OnTap Magazine

THE BEGINNINGS OF 254 BREWING CO. Eoin and his wife Megan passed through Nairobi back in 2010 while taking about a year to drive from Chengdu, China to Cape Town. They were awed by this “lush, green city” with its wildlife readily on display, and a rapidly growing tech start-up scene. They relocated shortly thereafter. After both initially getting involved in the social enterprise space, they eventually grew cynical of the “save the world through business” mindset. They left their jobs and asked themselves: how can we start our own manufacturing business? This led them to make kombucha in their kitchen; a business that grew and became Booch (which they recently sold). They followed that up with a line of non-toxic cleaning products. And then, after a fortuitous visit to Vancouver, Canada which included a tour of the inspiring craft beer scene there, Eoin thought, “We have to do this in Nairobi.” The first two craft beer businesses to appear in Kenya were the Big Five and Sierra Premium, entering the scene in 2008 and 2009. (I could not find a functioning website for either business, or clear intel on their status in general.) While Sierra did sell cans in supermarkets, in addition to their Sierra Brasserie restaurant, Big Five sold all of their beer exclusively onsite at their Brew Bistro and Lounge. It wasn’t until 2017 that a third craft brewery opened its doors, originally under the name Bateleur Brewery, later to become Bila Shaka. This then was the fairly modest playing field that Eoin hoped to enter. Knowing that he personally didn’t have the skillset to start brewing good beer, Eoin met and joined forces with two American homebrewers and between them, they invested in a kettle. They then started something called “Beer Club:” members would pay a fee and get a six-pack of 500ml bottles delivered to their home. They managed to get about 100 people to sign up; those funds became the start of their company. Acquiring the necessary brewing license wasachallenge;theprocessis“convoluted” and “rigged against anyone trying to enter the space” Eoin tells me. It took them two years to get their license, and in the meantime, their fledgling operation was raided by the cops more than once. “Why exactly were you raided?” I asked. “Well, we were running an underground brewery without a license…Although it was kind of a grey area! We tried to argue that we were just making samples…” They finally received their license in January 2020 and launched the brand in February at their taproom. And then, as we all know well, Covid hit. Because of the lockdowns, they focused on getting their beers into supermarkets and out through e-commerce. They never actually intended to have a taproom at their brewery. However, because they could still retail beer during lockdown, customers would drive there, park outside, purchase a bottle or two, and then return to their cars to enjoy them. If you visited the brewery during Covid, on a Friday afternoon, the parking lot would be full of people drinking beers in their vehicles. When the final lockdown lifted towards the end of that year, everyone expected the taproom to continue serving patrons on-site. “So, we had a bar now!” Eoin says. They had no food – just beer, sparkling water and Booch. Their staffing had also expanded along the way; the two American brothers had been training three local brewers. When the Americans left, Eoin put out a call for a brewmaster and while they struggled at first to find someone willing to relocate to Nairobi, in the end they hired another American, a man named Matt Walsh – a “total legend” according toEoin. He arrived in September of 2020. “He took everyone up to the next level,” Eoin says, continuing: “He created a really tight culture in the factory….Our whole production team is phenomenal.” Eoin points to their bottling machine as an example: “It should be in a museum,” he explains, and requires an expert driver. “And that's Walter [Ungayi, the Production Lead]. He’s an absolute beast.” Bringing craft beer inspiration to Nairobi Eoin and Joya at The Beer District The Beer District stage with live local music (Pic courtesy of 254) The Beer District Bar (Pic courtesy of 254) ontapmag.co.za | Summer 2023 | 41