A New York-based team of brewing industry veterans have announced the creation of Return Brewing, to debut this autumn.
Returning to old-world craftsmanship while also innovating, Return Brewing represents the intersection of refined technical expertise and infinite exploration, say the brewers.
The business has been co-founded by Mikey Lenane, Jack Liakas, and JD Linderman, who bring more than two decades of collective experience at Brooklyn’s nationally lauded Sixpoint Brewery, where they respectively led innovation, design and brewing.
The friends will each contribute their individual areas of expertise to all aspects of Return, with Mikey focusing on innovation and quality, Jack on creative and design, and JD heading up Brewing. They are joined by Eric Bachli, formerly of Sixpoint and Boston’s destination Trillium Brewing Company, who is lending his expertise to the project as a strategic advisor.
Taking inspiration from traditional brewing techniques, global and historical fermentation methods, the experimental ingredient treatments coming out of the world’s leading kitchens, and the seasonal availability of the bounties of the Hudson Valley, Return’s offerings will comprise a number of distinct identities. These are:
Tavern beers
Accessible, quality-forward styles, centering best-in-class ingredient sourcing and brewing technique.
Garden beers
Featuring in-house fruit and herb processing to create farm-direct local Hudson Valley beers; country and primitive style mixed ferments with foraged ingredients; and a line of Eastern European raw ales.
Archive
A line of strong ales featuring: blending from an extensive barrel-ageing fleet; an exploration into whole hive mead; components and blends heat-aged in a maderisation chamber to create new flavours.
The range will be highly localised and largely focus on the bounties of the Hudson Valley, with the notable exception of Return’s hoppy ales, which will feature specific farms from across the globe to centre the unique terroir and characteristics in those exceptional hops.
Return will open a Hudson, New York, brewery and taproom next year — a true return home for co-founder Mikey Lenane, who grew up in nearby Coxsackie. They look forward to working with the region’s farms, businesses, and the community at large to make a positive impact in Hudson.
The first offerings will be available in the Hudson Valley and New York City at the start of autumn.
