Brewer focuses on vets
Family opens 1st county craft brewery since late 1800s
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WARREN -- The city's first craft brewery in well more than a century is focused beyond serving a good pint of specialty beer. Its owners say they want to create opportunities for veterans.
Zachariah Dean, 30, and his mother, Debbie, co-owners of Clubhouse Brewery Co., 668 North River Road NW, said they believe in recognizing and helping the men and women who served in the military.
Clubhouse is the first of two craft beer breweries opening over the next few months. Adam Keck, a former activist with the Mahoning Valley Organizing Collaborative, is hoping to have the soft opening of Modern Methods Brewery in mid-January.
Keck, who also had been planning for his brewery over the last several years, said he is not too upset being upstaged as the first craft beer brewery in Trumbull County since the late 1800s.
"We all will be helping one another," he said.
Zachariah Dean is a West Point graduate with a degree in engineering who was on active military duty for four years. He served in both Iraq and Afghanistan. He left the Army in 2014 after being injured in a three-story fall while training Afghan soldiers on security issues. He broke his ankle, a knee and injured a wrist.
Dean's father, Craig, served in the Army in the early 1980s. Zachariah's brother, Shayne, also served four years in the Army during the same years Dean was on active duty.
Once he left the military, Zachariah Dean wanted to start a company but could not decide what to do. He had been making specialty beers with his father for more than 10 years, and Craig Dean recently won first place in the best of show in the 2016 Geauga County Fair for his Deuces' Wild Dopplebach.
"We decided this could be our business," Debbie Dean said.
Craig Dean is the company's brew master.
Zachariah Dean went to Case Western Reserve University to obtain a master's degree in accounting.
"One of the reasons many breweries fail is they do not have solid business plans," he said.
The company will take a three-prong approach in its desire to help veterans, he said.
"We are going to help those who cannot help themselves by donating to veteran charities -- not necessarily the big ones, but smaller charities that provide services to veterans," he said.
"We also are looking to train veterans in the art of making craft beers and about the craft beer industry. We want to get them on the right track."
As the business grows, Zachariah expects to place a focus of finding veterans to hire.
The Windham native said they decided to open in Warren because the city administration was very receptive and worked with them.
"We currently have four craft beers on tap and 11 recipes," Zachariah said. "We are starting slow because we really believe in properly aging our beers."
Debbie handles the logistics of the operation, making sure they have all the ingredients they need for their beers and the food they will serve.
"We are shopping local for our products and sending the remains to local farmers to fertilize their fields," she said. "We think it is best that way."
She said she is excited about the growth possibility. "People travel to go to breweries," Debbie said. "We have driven more than 50 miles to try a new brewery."
Keck, 31, said having two breweries opening within a month and a half of one another will help grow the ecosystem for the craft beers in the community.
"We will complement one another, with people traveling from (one) brewery to the other," Keck said.
Once Modern Methods opens, there will be 11 craft beer breweries in the Columbiana, Lawrence, Mahoning, Mercer and Trumbull county region. In the region, there will be seven in Ohio and four in Pennsylvania.
The entrance for Modern Methods will be at 125 David Grohl Alley, near the center of downtown Warren.
"People like the laid-back vibe of the stores in the downtown area," Keck said. "We took a little longer to open than expected because there are regulations in historic buildings we did not expect. We're also waiting for our state brewing license."
Keck said Modern Methods will sell 18 craft beers.