East Brother Beer: Passion for Crafting Classic Styles and Building Community
Aug 13, 2019
In their home, Richmond, CA, East Brother saw a community that inspired them to approach their business as their neighbors approach their lives, with Pride and Purpose. Not just the motto of East Brother’s home, Pride and Purpose guides their team to have pride in their work and community and a purpose to make a product that represents the spirit of Richmond.
‘Beer is Labor’
East Brother’s beer is precision-brewed, clean, and classic — meant to take you out of the hustle and bustle of chasing the next trend and leave you satisfied with a beverage you can rely on. Their core series features five beers that includes a Bo Pils, Red Lager, Gold IPA, Red IPA, and their award-winning Oatmeal Stout. And their branding is a reflection of the beer inside: clean, classic and eye-catching, meant to invite rather than overwhelm.
Lagers make up a large part of the East Brother portfolio – and this is intentional. These quintessential, reliable beers have a renewed relevance for many craft drinkers. And for long-standing, loyal beer fans, they never lost it. They take longer to produce, and they’ll expose even a good brewer’s flaws, so executing these profiles is what the East Brother team means by “Beer is Labor.” You can find the fruits of their labor in East Brother’s core series (Bo Pils and Red Lager) or in their ongoing Lager series — four seasonal offerings highlighting favorite classic lager styles; Maibock, Festbier, Pre-Prohibition Lager, and Baltic Porter.
In addition to celebrating lagers, East Brother also celebrates their surroundings and the history of their namesake, the East Brother Light Station, that has long guided ships through the San Francisco Bay with their Freighter series — a series of beers that are both big and graceful, just like the ships that pass through the Port of Richmond. An English Strong and Double IPA (West Coast style of course) are already released, and we’ll see two more releases, a Belgian Tripel and Imperial Stout, in the last half of the year.
East Brother Culture
As much as East Brother embraces classic styles, they also enjoy good, clean fun with beer-in-hand in their taproom, which is the site of their weekly Rec League events. If you appreciate a competitive bar game, East Brother’s Rec League is a weekly competition that tests their patron’s skills in everything from Connect 4 to a game of 8-Ball. And if you’d prefer a low-key pint and a few tacos, East Brother’s highly-acclaimed food truck partner, La Santa Torta, features some of the best food on wheels the Bay Area has to offer. It isn’t uncommon to find workers in the port sharing a pint with a Richmond city council person while local musicians entertain the community. Add to this the steady stream of planned events at their taproom – from nonprofit fundraisers to civic engagements to classic car shows – and it’s clear that East Brother Beer has established an important role and identity in Richmond and surrounding communities.
East Brother Beer Co. and Wine Warehouse
East Brother’s focus on building personal relationships throughout their community led to a personal and attentive sales approach that made them a natural partner with Wine Warehouse. When it came time to shift from self-distribution to partnering with an established distributor, we were their preferred choice — they even went to far as to send an announcement postcard to their retail partners, expressing their excitement for the new partnership, and setting our reps up for a successful series of first calls. East Brother’s emphasis on integrity, relationship-building, and service-oriented work brings to mind the same classic approach they take to producing clean, refreshing beer: everyone deserves the best, plain and simple.
East Brother Beer Co. is well positioned to grow in a competitive craft market because of their focus on classic styles and lagers that attract a wide variety of audiences, and the timeless and timely nature of the brand’s look & feel. We’re excited to grow together across the Bay Area, initially expanding into Sonoma, Napa, San Mateo and Santa Clara counties, with Sacramento in July and Santa Cruz/Monterey in August – and the whole of Northern California by the beginning of fall.
Beer is Labor – and we appreciate each others’!
About East Brother Beer Co.
The team at East Brother Beer Co. consists of passionate people focused on tradition and brewing classic styles. Richmond, CA is home and much like their neighbors, they instill Pride and Purpose in everything they do. With attention to detail and long-term vision, East Brother Beer Company is dedicated to producing beers that are both timeless, and timely, for the classic American palate, delivering their quality beers to premium local restaurants, cafés, bars, specialty markets and retailers. And always pouring fresh from the source in Richmond; the light’s on.
For additional information, please visit: www.eastbrotherbeer.com or follow East Brother Beer Co. on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
