Drink

A Brewing Revival

Take a sip of Providence’s new beer

Posted

Visitors to the homepage for Revival Brewing Co., Providence’s newest craft-brewing enterprise, are greeted by choice drinker’s wisdom from Edgar Allan Poe: “What care I how time advances?” Poe wrote. “I am drinking ale today.” One suspects that given great ale, and not just any old grog, the claim might’ve grown downright bacchanalian: What care I about anything?

As New Englanders, we’re spoiled when it comes to good beer. Our region boasts a rich brewing and drinking history, which a renaissance over the past decades has only bolstered. (A recent holiday in Key West, a town virtually sponsored by an Anheuser-Busch and Miller-Coors cabal, made me less inclined to take these riches for granted.) Still, in Providence most “local” craft beers come from neighboring states rather than our own, with few exceptions: the growlers and kegs from Trinity Brewhouse, draught pours from Union Station and basement-made concoctions from hobbyist friends. Suffice it to say, I’ve drunk deeply and happily from those wells.

Since more is always merrier when it comes to beer, Revival Brewing Co.’s arrival this year is a very welcome expansion to our local drinking options. Co-founded by Sean Larkin, best known as the award-winning brewmaster for Trinity, Revival is a smart, quirky operation that acts like a DIY passion project with a business plan.

About three years ago, Larkin got the itch to form a company that could deliver craft brews to a larger drinking public than he’d yet reached. Gradually, pieces began to click into place: Conversations with friends encouraged Larkin to think that his concept could work. Industrial property behind Providence’s Steel Yard, which happened to be owned by a friend, opened for rent. His friend-cum-new landlord introduced Larkin to Owen Johnson, a brewing enthusiast with venture-capital cred. Then RISD alumnus and graphic designer Jeff Grantz entered the picture, and the three men formed a partnership.

“Hard-core craft lovers” is how Larkin describes Revival’s target customers, but the company’s tightly-edited portfolio reflects strategic planning as much as it does outright beer geekery. Four beers in all, it covers a drinker’s bases with two milder, classic styles (a saison and an Oktoberfest-style lager) and two punchier, trendy styles (a double black IPA and an imperial stout). Think of the former as year-round staples, with modest alcohol content and “international bitterness units” (which index a beer’s mouth-puckering potential). The other two beers, by contrast, are heavy hitters with higher alcohol and stronger flavors. They also boast cheeky names: Juliet 484, the imperial, is named for Providence Harbor’s famed sunken submarine – or rather, the “black and viscous” oil that seeped from its sides. And the Chinook vs. Sorachi Ace double black IPA, emblazoned with an image of two prizefighters mid-swing, gets its mouthful of a name from the two kinds of hops used to make it.

Revival plans to tweak its lineup seasonally, promising a Marzen-style beer for this spring and a “surprise” for summer. More changes are in the works, too, as the company gradually builds its local base and then transitions to larger markets. There are plans for national distribution, and maybe international as well.

More than mere profit-chasing, these ambitions are part of the company’s desire to help build a regional brewing identity in Rhode Island, which amounts to a vibrant industry with a sense of place and community. Larkin points to Colorado as emblematic of the concept, with its diverse styles and breweries that cohere competitively but also cooperatively. “There’s a brotherhood,” he contends.

For the near future, any such brotherhood would be limited to brewers only, rather than suppliers as well. Scale and cost are to blame: Nearby grain producers, like a Massachusetts source that Larkin consulted, aren’t large enough to meet demand. And at triple the normal cost of hops, the sole Rhode Island-based product, which Larkin occasionally uses for beers at Trinity, isn’t regularly tenable for a fledgling brew company.

Happily, Revival’s strong debut indicates that its fledgling status won’t be long of this world. Following a semi-wide release in late November, bars and restaurants from Brown’s Graduate Center Bar to Downtown’s newest jewel, The Dorrance, have begun to carry the brand, and more are slated to follow. Early reviews on Beer Advocate – equal parts Wikipedia, Bible and Zagat’s guide for the suds-obsessed – show unanimous "A-" ratings. The company’s Facebook page shows an active and vocal following; bottling plans are rolling ahead.

This isn’t to say that the company’s success is (or was ever) guaranteed, of course. Larkin and crew have negotiated more red tape and longer wait times – for permits, bureaucratic greenlights, loan approvals, and the like – than anticipated. They’ve campaigned grassroots-style to get their beers into as many hands as possible, almost exhaustively. Patience has been their virtue.

Still, if impatience fills mugs faster, let’s hope for a little more vice.

beer, brewing, revival brewing, sean larkin, owen johnson, micro brew, craft beer, trinity brewhouse, narragansett beer, providence, providence monthly

Comments

No comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here



X