Home brewing

Jonah Epstein '16 loves his hometown of Buffalo—so much that he's on a mission to bring the Buffalo and Western New York community together. His instrument of choice? Beer. A premium beer crowd-sourced by the great people of Buffalo.

Epstein pitched his new company, MyCity Brew, at the Capital Region semifinals of the New York Business Plan Competition last week. "You're not so much a beer maker as an interaction designer, engaging the people of Buffalo in a collaborative marketing effort to simultaneously promote the city of Buffalo and a new craft beer," they concluded. "That's right," Epstein replied. "We're inviting the people of Buffalo to design, test, and select their own beer, and we aim in this way to expand the market for craft beer."

Epstein will repeat his pitch for judges in Skidmore's Kenneth A. Freirich Business Plan Competition (this Friday, April 8, at 5 p.m. in Murray-Aikins Dining Hall, second floor), as one of seven finalists vying for total prizes worth $60,000.

He has already generated a lot of attention in Buffalo media and raised $10,000 in a Kickstarter campaign. Through surveys on the MyCity Brew website and social media, Epstein is asking the Western New York community how MyCity Brew should taste, narrowing the options to four different beers that best represent the tastes of the Buffalo community. Working with a top local brewmaster, he then will formulate and brew four test beers to be offered at tasting events around the city. From these tastings, the company's flagship beer will be declared and MyCity will contract with a local brewery to start production.

A business major who's interning with the Schmaltz Brewing Co. near Albany, Epstein aims ultimately to distribute his beer in all of Western New York's premium restaurants and bars and, further out, to be picked up by a major grocery chain. After Buffalo, he's considering the same crowd-sourcing approach to design beers for other American cities that take pride in their identity and have a strong craft-beer culture, such as Pittsburgh and Cleveland.

Helping him with his business plan is mentor Lawrence Peck '92, managing partner of Peck Asset Management, who "has been particularly helpful in analyzing the cost structures associated with various varieties of beer and helping to make an emotional connection with each consumer," he says.

Getting the local residents to feel a sense of ownership in the product is "something the national brands can't easily replicate," Peck says. "MyCity Brew takes a refreshingly new approach to creating a connection with the consumer."