2 craft beer fans, 2 campaigns to build Sioux City brewery
Two local breweries have set their sights on downtown Sioux City, and both are using crowdfunding to raise cash to help make their dreams reality.
Jackson Street Brewing, owned by Dave Winslow of Sioux City, and Marto Brewing, owned my Erik Martin of Onawa, both aim to open their doors in downtown Sioux City in the coming year.
We talked with both of them this week after a number of public events where craft brew fans got to taste a number of fresh, hand-crafted beers made by the two brewers.
ERIK MARTIN, Marto brewing
Question: Tell me what got you interested in brewing beer.
Answer: My wife’s grandfather had a Mr. Beer homebrew kit and he told us to take it home and try it out. After about a year of brewing with that and trying different commercial beers I decided to begin brew using all grain. Five years later, after many brews, experimentation, & research, we are here!
Q: What are your plans for Marto Brewing?
A: We will be a brewery and taproom located on 4th Street in downtown Sioux City. We will brew classic styles, barrel fermented and aged beers, and many other experimental beers. People will be able to drink our beer freshly poured by the glass and take a growler home with them. Local beer is fresh and it is hard to beat! We will also distribute to select accounts in Iowa at the beginning and branch out as we grow. We will release more details about our location and more very soon.
Q: What have been the biggest challenges of starting a brewery?
A: Our biggest challenges seem to ring true with many other start-up breweries. Starting capital, finding investors, and real estate.
Q: Craft beer has exploded in popularity in the US in recent years. How has this changed our thinking about beer as a craft.
A: I believe it is growing similar to the wine industry. We are seeing many small local breweries open throughout the country and it is giving people more exposure to the product. Craft beer is produced with the thought of crafting a product to reach a end product with the best ingredients possible. That thought is continued all the way through packaging and presentation in the glass.
Q: If you could buy anyone past or present a beer and pick their brain, who would it be?
A: Matt Brynildson, Brewmaster at Firestone Walker Brewing Company in Paso Robles, CA. Matt has been with Firestone Walker for quite a long time. The company sky rocketed after he took over the helm which is largely do to the great beer he produces. He has won an astronomical amount of awards including 3 GABF Brewery of the Year Awards. He produces great hoppy beers, barrel aged beers, & more. On top of all that he is open with his brewing techniques and he is a hop chemist. It would be a geeky brewing discussion for sure! The beer that I would share would be one that I brewed. So we could dissect it and it would be a way to say thanks for what I have learned from him already.
DAVE WINSLOW, Jackson Street brewing
QUESTION: Tell me what got you interested in brewing beer.
ANSWER: We started making wine at first, and IPAs were beginning to be popular so I wanted to try the craft out. My first batch turned out great, followed by several less than ideal batches. The learning curve was big, but after several years you figure out how to balance beers pretty well. We also purchased a two acre orchard in Sioux City limits with tons of space for our expanding hop orchard, so using the fruits and hops makes tons of sense as those expenses add up.
Q: What are your plans for Jackson Street Brewing?
A: We are targeting the weekend of RAGBRAI for our grand opening. We will start small and cozy as a tasting room for our products, and eventually grow into a larger brewing system. We may eventually need to get a larger building to begin a larger distribution range, but ideally we will mainly focus on the tri-state area to quality up and creativity up as well. We really feel like people will be very interested to try our beers brewed with ingredients grown right here in Sioux City. Our orchard has the capability of supplying a seasonal hard cider from our apples and pears, and several rotating seasonal beers like our pumpkin ale, raspberry wheat, and apricot wheat.
Q: What have been the biggest challenges and biggest rewards of starting a brewery?
A: The biggest challenges involving filling out the endless forms and licensing issues. Plus, purchasing equipment is extremely expensive. Throw in maintaining a full time job, and trying to make sure you have everything okay with the city building codes, and it’s a lot to juggle. We have also been fund raising while we are promoting and doing tastings. This has left mainly weekends and a few nights a week open for construction. We are doing most of it ourselves to avoid heavy debts that will limit our future growth.
Q: You grow your own hops. Tell me why you do that, and what it means for your products.
A: Local hops have unique flavors different than what is commercially grown in the Pacific Northwest. We can experiment with the freshest possible hops available, and do some ‘fresh hopped’ ales in the fall without ever having to process and dehydrate them into pellets.
Q: If you could buy anyone past or present a beer and pick their brain, who would it be?
A: The lead singer of U2, Bono. He seems to be in touch with the world vibe and it’s one of my favorite bands of all time.
About the Author
Thomas Ritchie I love food, cycling, family, music, social media and especially Sioux City. Got an idea for a story - shoot me a note at siouxcitynow1@gmail.com.
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