Libations.

My family’s history is steeped in fermentation and farming. Settlers of southeastern Nebraska in the mid-18th Century, we farmed typical cereal row crops that Nebraska is known for. We also planted nut and fruit bearing trees and brambles: apples, pears, cherries and more. I grew up playing in those orchards, and my family pressed apples using an heirloom cider press. Many fond memories were made in those days, and a nascent interest in both farming and fermentation formed in those days of my youth.

Fast forward to my adult life post-college. I started homebrewing in 2006; an effort to play with fermentation with the hopes of drinking cheaply. How wrong I was!

In 2011, I met Mike Klimek. Within months, we were homebrewing, drinking and dreaming together. I found in Mike a kindred soul for food and drink: something we continue to share nearly ten years later.

We founded Scratchtown Brewing Company in January 2012 with our partner, Jade Stunkel. In 2017, Shay Reilly joined our ownership circle. Together with our wives and co-workers, we’ve grown a small craft brewery on the eastern edge of the Nebraska Sandhills. I will use this space as a place to share our fermentation projects, along with other personal libation efforts. We started Scratchtown with the intent to use it as a vehicle of positive transformation through fermentation. It is my intent to build a vertically integrated local supply chain for fermentation. We believe place, geography and climate should shape how fermenation is approached. Covid has made it more imperative we push for these opportunities.