On the surface, everything about Sibling Revelry Brewing is nondescript. It’s set inside a tan brick industrial park in Westlake, fresh with drywall and just-enough warehouse character — tall ceilings, cement floors, garage doors and picture windows with a view of shiny steel fermenters.
This isn’t the kind of place you come for the atmosphere.
You come here for the convivial vibe and 10 beers on tap with distinct hop profiles far more mature than its six months in age.
Sibling Revelry is simple by design. The owners — six relatives, all entrepreneurs and members of the Kennedy family — wanted a casual place that would promote conversation and remind people of the fun things in life.
With little to no brewing experience, the Kennedys stacked their bench with a team that knows hops as well as beer. Carol Sanders, who heads up sales and marketing, and brewmaster Peter Velez both most recently worked for Hopunion, one of the largest hops providers to craft breweries.
“One of our strengths is Pete’s experience in the hops industry,” says Sanders, adding they use a blend of European and American hops to make true-to-style beers. “A lot of new breweries rely on one or two varieties. Pete knows how to work with unusual styles of hops.”
To make Swing State, a dry-hopped American pale ale, Sibling Revelry shirks traditional Citra for Equinox, a trademarked experimental hops that gives the beer a citrusy, near tropical fruitiness. Velez’s confidence with hops is clearly evident in his IPA, which is not as aggressive as others crafted to please hop heads. It’s made in the traditional Northwest style — the kind of assertive but pleasant IPA found before the hop bomb explosion, Sanders says.
Much of this balance comes from using a hopback, a tank that allows Velez to steep hops into beer like a teabag in water. “It soaks in oils that are normally burned off,” Sanders explains. “That’s how you get aroma [in addition to flavor] in there.”
With brews this inventive, Sibling Revelry was built with growth in mind.
The Westlake spot was constructed with a 30-barrel brewhouse, meaning it can produce up to 60 kegs a day. A canning line, which was installed in the middle of June, now churns out the IPA, Swing State and soon its Rowan’s Red, the brewery’s second-best-selling beer.
“Pete’s skills and qualifications are what make our beers unique,” says Sanders. “He hasn’t made a bad beer.”
