A Brief History
It was spring and I was finishing a semester as an Assistant Professor in the Business School at Wayne State College (Nebraska). I was looking forward to spending the summer in the Twin Cities, my home town. I secured an efficiency apartment in St. Paul midway area and spent weekends with family and friends.During one particular weekend in the cities, I met David Anderson (now my husband). During a long conversation on his back porch, he described a large project he was embarking upon. His dream was to build and operate a farmhouse craft brewery, which was based on a Belgium-inspired vision. David had traveled to Belgium quite extensively. I don't know if it was David's immeasurable passion, his entrepreneurial spirit, the excitement of building a business, or the fact that David was oh so cute...but it didn't take long before I found myself swept up in the fervor that was to become the BrewFarm. I jumped in feet first on a journey David and I would take together as partners in business and in life.
The BrewFarm was underway the spring of 2008. David purchased 35 acres of beautiful rolling farmland in a quiet village in western Wisconsin called Wilson, about 30 minutes east of Hudson, WI.
In those early days our "dates" were not the traditional "go out to dinner and movie." Instead, we spent long days working side by side on the property planting hop rhizomes and building the first hopyard. The first hop variety planted was Fuggles. 
Of course, it was blasted hot and dry that summer, so we made the trip from St. Paul Midway to Wilson every other day from May to August in order to water the hops.
In late August, we secured funding for the project after hearing bankers say "no" way too many times to count (sometimes with a trailing cackle). David sold his house, I let my apartment go, and we moved to Wilson.
Early fall found us in a rented RV on the property. Two adults and two dogs made for cozy living! The RV was parked on a pretty steep hill, so David added wood planks under the tires as I yelled from inside the rig when it finally felt level. Looking at this photo, I am amazed we didn't tip over!
We broke ground on the building in September 2008. Our quaint camping spot turned into a construction site.
We were surrounded by very large machinery moving dirt and placing forms into the ground.
David was always giddy and excited when he was allowed to take the wheel behind some of the big machinery.
By October, it was getting cold so we let the RV go and rented a house in nearby Glenwood City. We spent our days on site, David working side by side with the builders.
Most days, I would find a semi-quiet spot so I could work on deadlines from a consulting project and grading papers from a teaching gig at UW River Falls. After a while, the sound of saws and hammering became white noise!
On a cold day in December, David and I worked inside the brewery space. We worked 12 hours that day with ice picks and shovels. We'd break up the icy ground, shovel it onto a tarp, and drag the tarp outside and dump the contents. On a personal note, this was a tipping point for our relationship. The physical and mental demands of the day made our bond grow stronger.
That day, we had to dig into and remove about a foot of ice and permafrost from the ground because cement was arriving the next day so the builder could pour the floor.
David and I share a general life-philosophy that embraces conservation, sustainability and living simply. Since we were building from scratch, we had a great opportunity to take a sustainable approach. The exterior of the residence (as well as interior space) was created from recycled barn board, timber and tin from two old barns (one from southern MN and the other from Pierce county WI).
While it was a large investment up front, in our minds the decision to use wind power to generate our electricity was financially responsible and provided an opportunity to practice stewardship for planet earth.
The wind generator tower was raised in January 2009. We named it "Jake" (the brand is a Jacobs).
We are grid inter-tied, which means that when we produce more electricity than we use, the energy goes onto the "grid" and we are paid at a retail rate. When we don't make enough (summer winds tend to be slow / non-existent), we pull from the grid and we get charged as part of our regular monthly bill.
In the winter months we heat our home and the brewery using energy retained in the earth (from radioactive decay of minerals and solar energy absorbed at the surface), called Geothermal.
A heat pump is used to transfer energy between the ground and our building through a series of buried, high-density pipes called an earth loop.
In addition, we added a gray water recycle storage tank, which holds waste water from the brewery. After being filtered, the water is released into a field rather than going into our septic system.
In the spring of 2009 we moved in to our new home, which sits atop our small craft brewery.
By fall, Dave's BrewFarm officially went into production. David calls the brewery his "LaBrewatory" because he spends a lot of time creating beers that are unique and distinctive. That requires experimentation and imagination - which he has in spades. He calls himself a janitor, but David is a brewmaster with a tremendous gift for creating thoughtful, well-balanced and tasty beers. His cooking is quite delicious too ;-)
In summer of 2010 we expanded the hop yards, built raised beds, and added native plants and botanicals which would become the heart and soul of our Brewer's Garden.
Further, we partnered with a local Bee Keeper who added two honey bee hives on the property.
During the summer and fall months, David uses the fresh ingredients from the Brewer's Garden (and honey from the hives) to make tasty saisons, ales and lagers.
Spring of 2013 will see another exciting expansion of the Brewer's Garden as Horticulturalists Amanda Lawrence and Emilie Justen join me to build a CSA called, Jake's Burr Oak Farm.
The CSA will grow garlic, salad greens, vegetables, fruits, herbs and cut flowers. All of which can be purchased as a monthly share or picked fresh and purchased on site at the Farm.
Monthly Shares
A portion of the purchase price from a monthly share will go toward the purchase of a share for a low-income family in our "Farm Fresh for Families" initiative.
Home brewers! Here's an opportunity to learn from David about making well-balanced beer using ingredients from the Brewer's Garden, such as Bee Balm, Basil, Red Clover, Sugar Snap Peas, Rose Hips, Hibiscus, etc.
Yes, that's right...you'll be able to purchase fresh produce AND create your favorite BrewFarm beers.
I'm looking forward to the 2013 season. But for now, I will take solace in the winter months in order to reflect, research, plan and dream.
Cheers,
BrewWife
