For the love of craft beer

(Credit: Jim Walker / special to Metromix)

After years of serious home brewing, brothers Adam and Jason Burk and friend Brent Chapman decided to share their love of craft beer in a big way.

They didn’t open a brewery. Instead, the trio known as Tuxedo Park Brewers opened a home-brewing store in Fountain Square that helps anyone who’s interested to become a hobby brewer.

They celebrate their grand opening June 11 in their shop, located in a former garage off the alley behind Shelby Street. Running from 3 p.m. to midnight, the party includes a home-brewing competition, with beers made by customers. There’s a cost to purchase a custom-printed pint glass. But it comes with beverage samples, food, music and games.

The new home-brewing facility is both a workshop and a small retail store, providing ingredients on its shelves and offering custom supply and equipment orders. In addition to sales, the guys from Tuxedo Park offer advice, host brewing demonstrations and rent equipment.

“We had been home brewing for a long time and were getting bigger and doing more stuff and needed more ingredients,” said Adam Burk, who began home brewing with the others in 2005. “We thought, ‘Why don’t we do this and sell this stuff and try to make a living out of it?’ Talking home brewing is what we do.”

When they first started brewing, they thought it might be fun and a way to save money on buying beer. It turned out that wasn’t really the case. But, as craft beer has become more popular and prices have increased, home brewing has  turned out to be a smart alternative.

“We started as buddies who wanted to find something to do on Saturdays and something good to do in the garage in the wintertime,” he said. “Now, we’re excited about helping people realize they can make this at home and it is not that expensive.”

For more information, visit  www.tuxedoparkbrewers.com.