Rhode Island’s First Nonalcoholic Brewery Has Launched in Providence

Strange Hoppenings, one of three varieties of nonalcoholic beer and cider available from Providence-based Beaglepuss Brewing. (Courtesy of Beaglepuss Brewing)

Rhode Island’s newest brewery has all the makings of a successful craft beer launch: a trendy logo and name; a series of creatively named beers with artist-designed can labels; a presence at the state’s largest beer festivals, where brewers and consumers alike sample fresh brews.

The only thing missing? The alcohol.

Jarad Rogers, Patrick Ramey and Kevin Barnes are the founders of Beaglepuss Brewing, a nonalcoholic brewing company that launched in Providence in December. The business produces two varieties of nonalcoholic craft beer and one nonalcoholic cider distributed out of a warehouse in Olneyville and is Rhode Island’s first brewery for nonalcoholic beverages.

Beaglepuss is the brainchild of Rogers, a Warwick resident with a history working in sales for major breweries — both craft names like Pennsylvania’s Victory Brewing Company and Connecticut’s Two Roads and mass-marketed staple Anheuser-Busch. Rogers says he began getting into nonalcoholic beer after he left the brewing industry during the pandemic to work in real estate. Sampling beers from different companies, he realized most marketed their non-hangover-inducing brews to athletes or those who’d sworn off alcohol altogether. (The aptly named Athletic Brewing Co., based in Connecticut, is among the leading craft producers of nonalcoholic brews.) He saw an opening in the market for customers who still wanted to embrace a craft beer lifestyle, just with less of a buzz.

“When I think of craft beer, I think of people having a good time or watching a football game,” he says. “We think there’s a void in the NA market, and we think we’re coming in and filling that void.”

Ramey, his brother-in-law, was convinced to come on after seeing Rogers’ early attempts at drawing a logo. With a background in design, Ramey is the talent behind the company’s branding and can labels. The namesake logo is based on a beaglepuss, the mustache-and-glasses gag disguise inspired by the look of comedian Groucho Marx. Along with being a catchy word, the name is a nod to the company’s goal to mimic as closely as possible the look and taste of craft beer.

“We look and taste like craft, but we’re NA in disguise,” Rogers says.

With their sights set on the new business, the two turned to LinkedIn to find a brewer who could pull off their mission. Barnes, who lives in California, has previous experience making nonalcoholic and THC-infused beers for Two Roots Brewing Co. After connecting online, Rogers and Ramey flew out to San Diego to convince Barnes to come on board as head brewer.

“He told me his vision, the name, the whole concept behind it, and I loved it from the get go,” Barnes says.

The company takes its name and logo from a beaglepuss, the mustache-and-glasses novelty disguise inspired by the look of comedian Groucho Marx. (Courtesy of Beaglepuss Brewing)

The company follows an unusual model, with Barnes continuing to reside in California and flying out to New England to oversee brewing sessions. Lacking brewery equipment of their own, the team contracts with Stony Creek Brewery in Connecticut and Wachusett Brewing Company in Massachusetts for brewing and pasteurizing their products. While some nonalcoholic beverages start off as traditional beer that’s later dealcoholized, Barnes explains Beaglepuss uses a limited fermentation process to achieve a product closer to traditional beer. Legally, a beverage can be labeled “nonalcoholic” if it contains less than 0.5 percent alcohol.

“We call it limited fermentation. That means we’re limiting the amount of alcohol that’s created during the fermentation of the beers to be less than 0.5 percent ABV,” he says.

According to Rogers, the process allows them to retain the beer’s hoppy flavor, a signature of the IPA styles they’re trying to emulate. Their first beer, Strange Hoppenings, is an East Coast IPA with a hazy appearance and pine-hinted flavor that’s a nonalcoholic version of a New England IPA. Their second, the Inverse IPA, is closer in style to a West Coast IPA.

A third variety, a New England hopped cider titled Them Apples, goes through no fermentation process, but is still closer in taste to a dry, hard cider than the fresh-pressed variety found on local farms, according to Barnes. The cider uses apples from Box Mill Farm.

“A lot of why our cider tastes so good too is the actual apples that we’re using,” Barnes says. “We get fresh pressed juice right there from Massachusetts. It’s just really high-quality, delicious stuff.”

In the future, Barnes says, the company hopes to branch out to THC-infused beer, a new way to consume cannabis that’s slowly gaining ground across the country. Those beers, he says, typically start out as nonalcoholic brews with the THC added later.

Though the company’s nonalcoholic beer and cider can legally be sold anywhere, a map on the website reveals most vendors carrying the product are liquor stores in Rhode Island and Connecticut. Rogers hopes to gain a following among craft beer aficionados who enjoy traditional beer but need an alternative when they don’t want to become intoxicated. The company debuted its beer locally to what Rogers says was a positive reception at January’s Rhode Island Brew Fest. Both IPA styles were also recognized with silver medals in the Tasting Alliance Beer Competition in 2023.

“I’d love to be the beer that the brewer’s drinking while they’re brewing so they don’t have to worry about having a little bit too much,” he says.

The business is a small operation, with Rogers and Ramey labeling their own cans out of the Olneyville warehouse. The company currently has no public venue for tasting or direct sales — the owners didn’t see a large demand for a taproom serving exclusively nonalcoholic brews — but Rogers says they’re exploring the idea of a beer garden. The property abuts the Woonasquatucket River Greenway, offering a unique opportunity to market directly to customers.

“We’d love to give people the option to jump off the bike path and have a beer and not have to worry about getting back on the bike path,” he says.

For now, they’re trying to grow the brand through distribution and testing new recipes that Barnes sends from California. Along with its eye-catching branding, the owners are betting the quality of the product will speak for itself.

“People get sold when they try it,” Ramey says.

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