BeCore Inc., a marketing firm in downtown Los Angeles, might be the only company in town where the director of new business development is also the brew master.

The company, which plans and produces events for clients such as Nike Inc. and Red Bull GmbH, started making beer in its office this summer under the name New Vaudeville Brewing Co.

It’s part hobby and part team-building exercise, but Chief Executive Mark Billik said that it’s mostly a marketing demonstration. It’s an opportunity to show the company’s skills, from graphic design to advertising and product-naming – a kind of resume in a bottle.

“It’s a brand we’re developing on our own, just like we develop brands for Microsoft and Red Bull,” Billik said. “We’re serious. It’s not some rinky-dink thing.”

Susan Franceschini, executive director of advertising trade group thinkLA in Culver City, said she hasn’t heard of another marketing company making its own beer, but said many firms are creating their own brands or products to show what they can do.

“This is a very common theme now,” she said. “It’s drawing out skills that clients should be attracted to.”

Billik got the idea for creating an in-house brand from New York marketing firm Mother, which has its own whiskey brand and started a hot-dog cart business called Dogmatic. Billik isn’t much of a beer drinker – he prefers margaritas or Corona over the kind of craft beer his company now brews – but settled on the brewery idea after hiring Roger Malinowski, a home brewer who started bringing his beer into the office.

BeCore spent about $10,000 on brewing equipment, including an 11-gallon fermentation tank and a digitally controlled brewing stove. It’s not a commercial setup, but it is more advanced and expensive than the typical home brewer’s system.

BeCore started beer-making this fall after moving into a new office in July. All of the company’s 32 employees are involved in the project in some way, from coming into the office to brew and bottle on Saturdays to helping name beers or create logos.

The New Vaudeville name is an ode to BeCore’s business, which is focused on special events and shows, and the names of individual brews are based on vaudeville traditions.

The company’s first brew, Opening Act, was named as an excuse for the possibility that the beer wouldn’t be that good. Ghostlight, an India pale ale, is named after the lone lamp left on overnight in theaters to ward off evil spirits.

“Besides showcasing that we can develop our own brand, it also gives us a chance to showcase our personality,” Billik said. “It shows how we think.”

He said he plans to send New Vaudeville beers to clients as a year-end gift, but so far, the beer has only been served at a BeCore-hosted art show in October. Despite that limited release, Billik said he’s had inquiries from local bars interested in carrying the beer – evidence, he said, that BeCore knows what it’s doing.

“We’re seeing some serious interest,” he said. “We didn’t start the beer to make it a profitable side business. But it may become one, which would be nice.”

For now, he and Malinowski are focused on perfecting their beer recipes and brewing technique. They want to make sure they have a product they can be proud of before further developing the New Vaudeville brand.

“There’s nothing worse than sending your client a flat beer,” Malinowski said.