every single young person in Mammoth,” newcomer Sierra Babcock said when I met her for a beer last Monday.

Wallace said he’s been surprised by how successful his business is. But he’s not satisfied yet.

“I want Distant to be the best business in Mammoth,” Wallace said. 

What makes Distant the best? As Gonzales would say, the Distant family.

“We all came together through a love of beer,” Gonzales said. “The love of beer has made us love each other.”

Gonzales then poured me a sample of his four favorites. A pink guava sour. A coffee stout. A peanut butter stout. And the oaky, delicious Saison. Yum.

Distant Brewing is open from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday through Thursday, and from 11 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. Friday and Saturday.