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April 17, 2025

JuneShine’s Rise From a Garage to a Collab With Willie Nelson

JuneShine's Forrest Dein explores the kombucha brand's humble origins to becoming a national powerhouse

By Jackie Bryant

In this episode of Happy Half Hour, hosts Troy Johnson and Jackie Bryant crack open the origin story of JuneShine with co-founder Forrest Dein, tracing its unlikely path from a backyard kombucha experiment to a nationwide phenomenon. Dein recounts JuneShine’s early days brewing in a cobwebbed garage, its cult-favorite Blood Orange Mint flavor, and the brand’s meteoric ascent—including opening the country’s first hard kombucha bar, landing a Super Bowl ad, and expanding into new horizons with Easy Rider lager and Willie’s Remedy, a THC-infused social tonic launched with country legend Willie Nelson.

By Jackie Bryant

Jackie is San Diego Magazine's and Studios' content strategist. Prior to that, she was its managing editor. Before her SDM career, she was a long-time freelance journalist covering cannabis, food/restaurants, travel, labor, wine, spirits, arts & culture, design, and other topics. Her work has been selected twice for Best American Travel Writing, and she has won a variety of national and local awards for her writing and reporting.

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