Region's newest brewery targets Covington
by Josh Pichler
Braxton Brewing Co. is more than the newest craft beer player in the region.
It's the latest result of Covington's urban resurgence, fueled by efforts including UpTech, bioLOGIC, the Hotel Covington and Gateway Community & Technical College.
It's the next career move for Richard Dube, a nationally renowned brewmaster who most recently was vice president of brewing and quality at Christian Moerlein Brewing Co.
It's the story of a father and his two sons taking the plunge into business, with all of the excitement and trepidation that entails.
And, if co-founder Jake Rouse has his way, Braxton Brewing will combine the craft-beer tradition with a digital marketing and social media revolution that's launching startups across the Midwest.
Braxton Brewing's advisory board members and investors include Dave Knox, co-founder of the Brandery and chief marketing officer at Rockfish Interactive, and Tim Kopp, the former chief marketing officer at ExactTarget who has invested in several local startups.
The brewery is planning to locate in 10,000 square feet on Seventh Street in Covington and open this fall with craft beers created by co-founders and brewmasters Evan Rouse and Dube. It will distribute its beer in Kentucky and Ohio, part of a fast-growing industry here. Nationwide, craft brewers sold 15.6 million barrels of beer in 2013, up from 13.2 million in 2012, according to the Brewers Association.
Jake Rouse, Evan's brother and a manager at ExactTarget, envisions Braxton's taproom as a place where the region's network of entrepreneurs can meet and work in another innovative environment. Jake is leading Braxton Brewery's sales and marketing effort.
"The people who are leading the craft-beer movement, and who are passionate about unique and hand-crafted beer, are also the same people who are really involved in this startup and technology revolution," Jake said.
"We want to be a big player in the community and champion the Midwest and Midwest startups. We want to invite people who may be working from coffee shops to come in and hang out at Braxton."
Braxton Brewing started in Greg Rouse's garage
Like many other startups – think Amazon.com, Apple, Hewlett-Packard – Braxton Brewing started in a garage. Greg Rouse's garage, to be exact, on Braxton Drive in Union. Greg, a dunnhumbyUSA executive, is Jake and Evan's father.
Evan Rouse was 16 in 2008 when he and Greg dropped Jake off at Indiana University in Bloomington and grabbed lunch at Upland Brewing Co. Evan was too young to drink but was fascinated as the waitress described the restaurant's craft brewing process. He ordered a home brew kit from his iPhone on the way home.
Over time, Evan built a sophisticated brewing operation with 11 taps in his parent's garage and until recently was the assistant brewmaster at Hofbräuhaus Newport. He's also studying natural science and mathematics through Indiana University's online program.
Local brewers are a tight-knit community, and Evan's success in friendly NKY Homebrewers Guild and other competitions caught Dube's attention. Dube failed to recruit Evan to Moerlein but eventually joined Braxton Brewery as a co-founder.
"For me, it was the opportunity to do two things: to give a little bit of my last legacy to the brewing industry, but more so to bring Evan to his dream and to play a mentor role," Dube said. "And I liked the connection of technology and tradition."
Greg Rouse, dunnhumbyUSA's vice president for production, oversees Braxton Brewery's operations. Greg jokes that his job the past six years has been to wash the equipment while Evan hones his craft.
He's clear that Braxton Brewing is a serious endeavor for the family, though, and that he's "damn proud" of his kids.
"This is not easy, by any stretch of the imagination. I'm a very passionate person and have two very passionate children who are passionate about extremely different things. Trying to find the middle ground to make decisions about our future in this business is a challenge sometimes," he said.
"We don't always agree. But you can also see the prize at the end. We know this is going to work. Everything we're doing now is going to pay out at the end."
A perfect fit for Covington's entrepreneurial urban core
Economic development players in Covington also are excited about Braxton Brewing's potential. Naashom Marx, the city of Covington's business development manager, has helped Braxton Brewery review potential locations.
The city has not awarded any economic incentives to date for the project, but Marx said Braxton Brewing is a perfect fit for Covington's growing entrepreneurial urban core. That includes UpTech, which is helping accelerate technology companies, and BioLOGIC, which provides space and resources to life science startups. Tech companies including TiER1 Performance Solutions and C-Forward Information Technologies also are based in Covington.
"Braxton will provide the space for these geniuses to connect on a different level. The hotel, accelerators, incubators and businesses all have a common theme: entrepreneurial grassroots efforts that make a huge impact," Marx said.
"In Covington, everything ties together, and we all strive to work together."
Jake Rouse is relocating from Indianapolis to this region but will continue working at ExactTarget, and Greg Rouse will stay at dunnhumbyUSA. Both are leveraging skills they've learned at those innovative companies to keep Braxton Brewing headed toward a fall opening.
"We're going to run this a lot like a technology company. And quite frankly, there's nothing growing as fast as beer, other than technology," Jake said.
"Our goal is to basically build a system that gets out of Evan and Richard's way to let them make the best beer in the world."
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