Where does the name True West come from?
Where does the name True West come from? A question we get all the time. The long answer is that the name came from many sources, conversations and ruminations that it’s hard to say exactly how we got to True West. It’s like naming a child. This unimaginably young idea holds our collective hopes and dreams, along with expectations about who they will grow up to be and how they will make their mark in the world. How can we know that a name will “fit” until we’ve gotten to know them. The path to True West was a circuitous one. There were so many things to consider when attempting to encapsulate the essence of who we are into a lasting brand: killer local beer, brotherhood, family, coming home, great local beer, community, sustainability, delicious community based beer…and love. We went round and round with different names for months until we found the one that ticked all the boxes.
The short answer is that it is the title of a play by the great American playwright Sam Shepard which we love and saw as fitting. Shepard’s play is about Austin and Lee, brothers with polar opposite adult experiences who come together in their Mom’s kitchen, where Austin is working out a screenplay deal. But when Lee comes up with his own big idea, challenges are issued, many drinks are downed, and the siblings find that they might not be so different after all. This dynamic, darkly funny play is a tale of brotherly love and competition, creative producers and stolen toasters where all of the boys learn that they have so much of each other inside them.
True West the brewery, much like True West the play is ultimately the story of brotherly love and a desire to create something rooted in family and community.