SHARING SPIRITS & SPIRIT: MEET JIM AND JASON EBEL OF TWO BROTHERS BREWING COMPANY
Naperville, Geneva, Aurora & Warrenville
Naperville and Geneva residents, Jim and Jason Ebel were raised to be very active in the community.
Early on, when the pandemic first came about, they quickly realized hand sanitizer had become a valued commodity with limited availability and knew they could help using their business, Two Brothers Brewing Company.
They had already been accustomed to putting on charity concerts, sponsoring local youth and adult sports teams, donating to non-profit fundraisers, completing town beautification projects, and hosting team building activities by volunteering at Northern Illinois Food Bank; so when they also realized they could produce hand sanitizer as part of their operations, they quickly got to work. Jim and Jason produced hand sanitizer as part of Two Brothers Artisan Spirits out of their distillery at the Two Brothers Roundhouse in Aurora, and managed the packaging and shipments at Two Brothers Brewery in Warrenville allowing them to apply their philosophy of giving back by offering the sanitizer at cost to local organizations such as Monarch Landing in Naperville, while also keeping their team employed during these difficult times.
The brothers were also approached by the DuPage Office of Homeland Security who also requested sanitizer and they immediately felt a sense of obligation to help in the fight any way they could.
Two Brothers has increased production, including developing a packaging process that has allowed them to increase production, get a better supply of ingredients at a better price, and pass along those savings to the community while expanding their ability to donate sanitizer to Aurora Aid, Mutual Ground, and the Aurora Food Pantry, among others. Two Brothers Brewing Company has also partnered with Homewatch Caregivers, an amazing organization that distributed 50 gallons throughout the IL Senior Services network.
Since March 2020, Two Brothers has produced nearly 10,000 gallons of hand sanitizer and has plans to continue producing sanitizer as long as there is a need for it in the community.
“The needs to stay safe and healthy in the community will sustain long after everything is re-opened,” Jason adds. “And we have been able to keep a good portion of our staff employed through our hand sanitizer, beer and spirits production and packaging; as well as our coffee team who has also been busy filling both store and online orders as we are still offering carryout/curbside pickup at our Tap House location in Warrenville.” -Kristen Kucharski
