Drunken Rabbit is brewing up something specialDate: 11/12/2020 SOUTH HADLEY – Bruno Coelho, co-owner and head brewer of Drunken Rabbit Brewing in South Hadley, said he’s been interested in the brewing process since he was young.
“I’m Portuguese, so I grew up making wine with my dad and other family members,” he said. However, when he didn’t like the wine his dad was making, he decided to start making it himself.
“I wasn’t happy with the wine my dad was making, so I started tinkering around. I made some wines, then made some beers,” he said. It was after he began making his own beer that he went on to compete in The Worthy, a craft beer showcase that takes place each year in Springfield. There, he said, he tied for first place, and went on to win first place in the home brew competition.
He said those who attended the competition kept asking where to buy the beer he had made. “So many people came up to us and were asking where they could buy it,” he said.
From there, Coelho said his “long-time friend Dave Smith,” who he’d worked with for about 20 years, encouraged him to take the next step. “He was kind of like the fire that started this rolling. I probably wouldn’t have taken this on, on my own,” he said.
Coelho said when they approached the Town of South Hadley, they were met with “very good support.”
“They touted that they’re a business-oriented town and wanted to get more businesses in. There’s been some challengers here and there, but we were able to get things approved,” he said. “It’s like anything, if it’s good and worthwhile it’s not going to be easy.”
In December of 2017, Smith and Coelho opened the doors to Drunken Rabbit Brewing at 749A New Ludlow Rd. in South Hadley. He said they try to offer a variety of beers to accommodate the varying tastes of those who visit the brewery. “Right now we have about 24 different beers on tap. We pride ourselves on having a beer for everyone,” he said.
Some of the beer offerings at the brewery include lagers, sour beers, India pale ales (IPA) and stouts. In addition to beers, Coelho said they also make their own wine, alcoholic seltzer and wine slushies. “We’re also toying with doing a mead,” he said.
Coelho said the brewery is known for going outside of the box and experimenting with styles that aren’t traditionally combined. “At the moment we’re brewing a sour stout, which is a strange style, but I think it’ll work. We have some quirky styles,” he said. “That’s what we’re known for and I think why people like us.”
In addition to offering the community unique and new styles of beers, he said they also do their best to give back. Prior to the coronavirus pandemic, Coelho said they’d hosted a couple of events to benefit the Thomas J. O’Connor Animal Control and Adoption Center in Springfield. These, he said, were “pretty well received” by the community.
However, when the pandemic hit, they were unable to host community events like they previously had. This, he said, led them to explore new ways to give back to the community without the traditional gatherings. “Those types of events are not really COVID friendly. We were scratching our heads about some of these exciting things people can get behind, not only drinking our beer and knowing our beer,” he said.
This, he said, is when they came up with their beer, Amor Angela. Coelho said the beer was a collaboration between Drunken Rabbit Brewing and the Facebook group, Hop Heads. The beer paid homage to Chicopee police officer Angela Santiago, who died in an off-duty motorcycle crash in June. Coelho said to honor Santiago’s memory the brewery not only made the beer, but also chose to donate a portion of the proceeds from the brew to one of her favorite charities: the Boys and Girls Club of Chicopee. This beer, he said, was still on tap at the brewery and the donation would be delivered to the club “in about a week or two.”
Not long after, the brewery released yet another beer with the motivation of giving back. Coelho said the Verse IPA beer came into fruition after they began thinking of making a beer with all local ingredients. He said they were already working with the Connecticut River Conservation when they got the idea to do a beer that would also “help clean the river.”
“We were already working with them, giving them grain bags to help clear the river,” he said. Coelho said he had the thought “Why don’t we do a beer, [and] get out some information about what you’re doing?” In addition to getting information about the group, it also would help fund their efforts to clean the river.
“I don’t know if people even knew there was a group,” he said.
Most recently, Coelho said the brewery released a beer that will help a family near and dear to them. “When we started a lot of people came to us looking to help. One of those people was Trevor Smith,” he said. Smith, at the time, was a home brewer stationed at the Westover Air Reserve Base in Chicopee.
Smith has since relocated to Pennsylvania, Coelho said, and his daughter, Lakin, is battling stage two Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. He said the beer, a New England IPA, is one of Smith’s recipes that the brewery put a twist on. “We wanted to help out, so we took one of his recipes and put a twist on it. The proceeds are going to help go toward some of those medical bills they’ve accrued,” he said.
While he couldn’t give many details he said they’re working on a couple more collaborations that will be released in the future. He said they will be working with two different breweries to release a brew that will help bring awareness to suicide prevention and one that will benefit the Dakin Humane Society in Springfield.
Those interested in purchasing beverages from Drunken Rabbit Brewing can do so by visiting the brewery, but can also purchase cans from the brewery as well. Coelho said while they stopped doing curbside pickup in recent months, they’re willing to do it again if it’s needed. “We’ll bend and customize our business profile to accommodate,” he said.
Additionally, he emphasized the need for people to support small businesses during this difficult time. “It’s what makes communities thrive,” he said.
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