Work has been quietly underway behind the scenes for some time. Now it’s official: Bear Republic and Drake’s Brewing are merging.
Rich and Tami Norgrove, owners of Cloverdale’s Bear Republic Brewing, are joining forces with John Martin and Roy Kirkorian of Drake’s Brewing. They will be jointly announcing the sale and purchase of certain assets of Bear Republic to Artisan Brewers LLC — Drake’s business name — later today.
What that means in practical terms, the two companies said in a joint statement, is that “Racer 5 is shifting gears once again, beginning a new collaborative partnership with The Drake’s Brewing Co. The iconic West Coast IPA, once at the forefront of the California craft beer boom, is merging lanes to accommodate industry-wide challenges, while keeping a firm ‘pedal to the metal,’ moving forward.”
The deal means Drake’s will acquire all of Bear Republic’s recipes, formulas and intellectual property, and Drake’s will produce the full Bear Republic lineup of beers — including the iconic Racer 5 IPA — as well as their other brands and new beers still in the pipeline with a goal of bringing Bear Republic Brewing into new markets and communities.
“We have always admired Drake’s Brewing Company’s passion for craft beer and their community as well as their commitment to quality,” Norgrove said. “Joining forces with Drake’s will allow us to bring our beers to even more customers, and we’re excited to be a part of the Drake’s family.”
Norgrove will continue to shepherd the brand, helping to represent the family-owned brewery in the manufacturing, production and sales of BRBC’s recipes. So it’s not a straight sale, as is often the case. Instead, as Norgrove explains it, it’s like “not coming in and buying the car, but buying the engine and driver.”
Norgrove and his longtime brewmaster, Peter Kruger, will continue to work with the Bear Republic brand, and their beer will continue to be brewed in Cloverdale. But brewing will transition to San Leandro over the coming months.
I spoke to both Martin and Norgrove this afternoon, and they stressed that this deal “makes them both stronger.” The primary focus during the transition period will be on Bear Republic’s best-selling beer, Racer 5, which accounts for 92 percent of sales, and a new favorite, Racer 7, a 7-percent hazy IPA.
Longstanding fixtures in the Bay Area brewing community, Norgrove and Martin — who launched Berkeley’s Triple Rock in 1986 with his brother Reid — are long standing friends. They’ve even shared some of the same brewers. They have distributors in common in some key markets, as well, which will smooth the transition. The merger, Martin said, offers “so many cool things from a synergistic point of view.”
The good news for Bay Area beer lovers is that not only will Bear Republic beer continue to be brewed, it may become even easier to find.
Martin and Norgrove have already begun talking about future satellite locations in Sonoma County, akin to what Drake’s has done with Drake’s Dealership, the popular beer garden and restaurant in Oakland, and Drake’s The Barn in West Sacramento.
Drake’s origins date back to Lind Brewing, which was founded in 1989 by Roger Lind. By the time he sold the brewery to a local coffee company a decade later, it was producing Drake’s beers, so the new owners changed the name to match. Martin and Kirkorian purchased Drake’s in 2008 and began opening taprooms and beer gardens soon after, including Drake’s Barrel House in 2011, Drake’s Dealership in 2016 and The Barn in 2018.
The Norgroves launched Bear Republic in 1995 and by 1999, they had begun collecting awards at the Great American Beer Festival, including a gold medal that year for their Racer 5 IPA, one of the first popular West Coast-style IPAs, and small brewing company and brewer of the year awards in 2006. At one point, they had their original brewpub in downtown Healdsburg, a second brewpub in Rohnert Park and a larger production brewery in Cloverdale. But landlord issues closed the Healdsburg location in 2019, and the pandemic lockdown’s impact shuttered the Rohnert Park brewpub. Since then, the company has focused on packaged beer and distribution.
