ROAK: Rock, Roll and Beer

Everything about ROAK Brewing Company screams rock and roll—from the décor, to the music, to the names of the beer. For an old rock chick like me, this was a sure fire hit mix.

Owner John Leone says that the rock theme was accidental. “We were starting to make up names for beers, and it’s harder than you might think. You think you have the best name, but someone else has done it,” Leone explains. Then he realized that musicians have been drawing influences from music for ages, and so he decided to do the same. In his case, the influences mostly come from the realm of classic rock. “Sometimes I’m inspired by an album cover, sometimes it’s lyrics,” Leone says. “I go to my brewers with my vision, we hammer it out, and find the path to head down” towards great beer.

Leone says that, like classic rock songwriters, there sometimes is “creative tension in the process between (brewers) Brandon (MacClaren) and Adam (Stout). But if we were all happy and agreeing, we wouldn’t get that final end

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