History
Two commuter dudes, a train and an idea.
It was the summer of 2007. Chris and Bob rode the train every day from Jersey to the Big Apple, swapping stories about sports, music and their jobs. They hated the long commute. Little did they know that, someday, their combined skills—and their love of beer and all things American—would propel them into a kick-butt business partnership.
Chris was always hatching ideas to run by his train partner each morning on the way to NY City. OK, most of them were far-out, and Bob would usually let Chris down easy. But one day that summer, Chris came up with a winner…
Instead of mass-produced brew by mega breweries… or overpriced “craft” beers for a snobby few… why not create a custom, “hometown” beer for each state?
For example, Chris’ original idea was that a “New Jersey Lager” would capture the emotions and pride of people who grew-up in New Jersey, currently live in New Jersey and/or even work in New Jersey. Or if they were not originally from New Jersey, maybe their grandparents were born and raised New Jersey, or maybe they just have an emotional attachment to New Jersey. Even a Bruce Springsteen or Bon Jovi fan living in Ohio or Colorado may want to drink New Jersey Lager just to feel closer to their musical heroes.
That, my friend, was the start of a multi-year, beer-soaked journey of breweries, legal mumbo jumbo, beer distributor keg fests, late-night label designing and TONS of taste-tests.
Chris and Bob learned a lot from all of their research. They learned that there’s a lot of people who enjoy drinking craft beers, but there’s not a lot of people who could drink a craft beer all night long. Typically, they drink maybe one or two. They knew that they didn’t want to develop just another “craft beer” but wanted to produce a “specialty beer for the masses”.
And Hometown Beverages was born.
