About Us

The Hinchliffe Brewing & Malting Co.

From Yorkshire to New Jersey; A Legacy Reborn

The Crossing

In the mid-1800s, a young man named John D. Hinchliffe made a decision that would echo through generations. Leaving the moors and mill towns of Yorkshire, England, a region long defined by its grit, its craft, and its pride; he boarded a ship bound for America and arrived in Paterson, New Jersey.

He wasn't alone. Paterson in that era was a magnet for ambitious immigrants, a city of thundering waterfalls and roaring industry that Alexander Hamilton himself had envisioned as the engine of a new republic. Silk weavers, ironworkers, and entrepreneurs from across Europe poured into its streets. John Hinchliffe arrived with a trade, a tradition, and a thirst to build something lasting.

The Eagle Brewery

In 1861, the same year America was torn apart by Civil War, John D. Hinchliffe founded the Eagle Brewery in Paterson, NJ. While the nation fractured, he built. The Eagle Brewery became a fixture of the community, producing ales and lagers that fueled the workers, the dreamers, and the builders of a growing industrial city.

The eagle wasn't just a name. It was a statement , American ambition, Yorkshire backbone.

For decades, John poured his life into the brewery, building not just a business but a family institution, one he intended to outlast him.

The Three Sons & The Birth of Hinchliffe Brewing

John D. Hinchliffe raised three sons: John Jr., William, and James. They grew up inside the brewery, learning the craft, the rhythms of the trade, and the weight of the family name.

When their father passed, the three brothers faced a choice. They could let the Eagle Brewery be his story alone, or they could carry it forward and make it their own.

They chose to carry it.

Together, John Jr., William, and James established The Hinchliffe Brewing & Malting Co. evolving their father's Eagle Brewery into a fuller operation that encompassed not just brewing but malting, the foundational craft of turning raw grain into the soul of great beer. It was a bold expansion, a declaration that the Hinchliffe name wasn't just surviving, it was growing.

The three brothers ran the brewery as a unit, each bringing his own strengths to the enterprise, bound together by shared blood, shared grief, and a shared determination to honor what their father had started on the banks of the Passaic.

Prohibition & The Long Silence

Then came 1920.

The Volstead Act, the law that enacted Prohibition across the United States — silenced breweries from coast to coast. What John D. Hinchliffe had built in 1861, and what his sons had expanded and carried forward, was forced to close its doors.

A family's life work. Silenced by law.

But legacies don't die. They wait.

The Revival

Nearly a century after Prohibition ended, the great-great-grandsons of John D. Hinchliffe have brought the vision back.

The Hinchliffe Brewing & Malting Co. is the continuation of a story that was never finished, a reclaiming of a name, a craft, and a family's rightful place in American brewing history. The same Yorkshire stubbornness that carried John across the Atlantic, and the same brotherhood that drove John Jr., William, and James to build something greater than their father left behind, is alive in every decision we make today.

Where We Are Now

We're building this the right way, brick by brick, pour by pour.

Our online store is the first chapter of this new era. Right now, you'll find the branded gear, glassware, and drinkware that carry the Hinchliffe name forward while we work toward the day we put our beer in your hands. Every piece you wear or raise is part of the story. 

The beer is coming. The legacy is already here.

Welcome to The Hinchliffe Brewing & Malting Co.