Right off the 5 Freeway, just a short drive away from The Happiest Place on Earth, you’ll find Radiant Beer Co.—the big vertical sign out front is hard to miss!

Radiant opened in 2021 and quickly grew a following thanks to their industry veteran-led beer program. More recently, they’ve started to offer food, including pizzas that are as delicious as they are photogenic.

Radiant is decidedly a community-oriented brewery, with multiple spaces (indoor and outdoor) to host events like First Fridays—“a musically-tinged Night Market”—and of course, trivia. It’s low-key enough to seem like a neighborhood joint, but attracts visitors from all over the world, including convention attendees and Disneyland guests.

Read on to learn more from Jonas Nemura, one of Radiant’s co-founders, who also serves as the Director of Brewing Operations.

Meet Jonas Nemura, President and Co-Founder

Tell us about your journey to opening Radiant Beer Co.!

Andrew and I met while working together at The Bruery in Placentia. We occasionally would talk about what kind of brewery we would want to open if the opportunity ever arose, and found we had similar ideas. I left The Bruery to work at a more locally-focused brewery, and during my time there I was connected to some folks who were interested in investing in a brewery. After some searching, a brewery space went on the market down the street from my house; that ended up being what would become Radiant Beer Co.

You were both a part of Orange County’s craft beer scene before opening Radiant. How did you use that experience to your advantage?

We took possession of the brewery in September 2020 and started selling beer in January 2021. Granted, we took over an existing brewery space, but there was a good amount of work that needed to happen to bring it up to our standards (including installing a reverse osmosis water system; Anaheim has incredibly hard water that isn’t well-suited to brewing most beer styles). There’s no way that we could have made that timeline work without our collective years of experience and industry connections, particularly with the supply chain and other logistical issues presented by COVID. Starting to sell beer during the second lock-down also presented a number of challenges, the most obvious being that no bars or restaurants were operating and we couldn’t operate our tasting room, so we pretty much had to can everything and start selling however we could. Past connections helped again with that, allowing us to send beer up to Northern California and Oregon and have a lot of accounts trust that our beer would be good from day one.

Radiant regularly hosts community events throughout the year–could you tell us more about that?

One of the key tenets of Radiant is to foster community and provide space for different groups to come together and build their communities. We put a lot of effort into planning engaging events throughout the year, such as our monthly First Friday night market/beer & food pairing events, our Light Week celebration around the summer solstice, or our Oktoberfest weekend festivities. But we also work with other groups such as a local book club, running & biking groups, and Bonsai and calligraphy workshops to create more experiences and breathe more life into our space. While we’re a beer and beverage company first, we aim to create a welcoming and enlightening space for everyone to enjoy those beverages.

What do you like about being located in Anaheim / Orange County?

I’m a California transplant, having grown up in the midwest and then the East Coast. But I’ve lived in Anaheim since 2009 and really love the community; it’s a big city, but ultimately has a smaller town feel, especially in the Colony Historic District and areas around downtown. My first beer job was actually in New Zealand, but since then all of my experience has been based out of Orange County; it’s been crazy to watch the transformation of the beer culture since moving here until today. I like that Orange County’s transformation was rooted in and led by breweries, versus on-premise accounts like some other markets; I think that led to a well-educated consumer base and a high standard of beer quality.

What do you hope visitors will take away from a visit to Radiant?

We hope they find a place with welcoming staff, engaging events, and world-class beer, wine, seltzers, paired with wonderful food. An ideal visit will not only make them want to return, but inspire them to share the experience with others and continue to build our community.