Oct 27 (edited) • Taproom Talk
From Homebrewer to Brewery Owner: The Beginning
👋 Welcome to the EntreProBrewer Academy! My name is Grant Lee, and I own Two Saints Brewing Company in Saint Maries, ID. I started home brewing beer as a hobby when my boss gave me his stash of home brewing equipment. Working with zero experience, a couple home brew books, and as many YouTube videos I could find, I made my first beer, an Irish Red Ale. It was drinkable but underwhelming. Similar to a farm animal that is destined for the freezer, it was best not to name it. That first brew day on a random Saturday in between work weeks at a job I hated, in a town I was never going to raise a family eventually led me to finding myself starting brewery in my hometown, a small logging town in North Idaho.
When I started making beer, my wife Kelli and I were living in Olympia, Washington. A town that USED to be home to the storied Olympia Beer, remember the slogan "Its the water"? There were quite a few people that grew up with parents or grandparents that made a living and raised families working a middle class blue collar beer factory life. Beer was more than just a beverage you bought at the gas station on your way to your buddies house to watch a game, it was a cultural driver of the local community.
Equipped with a propane burner, a turkey fryer pot, and an old half barrel keg with the top cut off for a mash tun, I started brewing five gallon batches almost every weekend. Most beers were OK, good enough to drink, but nothing to write home about. Other breweries started to interest me, seeing their equipment, trying their beers, eating at their tap houses. I started to long for one in my own hometown. Small towns in my experience tend to change slowly, if at all, and a brewery just wasn't something that had made its way into St. Maries, ever. I told my wife I wanted to be the one to start the first brewery in St. Maries, she liked the thought of raising our future children in the place and manner that I was, and our mindsets completely changed. Now everything we did and planned was working towards that goal of taking that leap.
We came up with a name, Two Saints Brewing Company, we designed a simple logo, and began the journey completely on our own, one ignorant step at at time.
In this community I will share everything I've learned that worked for me, and what didn't, running a brewery in a town of 2600 people where my biggest competitor is Coors Light. This is the place to help you go from home brewer to brewery owner (without drowing in red tape or debt).
If you're ready to stop dreaming and start doing drop a quick intro below:
Where are you from? What kind of beer do you love brewing? What stage are you at ( dreaming, planning, building, running)?
Cheers! 🍻
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From Homebrewer to Brewery Owner: The Beginning
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