Inside Jack London’s New Brewery For Old World Beer Styles

A new Oakland brewery from a foursome of beer enthusiasts, Original Pattern Brewing Company, is ready to brew its first batch of beer next week, preparing to welcome visitors to its Jack London taproom at 292 4th Street soon thereafter. Original Pattern, comprised of two couples, Ryan Frank, Caitlin O’Connor, Max Silverstein, and Margie Silverstein, poured test batches of their beer at SF Beer week earlier this month, providing sneak peeks of their space to early fans. Now with their main brew system all hooked up, they’ll get cracking on a variety of beers, including many in traditional European styles.

Frank, in particular, knows how to open a brewery: He served as director of brewery operations for the Bay Area’s 21st Amendment, overseeing that distribution brewery’s move to San Leandro, where it built out a $26 million facility in 2015. The scale at Original Pattern is much humbler, and the brewery will focus on serving its beer direct to consumers in its taproom, but it’s still a substantial undertaking in a 5,500-square-foot building.

Ryan, who will be head brewer, met Max Silverstein when they both attended the Siebel Institute brewing school, which teaches students in Chicago and Germany (sparking their interest in classic German styles). It was also while in Europe that he and an old friend, living Prague, Caitlin O’Connor, reconnected and started dating.

“It’s always been our dream to open a brewery,” O’Connor tells Eater SF. They’ll operate “a tasting room primarily,” distributing their beer a little bit. “We want to get people here, and control the whole experience.”

Patricia Chang

The name Original Pattern is partially inspired by a back-to-basics ethos, O’Connor says. “We want it to be a blend of old and new, with traditional beers, like those [Frank and Silverstein] studied in Europe, but we want to subtly make those our own.”

Pilot batches of R & D beers have been received well so far: In the future, expect saisons, dry Irish stouts, and easy-drinking Kolsch beers. Original Pattern will serve glasses of that style in a traditional wood Kranz — a presentation original to Cologne, Germany, that translates to “wreath.” From above, their beer wreath looks more than a little bit like Original Pattern’s logo of patterned O’s.

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Original Pattern Brewing Company

292 4th Street, , CA 94607 (510) 844-4833 Visit Website