{"id":5084297,"date":"2019-12-27T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-12-27T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ctlatinonews.com\/holiday-spirits-la-rubia-new-latino-beer-comes-to-connecticut\/"},"modified":"2019-12-27T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2019-12-27T05:00:00","slug":"holiday-spirits-la-rubia-new-latino-beer-comes-to-connecticut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/latinonewsnetwork.com\/ctln\/2019\/12\/27\/holiday-spirits-la-rubia-new-latino-beer-comes-to-connecticut\/","title":{"rendered":"Holiday Spirits: La Rubia, new Latino beer comes to Connecticut"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Vicki Adame,<\/a> CTLatinoNews.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

What began as a\ngag gift at Christmas a few years ago, has turned into the latest beer aimed at\nthe Latino market.<\/p>\n\n\n

La Rubia, a blonde ale, is the flagship beer created by the father-son team of “Pops” and Luis Brignoni.<\/p>\n\n\n

Luis Sr., known\nto everyone as Pops, and Luis, Jr., founded Wynwood Brewing Co., in Miami. They\nhave been in operation since 2013. <\/p>\n\n\n

And it all began\nwith a craft brewing kit Pops bought Luis, as a gag Christmas gift. And it may\nsoon lead to La Rubia becoming a household name.<\/p>\n\n\n

\u201cYeah, the joke\nwas on him,\u201d Luis said.<\/p>\n\n\n

\u201cBasically we\ncame up with the idea to have a craft brewery in Miami and felt it was a great\nopportunity. We decided to take this idea and start our business,\u201d Pops said.<\/p>\n\n\n

And since\nopening, their business has taken off with La Rubia now being distributed in\nConnecticut and New York.<\/p>\n\n\n

La Rubia, which first hit the Miami market in 2016, has been available in Hartford and New Haven for more than a month. It is also available in the Brignoni\u2019s native Puerto Rico.<\/p>\n\n\n

Because of their\nPuerto Rican roots, Pops said they wanted to aim the beer to the Latino\ncommunity, and La Rubia will be available in areas with large numbers of\nLatinos in Hartford and New Haven.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is a beer made by us Latinos for Latinos. It doesn\u2019t get more real than this.”<\/p> Luis Brignoni Jr.<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n

\u201cWe are very\nproud to have a Hispanic beer for our people,\u201d Pops said.<\/p>\n\n\n

Although Wynwood began as a family-owned and operated business, they soon hit a ceiling.<\/p>\n\n\n

\u201cAround 2016 we\nhit capacity. We couldn\u2019t grow anymore in our current space,\u201d Luis said.<\/p>\n\n\n

They began\nlooking at the options \u2014 building their own space or contracting the beer out.<\/p>\n\n\n

Around that\ntime, Luis said, Craft Brew Alliance (CBA) knocked on their door and proposed a\ndeal.<\/p>\n\n\n

That deal\nallowed the Brignoni\u2019s Wynwood Brewery to brew the beer in CBD facilities so\nthey could meet the market demand.<\/p>\n\n\n

\u201cWe also enjoyed\nthe fact they had sweat in the game, which was huge for us. And we got help\nwith sales and marketing,\u201d Luis said.<\/p>\n\n\n

By 2017, the business began to grow very rapidly in its home market. And in 2018, CBD came back with an offer to purchase the remaining percentage in Wynwood. <\/p>\n\n\n

As they began to\ntalk about the potential of La Rubia outside the Miami market, talks turned to\nexpanding its distribution.<\/p>\n\n\n

\u201cWe started\nthinking what if La Rubia could play in other markets. We looked at the markets\nand decided with our partners on Connecticut and New York,\u201d Luis said.<\/p>\n\n\n

\u201cWe came to the\nconsensus to keep it in the Hispanic market in order to share with Hispanics\nand Latinos,\u201d Pops said.<\/p>\n\n\n