Shōjō Beer Co. cofounders Haidar Hachem (black T-shirt and glasses) and Marilyn Orozco (entrance and heart) alongside Unbranded Brewing’s Zach Swanson (left) and Lance Aschliman (proper).
Picture by Javi Perez/ courtesy of Shōjō Beer Co.
A brand new Japanese-inspired brewery from brewer and beer aficionado Haidar Hachem and his spouse, native advertising guru Marilyn Orozco, is making beer inside Unbranded Brewing Co. in Hialeah.
The duo is the couple behind Shōjō Beer Co., named for the yokai spirit in Japanese folklore that seems as a furry, monkey-like humanoid that’s at all times drunk and glad.
Based on Hachem, Shōjō was born from the pandemic — however to listen to his story you may’t assist however name it destiny.
Hachem, who has written for New Occasions previously, wasn’t at all times a craft beer fanatic. Throughout his school days, he drank Busch or Bud Gentle. “Sierra Nevada Pale Ale was my first craft beer,” he says. “After that, I used to be hooked and wished to attempt something and every part.”
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As a novice craft beer fanatic, Hachem would frequent his native Yard Home and World of Beer, attempting quite a lot of brews. These experiences later launched him to South Florida’s craft beer scene. Then, in 2012, he started dwelling brewing.
“I did fiddle with a couple of types, and positively did extremely hopped lagers earlier than it was cool,” mentioned Hachem, who’s now a brewer at Lincoln’s Beard along with launching his personal brewery model. “I used to be simply utilizing your fundamental Mr. Beer plastic fermenter equipment, and would brew about as soon as a month.”
The transfer to turn out to be an expert brewer, nonetheless, was pure impulse — a facet of Hachem’s persona that has propelled him to the place he’s at this time.
It started along with his March 2019 marriage to Orozco, whom he met throughout a marathon, additional inspiring his love for the native craft scene. Six months later, he left a profession in civil engineering on impulse to brew for John Falco’s Strange Beast Beer. And some months after that, he turned a full-time brewer at Lincoln’s Beard Brewery. Even Shōjō was an impulsive resolution, as he and Orozco used the pandemic-induced downtime to carry their undertaking to life, permitting them to hasten the timeline for his or her new enterprise.
At present, Hachem stands as Shōjō’s head brewer, whereas Orozco oversees the brewery’s social media, advertising, branding, merchandise design, and pictures. Many of the duties are undertaken collaboratively — from what types to brew to beer names and label design — and Hachem is fast to credit score his spouse’s artistic enter.
Shōjō is functioning as a so-called gypsy brewery, crafting beers through Unbranded Brewing’s 30-barrel brew home and promoting them contained in the brewery’s Hialeah taproom. Hachem and Orozco are at the moment seeking to safe their very own manufacturing facility, with a taproom to observe. The mission, Hachem says, is to infuse their divergent heritage and pursuits into each beer they create, providing nods to Japanese, Lebanese, and/or Nicaraguan cultures.
That’s very true of their first launch, “Kanpai,” a ten-barrel batch of 5.4 % alcohol rice lager fermented with sake yeast.
This week, Shōjō can even unveil its second beer, the primary in its “Kitsune” bitter sequence, a 5 % alcohol Asian-inspired fruited bitter ale with watermelon, dragonfruit, and yuzu. The discharge will happen at Unbranded Brewing at 3 p.m. on Saturday, July 17, and a portion of proceeds shall be donated to Beer Kulture & Equality Now, a nonprofit group working to extend variety, fairness, and inclusion in brewing, in addition to Equality Now, a nonprofit that works to guard and promote ladies’s rights.
Whereas plans are to launch an IPA and a beer within the close to future, transferring ahead Hachem says there will be an emphasis on experimentation, creating types of beer which might be obscure or distinctive.
“I additionally wish to experiment with types that you simply don’t see an excessive amount of of, like a gruit — an ale brewed with out hops,” Hachem says. “However actually, we wish the beers to mirror us in each means potential. We wish our model to inform the story of each the expansion of the brewery and our lives.”
Shōjō Beer Co. At Unbranded Brewing Co., 1395 E. eleventh Ave., Hialeah; 786-332-3097; shojo-beer-company.business.site.
