“Coffee, water and magic”, RISE Brewing Co. started with humble beginnings and was fueled by passion, hard work and friendship. Three childhood friends, Jarrett McGovern, Grant Gyesky, and Justin Weinstein had an idea—to create the best tasting cold brew coffee using the highest-quality, organic ingredients they could source.
They started brewing in McGovern’s East Village apartment using Organic, Fair Trade beans from Peru’s Chanchamayo Valley and uncovered a passion for the naturally sweet, chocolatey taste of cold brew coffee. Inspired by the frothiness of an Irish stout beer, they infuse their cold brew with nitrogen to give it a refreshingly smooth, creamy texture that creates a “latte like” experience without milk, sugar or any added calories.
In the early days, the Trio went door to door in New York City sharing their home brew with friends, family, baristas and any restaurant that would let them in. They discovered a new way to celebrate coffee and the critics agreed: “Using Sustainably sourced Peruvian coffee beans, the product has a bold super smooth flavor. There’s also a natural sweetness and creaminess, which is a pretty neat trick for a product that is just black coffee without anything added but gas” – BevNet.com.
Encouraged by friends and family to pursue their dream, they quickly outgrew McGovern’s apartment; converted Gyesky’s garage into a Brewery and launched RISE on tap at Colonie Restaurant in Brooklyn. “We created a coffee with our specific desires in mind, organic, non-GMO and nothing artificial and soon learned there was a market for what we were making,” said Gyesky.
RISE was on the rise and in addition to growing their restaurant business, customers began calling for RISE on tap in their offices. “We just followed the product” Weinstein recalls. “Wherever people wanted our coffee – in their homes or offices, on the go, wherever – we went out of our way to bring it to them and figured out how to do it on the fly”.
RISE became a 24-hour operation with the team brewing, cleaning kegs, delivering and selling around the clock to (thirsty) customers. Next to follow, in December 2015, was a pop up café on Stanton Street in New York City where RISE engaged with customers and introduced New Yorkers to Nitro Cold Brew coffee for the first time. “The café was extremely important for us, we got to tell our story and educate people about Nitro Cold Brew Coffee. Our early customers became our greatest storytellers - the more we engaged with them, the more we learned about our core consumers and the more that helped us develop future products”.
Once again, the company outgrew its facility in Gyesky’s garage and moved into a larger, full scale Brewery in Stamford, CT where they set up their first Nitro Cold Brew canning line with the capacity to brew over a 1,000 kegs a day (*they are now able to can over 200,000 cans a day). “Our biggest fans were drinking our coffee Monday through Friday in the office, and started calling us to ask how they could get RISE on the weekends -- so we always joke that we launched RISE in cans to chase them home” says RISE’s COO, Melissa Kalimov.
So, flash forward to today RISE Brewing Co. continues to expand their offerings from the award winning Original Black to organic dairy and dairy free lattes brewed with oat milk.
And just recently, RISE is expanding beyond coffee with a stand-alone Oat Milk (Vanilla and Chocolate coming this fall) and their first tea based beverage called the London Fog, brewed with Earl Grey and oat milk.
The company now sells their nitro cans across the country in large retail outlets like Walmart, Kroger, Whole Foods, Safeway and can be found in Fortune 500 offices like Facebook, Apple, Nike, Google, Live Nation and ESPN. In addition, RISE sponsors the US Surfing team, US Climbing, USA Ski team and fuels various Major League Baseball teams from the Yankees, Mets, Red Sox to the Oakland A’s and Toronto Blue Jays. In Greenwich, you can find them on tap at Aux Delices, Granola Bar, Upper Crust, Garden Catering, Corbo’s, Rinaldi’s and many of the local grocery stores.
“It’s been incredible to work with two of your best friends and start a company” says Weinstein, “we’re so proud of what we brew and love sharing it with as many people as possible” says McGovern. “The most important advice is to make sure you’re enjoying the journey”, says Gyesky”.
