Balance Beerworks taproom blends soft blues and yellows while square windows frame roughly a dozen stainless steel fermenters and storage tanks. The logo adorns the walls along with drawings of precariously balanced stacks of rocks, a nod to the name. 

Those visiting Balance Beerworks taproom may run into Bryce McEfee or Bruce MacPhee, one of the brewers and a veteran of Deschutes Brewing and Device Brewing.

“Chances are, if you come to the taproom, you’re talking to an owner,” McEfee, one of the founders, explains. 

Balance Beerworks opened this June at the location of a former well-known Sacramento craft brewer, Device Brewing. The sudden exit of Device Brewing from the space, and Track 7 before it, gives the Balance Beerworks founders a chance to plant their flag on the Sacramento craft brewing scene. In fact, the closure of the 14th Avenue taproom near Sacramento State and brewing location was a catalyst for Balance’s formation.

Along with McEfees Bryce, Alana,Tom “Pops” and Kathy, there’s Bruce and Katie MacPhee, Ian and Mykenzie Marriott, and Van and Paul Bonilla-Rios. The founders’ backgrounds span brewing, taproom operations, marketing and hospitality; all coincidentally connected through their time at Device Brewing, where they held similar roles and first met. 

“It was when Device was closing, we all looked at each other and said, “Alright, we have a golden opportunity. Do we want it? Okay, how do we go about it?” McEfee says about buying the taproom and brewery equipment. Last year, the Balance team acquired the Device Brewery and taproom on 14th Avenue near Granite Park and began working toward a spring or summer opening. 

A local approach to a changing beer industry

The Device Brewing and Track 7 closures for the Sacramento beer scene matched recent national downturns in craft beer. The Brewers Association found craft beer production fell by 4 percent in 2025, but taproom and brewpub models are a bright spot for the industry and something Balance is looking to capitalize on. Across California, somewhere north of 900 craft breweries are in operation, still the most of any state, according to the California Craft Brewers Association. 

“We’ve seen a lot of breweries go into the heavier distribution model and not succeed. And I think you saw Device do that and fail. Rubicon did that and failed. That was, you know, way before COVID. Right. Track 7 did that and failed,” says David Weiss, president of the Sacramento Area Brewers Guild and brewer at Blue Note Brewing in Woodland. “Everyone that’s local in the industry pays attention to what’s going on, and seeing that happen again and again discourages breweries from going that route.”

Balance isn’t the only relatively young brewery to focus on a neighborhood model. Twenty minutes north, Granite Bay Brewing Co. opened in 2023 with a focus on the neighborhood. “I knew when we opened that craft brewing seemed to be in a downturn,” says Carter Gray, one of the owners and head brewer at Granite Bay Brewing Co. “But I wanted people to come to a brewery, and when they left, have it feel like it’s their bar. The key to a small neighborhood brewery like ours is managing overhead and making sure that we can serve anyone walking in the door with a beer they like.”

Movement Brewing, celebrating its sixth anniversary in Rancho Cordova, was built around a similar neighborhood craft beer model. Co-owner Alanna Cavanagh says Movement Brewing still prides itself on brewery collaborations and a spring, 1990s-themed nostalgic brew event, “There’s not a lot of industries where people collab and work together this much. The ‘beer people’ are just the best. There’s so much potential for even more growth for the beer community in Sacramento.”

Weiss from the Brewer’s Guild echoed a similar sentiment, “Quality-wise, we have amazing breweries here in Sacramento that go toe-to-toe with breweries from Portland, San Diego or Denver. You’re going to find as good a beer in the Sacramento area as anywhere in the country.”

Finding opportunity in the craft beer downturn

Gray called the hazy IPA craze from a decade ago “hop fatigue.” “Lagers are gaining traction and popularity again. It takes a little longer to make a really good clean lager, but I think it’s worth it.” 

Despite the apparent shift to lighter craft beer, GB Brewing did take home a gold medal this year at the California State Fair Commercial Craft Beer Competition for the red rye Hearth Fire IPA. Movement Brewing offers “slushy” versions of seltzers, as well as taproom-made non-alcoholic versions of drinks. 

“With the explosion of craft brewing, the story of what craft beer is has been lost a little,” says Bruce MacPhee, one of the brewers at Balance. “For us brewers, craft beer is still very much about honing our skill, just as restaurant chefs hone theirs. Every beer we make at Balance is an extension of our palate and creating a finished product beer drinkers enjoy.”

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