beer
people
joy
Everything begins with a story…..
Everything begins with a story.... A story maybe read by Dave Grohl, Flea, or Jeff Tweedy in a kick ass book highlighting some thrilling crazy life altering journey. Our story would be as grand as the influencing tales from rock bands that opened our ears to the bands like The Ramones, Television, and Lazy Lester. Or maybe tales from the pen of Samual Clemens or Hemingway as the Key West breeze gently ruffled the curtains in the sea salt air. An adventure so insane that even we can’t believe it to be true. However exciting that may sound we may just have to keep it simple and skip the rock and roll and traveling tales but…. but…that won’t stop us from imagining them telling our story.
Ecology Beer Creative: an idea from a college textbook. In the late 90’s, there was a particular book required for a class while studying Landscape Architecture at Michigan State University…” The Ecology of Place”. Years later this book would move from apartment to apartment and house to house...packed and unpacked. Each time flipping through its now yellowing pages remembering the few chapters we actually did read and contemplating how deeply we are, at birth, entrenched in ecology’s unavoidable participation. Never in my wildest dreams would I imagine this little book would remain in my possession and then one day... be the guiding light...the voice... in naming a brewery and driving everything it stood for.
Still reading....?
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Ecology by definition is, in its simplest terms, the study of organisms and how they interact in their natural world. In our world, the Ecology Beer Creative world, we like to say it’s the celebration of all people in this place… our culture, our conversations, our music, our festivals, our tourists, our weather, our river, our traditions....musicians. legacies, spirits.
It’s all that we are together and all that we will and can be. Beer is, without a doubt, part of that place… No question. It’s built into our interactions with each other. It’s part of life’s celebration. It’s going out for beers and announcing to coworkers that you are leaving to pursue a career in woodworking in some small town in Vermont that no one’s ever heard of. It’s evenings on the porch with a beer listening to Allen Toussaint in the heavy, hot, and humid New Orleans summer air. The sounds float off the vinyl record you grabbed earlier that afternoon at Euclid Records. It’s that Wilco show at the Orpheum when you grabbed that first beer of the evening and got a spot on the floor so close to the stage so you could watch Nels Cline destroy the living shit out of his guitar in full detail. It’s that memory of coming home for the holidays and grabbing beers with the parents and friends at the local pub.
We sit at a bar and share stories and conversations over a beer, festival with a beer in hand, celebrate our finest traditions with a beer, and relax after a day’s work on a sunny evening…with friends...on a patio...with a beer. This is Ecology. Our Ecology...our story...our world…our beer.
Beer. People. Joy.
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I owe it all to my family….my great grandparents’ and grandparents’ passion for homemade wine, my dad’s interest that took him to Stroh’s Brewing in Detroit in the 70’s, and to both my uncle and dad’s interest in homebrewing during the fabulous 80’s and 90’s. It was only a matter of time before the curiosity would find me as well and spur the wonder and drive to create something. Somewhere around the Millenium I recall telling my parents, “What if I could do this for a living?”. Life’s greatest lesson: never...doubt...possibly. Thousands of gallons later across multiple states and companies of all sizes: 10 bbl, 30 bbl, and 100 bbl…. here we are. Brewing is a passion. Providing a creation is a passion.
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Music has always been life essential for me and most often than not I'm reading a musician's memoir....or searching for some fascinating music documentary. I often felt brewing is a science that oddly resembles a song. A good beer has to be able to make you move. Like music it can have different tempos, instruments, volumes, and genres. It can be a creative beat of flavor of which taste and smell spark different emotions and memories while creating new ones. All things assembling just waiting to be experienced.
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That bring said, to create a beer, name it, and share it to the world is like giving the most personal and precious of gifts. The idea starts in your head, then pen to paper, and grain to glass. Crossing out ingredients like song lyrics and filling them in with new ones. Leaving it to rest and coming back days later with revisions to refine the song. Emotions of that day influencing the level of creativity. Is it a struggle or does it flow? Once it’s complete… the first tastes are priceless. No one else knows this creation. No one, except the brewer and it never gets old. All the work and all the tasks, moments, contraptions, and processes. Then it’s the satisfying moment of sharing and uttering those words, “You have got to try this shit!”. Like a little kid drawing a picture of something you love...and gifting it to your family, you wait for the reaction. There it is the smile. The joy. The delight! It’s real! Once sent to the taps, cans, or kegs it’s free of its confines and can never go back. The beer is no longer mine…and is now free to play its role. Bring people joy. The idea…the creative and laborious concoction now has life.
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That’s what brewing is to me…. It’s curious. It's present. It’s creative. It's music...in liquid form. It’s truly an art.
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I hope you enjoy our brewery. I've always said this was not created for me but for everyone who walks through the door.
Much kindness,
Matt
Founder/Brewmaster
