In Her Shoes: Brewing to the Beat of Rhythm Brewing Co.

Alisa Bowens-Mercado, founder of Rhythm Brewing Co., has always moved to the rhythm of her own feet.

A professional salsa dancer, Bowens-Mercado has owned her dance studio, Alisa’s House of Salsa, for over twenty years. In addition, she tours around with salsa bands as a backup dancer and teaches classes. Her goal is to create a space where people of all backgrounds, ethnicities, genders, and sexualities can unite to do one thing: dance.

But what did Bowens-Mercado used to do on the weekends to unwind? She traveled to beer festivals.

Several years back, while relaxing at the Cape Cod Brew Festival, Bowens-Mercado looked around. She noticed something. The scene looked very different from that of her dance studio.

First, she saw very few women. Second, she found hardly any people of color. And third, she had trouble finding beer that tasted like a classic lager.

Growing up in the 1970s, Bowens-Mercado noticed that her grandmothers were avid Miller High Life drinkers. It’s something that’s always stuck in her mind. And it came back to her that day on Cape Cod.

“After an hour trying everything, I couldn’t find anything that hit my palate,” says Bowens-Mercado. “Where was that classic beer that my grandmothers used to drink? Where was that lager? At one point, I looked at my husband and asked if he thought they had any Budweiser around. He told me I couldn’t say Budweiser at a craft beer festival.” That’s when the wheels started spinning.

On the way home, quiet and lost in thought, “That was when I knew I was going to make my own beer,” reminisces Bowens-Mercado.

The Story of Rhythm Brewing Co.

Photo courtesy of Rhythm Brewing Co.

In March of 2018, Rhythm Brewing Co. launched in New Haven, CT, as the first black-owned brewery in the entire state. Since the beginning, the brewery has been humming along to the beat of its own drum.

Opening a brewery for Bowens-Mercado wasn’t just about the beer. Yes, she knew she wanted to brew a full-flavored craft lager, but more importantly, she wanted to get more women involved in the industry and open up doors for more brewers and consumers of color to feel included in the craft beer space.

A predominantly white male demographic continues to dominate the craft beer industry. But, with brewers like Bowens-Mercado breaking boundaries, the tides are certainly shifting.

Still, according to the 2024 State of the Black Brewers report from the National Black Brewers Association (NB2A), less than 1 percent of all breweries (86 of 9,761 total breweries) in the U.S. are Black-owned and only 0.01 percent of all breweries in the U.S. are Black-owned production facilities.

As the first BIPOC brewery owner in her state, Bowens-Mercado holds a lot on her shoulders. But despite the weight, Bowens-Mercado hasn’t ever stopped continuously twirling and moving. Because in order for a movement to work, you need to move.

Lady Lager: Dancing to Her Own Beat

Photo courtesy of Rhythm Brewing Co.

After the crazy idea to start a lager-centric brewery popped into her head at the Cape Cod Brew Festival, Bowens-Mercado took the concept and danced with it. Bowens-Mercado doesn’t share the typical craft brewery story. She didn’t receive a homebrewing kit for Christmas that turned into a full-blown hobby in the garage or quit her day job in finance to pursue her true passion. She started fresh, researching the industry, brewing pilot batches, and developing recipes for a craft lager. Since the beginning, her every step has been intentional.

Take for example the brewery’s flagship beer, Rhythm Unfiltered Lager. Bowens-Mercado decided to add South African hops to the recipe in a nod to her African heritage. Although she doesn’t currently know exactly where her family comes from, she’s in the process of finding her roots on Ancestry.com. “If it comes back and my family is from that region, I will pass out,” laughs Bowens-Mercado. “We haven’t pinpointed it, but we know our ancestors are from the Motherland.” Coming in at 5.5% ABV, Rhythm is also unfiltered, meaning all the flavor of lager stays inside the can. “Our motto is ‘We keep the goodness in,’” she says. “We don’t strip out the flavor.”

The brewery’s second brand, an unfiltered light lager, Blue, clocks in at 4.8% ABV for a beer that’s light, crisp, and refreshing. “We said let’s make a good ol’ fashion lager that’s light in calories, but not light in flavor,” says Bowens-Mercado.

Making just simple, well-crafted lager has always been the focus of Rhythm and consequently earned Bowens-Mercado a unique nickname. As Bowens-Mercado began promoting her beer at festivals across the state, it quickly became apparent that out of a sea of breweries offering New England and Hazy IPAs, Bowens-Mercado had lager—and only lager—for people to try. “I would be running through these beer festivals, and other brewers just started saying Lady Lager is here. The name stuck,” says Bowens-Mercado.

While brewing high-quality craft lagers has been the goal since day one, Lady Lager’s purpose with Rhythm reaches way beyond what’s simply in the can.

The Mission: Red, Black, and Blue

“My mission is bigger than just a can of beer,” says Bowens-Mercado, who now is on the Board of Directors at the NB2A, the country’s first professional organization aimed at promoting the Black brewing community and increasing the number of African Americans in the brewing industry at all levels of production, especially ownership and brewmaster. “How can I use my platform and my voice to open doors? How can I bring more seats to the table? [Ultimately], I want more tables and I want more seats.”

It’s a constant mission that Bowens-Mercado reminds herself of daily from the moment she gets out of bed before hitting the brewery.

“When my feet first hit the ground, I pray for a productive, successful day,” she says. On a brew day, that can mean waking up pretty early to hit her contract brewery by 7 a.m., to mash in. “When I get on that brew schedule, everything is scheduled around brewing beer,” says Bowens-Mercado, who notes that, at the moment, she’s brewing 30bbl batches each of Blue and Rhythm Unfiltered Lager once a month.

