“Our focus is on local craft beers. We have 30 beers on tap that you can’t buy at a grocery store,” said Los Gatos BrewFest organizer Holly Stanley in advance of her event Saturday.

In Los Gatos, Jack Rose Libation House and Bramble & Bier are Silicon Valley Beer Week destinations, but Holly and her husband Russ are focusing on their Saturday, July 22 event, when the taps will be pouring craft beers from noon to 5 p.m.

“We also have one nitro tap beer. Nitro beers have more nitrogen, which creates a creamier, velvety-textured beer like Guinness,” Holly said.

Holly and her developer husband, Russ Stanley, didn’t set out to be restaurateurs, but with the recent opening of Bramble & Bier their now the proud owner of two restaurant/bars at La Hacienda Inn. Bramble & Bier opened in late May in the same building that housed the original Hacienda restaurant at 18840 Saratoga-Los Gatos Road in unincorporated Los Gatos.

The Stanleys opened the Jack Rose Libation House, known for small plates, pizza and award-winning craft cocktails, in December 2013. They expect the Hacienda’s outdoor beer garden to be a major draw: Bramble & Bier is meant to complement the kid- and dog-friendly beer garden, Holly Stanley said.

Stanley designed Bramble & Bier’s decor to reflect beer’s German-Austrian roots. That’s why the name is spelled “bier,” while custom artwork shows deer stags relaxing in the Alps—drinking beer, of course.

Like the Los Gatos Weekly Times Facebook page for neighborhood news and conversation from Los Gatos and beyond.

Bramble & Bier features an exposed beam interior, with bright white walls, tarnished brass lamps from a 1940s Navy ship and even a small wall covered in birch trees. The restaurant seats 125 at long and short tables, and there’s a cozy bar where patrons can watch mixologists concocting “brambles.”

“The original bramble is the most popular drink in the United Kingdom,” Stanley said. “It was created in 1984 by a London bartender. It’s a refreshing, well-balanced drink.”

The original bramble contains gin, lemon juice, simple syrup and Creme de Mure.

“Creme de Mure is a French blackberry liqueur,” Stanley said. “You pour the liqueur on top and it kind of brambles down the glass.”

In British English, the word bramble refers to prickly shrubs, specifically the blackberry bush.

Bramble & Bier’s bartenders have developed five fruit-based bramble recipes using passion fruit, watermelons, honeydew melons, raspberries and blueberries.

“They’re all the colors of the rainbow,” Stanley said. “The flavors will rotate with the seasons.”

Each drink is topped off with fresh fruit and herbs, so they’re pretty, too.

The Stanleys struggled to find a concept for their new place that didn’t compete with the Jack Rose and would bring a new experience to Los Gatos.

“We tried to create something we thought the community would enjoy. We wanted it to be a place where you can stop in with your family or date and be comfortable,” Stanley said.

Bramble & Bier is open Thursdays through Saturdays, 4-11 p.m., and Sundays, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.

A disc jockey spins records during Thursday night “tap takeovers,” when a different brewery is showcased each week. “They bring in small batches and takeover five or six taps for the night. Brewery representatives are also available to talk about their beers,” Stanley said.

Friday and Saturday nights feature live music in the beer garden from 5:30-9:30 p.m. “People are dancing and every seat in the beer garden fills up,” Stanley said.

For now, patrons must order food from the Jack Rose menu since Bramble & Bier’s kitchen is still under construction.

Despite his current focus on beer and cocktails, Russ Stanley still considers himself a real estate person. Years ago, he proposed the Hacienda be repurposed for multi-family housing for seniors. But for that to happen, the property needs to be annexed into Monte Sereno, where residents continue to battle efforts to bring multi-family housing to the city of single family homes.

Monte Sereno has agreed to allow some housing on the property, but the city and Stanley are at odds over how much housing can be built.

While that decision waits, beer and cocktail lovers aren’t dragging their feet: Stanley estimated that as many as 2,000 people visited the Hacienda last weekend.

Visit jackrosebar.com and svbeerweek.com for more information.