Way back in 2011...

the Keck boys of North Jackson, Ohio brewed their first batch of beer. It was a Dry Stout kit purchased from Wine Makers Headquarters in Warren. The beer turned out alright, but more importantly, we had just as much fun brewing the beer as we did drinking it. By the third batch, it was clear to me that this was going to be much more than a hobby.

We scaled up from small extract batches on the kitchen stove and moved to all grain brewing outside on the turkey fryer (much to Mom's delight). By 2013, I had assembled a 15 gallon, 3-kettle brewery, complete with a pump to make brewdays easier. I called our beer Keck and Son's Brewing Company. Over the course of the next few years, I racked up a few hundred of brewdays, recipes, long nights, and excited conversations over a beer (or two).

I would have been happy to continue home brewing as a hobby for the rest of my life. But in 2013, I changed careers and started work as the resident IT Nerd at Compco Industries in Columbiana, OH. There, I uncovered another obsession of mine: manufacturing. I came on board to shore up the company's IT infrastructure, but quickly found myself immersed in every aspect of the company: accounting, sales, shipping, costing, supply chain planning, inventory, quality control, and on and on. 

It didn't take long for me to realize that running a brewery would be just like running a manufacturing company like Compco, except the product that we'd ship out everyday would be craft beer and our customers would be beer lovers like me. At that point, I set out to start a brewery in my adopted hometown of Warren, Ohio, where there hadn't been a local brewery since the George Clements Brewery closed its doors in 1880.

Over the next two years, I logged a ton of time in research, both the boring kind (spreadsheets, business and accounting books) and the fun kind (talking with brewers, visiting taprooms across the country). I assembled the business plan. I developed the idea for Modern Methods Brewing Company, taking a piece of our town's history and re-imagining it as a beer brand. Most importantly I surrounded myself with (crazy) people, both locally and from across the country, that share my vision for a brewery in an old steel town whose best days are ahead of it. With the generous support of too many to name, we're making this thing happen. 

If you want to join us on this ride, make sure you click "Subscribe" on the top right. Suggestions or questions can be directed to adam@modernmethodsbrew.com.

Cheers!

Adam Keck
Founder/Brewer