“Brew days are hectic to say the least. In the morning, we’re prepping ingredients, milling, and coming together as a team,” she explains. “People usually walk in with their coffee, doughnuts, croissants, or whatever they need to get rocking and rolling.”

Of course, this is Rhythm Brewing we’re talking about, so no brew day would be complete without the perfect set of tunes. “The music has to be right. We have to get into the rhythm of things,” says Bowens-Mercado, who herself is still getting into the rhythm of being a professional brewer, learning a bit more on each brew day. Still, a typical one lasts six or seven hours, even when things are moving smoothly.

Even at the end of a long brew day, “I literally take off my brew boots and go throw on my high heels to teach a salsa class [at my studio],” says Bowens-Mercado.

Spending time in the studio reminds Bowens-Mercado why she’s working so hard. “When I’m salsa dancing, I look out on the dance floor and the diversity is insane. … I see people connected through listening and dancing to one song. That’s what I want to bring to the beer industry,” says Bowens-Mercado. “You’re sipping beer, but it’s all under one rhythm.”

It’s that pitch and concept to constantly keep moving that Bowens-Mercado hopes people will continue to pick up on and join.

“When you are the first of something, you are obligated to set a standard for the industry because people will come behind you and you want to lay that groundwork. You have to consciously make sure what you’re doing is going to further the conversation,” says Bowens-Mercado. “I’m giving a voice and a power to people that never had a voice before in the industry,” she says.

And people are starting to listen.

Bowens-Mercado shares that she receives countless emails from people all across the country—West Coast to East Coast—saying they read about the brewery and asking how they can try beer or support Rhythm.

Whole Foods and Costco have picked up Rhythm while Trader Joe’s has been a fan of the brand for a long time.

You can now find Rhythm in Connecticut, New York, and New Jersey with Bowens-Mercado collabing with big names such as Boston Beer and Samuel Adams.

Launching at the beginning of November, Bowens-Mercado’s newest Sam Adams collab will be a fruited Italian Pilsner.

And she’s planning on releasing a new RTD espresso martini in a can.

What’s All the Buzz About?

The espresso martini could not be buzzier, the darling of reality TV stars and Millennials alike.

But Bowens-Mercado plans to put a twist on hers with just one word: decaf.

That’s right, Rhythm Espresso Martini will be made with decaf coffee.

“I don’t want to go out and have two espresso martinis at 9:00 pm and be up until 12:00 am,” she says. “That’s insane.”

Much maligned, decaf coffee drinkers should not be overlooked. “Let’s kill two birds with one stone,” says Bowens-Mercado. “My espresso martini won’t have me up all night.”

Despite branching out into RTDs, the goal remains the same for Bowens-Mercado.

“My motto is if I drink it, I’m going to own it,” she explains. “I’m a beer drinker, so I needed to own that and open up some doors. I drink espresso martinis, so let’s get some women and women of color in that RTD space of the number-one-selling cocktail in America!”

One could say that Lady Lager will add Lady Latte to her nickname.

The demand couldn’t be higher. And, Bowens-Mercado’s platform couldn’t be bigger.

2024: The Time Is Now

Now is the time. It’s a phrase Bowens-Mercado has continually put out into the universe. “Eyes, ears, and palates are literally open to diversifying the industry,” she notes. It’s our job now to make sure that things keep moving because, “in order to have a movement, things have to move,” says Bowens-Mercado, who, as a professional dancer, is no stranger to dips, shuffles, twists, and turns. “Things have shifted … sometimes they were ugly shifts, but we had to take those ugly shifts and strategize how we can make these movements into healthy conversations in industries [where] we are underrepresented.”

Now is the time to join Bowens-Mercado as she fights for more equality, diversity, and justice in the craft beer industry.

So, what does that mean?

Well, diversity and inclusion aren’t just words, they’re actual actions.

We need more diversified brands on the shelves. And we need consumers to buy from those brands.

If consumers support diverse women-, BIPOC-, Indigenous-, Latine-, Queer-, and more minority-owned brands, that allows those businesses to then employ someone from the LGBTQ+ community, employ a person who is BIPOC, or employ a person who might be handicapped.

For the consumer’s part, if you’re looking for specific breweries you can support, check out our own guide to 320+ Women-Led Breweries or listen to The Most Important People in Craft Beer in 2024.

“When you’re going to the family barbecue, I hope you’re carrying a 12- or 30-pack of Rhythm,” laughs Bowens-Mercado before turning serious. “But if it’s not Rhythm, then I hope it’s someone in the industry that has shared their story, made a movement, shattered glass ceilings, and knocked down some darn doors.”

Bowens-Mercado says from here, it’s “pedal to the metal” for her between continuing to pump out Rhythm lager, her new RTD project, expanding distribution, and serving on the NB2A board.

But she remains hungry (or I suppose thirsty) and hopeful.

“What does success look like? We were already successful. When we launched the can back in 2018, that was my success. If I didn’t brew another beer in my life outside of that, that’s a win,” reflects Bowens-Mercado. “Those are the big wins. But it’s one win. There need to be other wins, too.”

She adds, “The longer I stay on this journey, the more doors that I’m praying I can help open.”

Whether you lace up your brewing boots, slip on your shoes to go to the store to buy beer from a woman-, BIPOC-, Queer-, or minority-owned brewer, or even strap on your dancing shoes to take a salsa class, just make sure that, whatever you’re doing, you’re ready to keep the movement moving.

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