You know what’s great about traveling? Two things: One, I get to take photographs all over; two; I get to try beer from so many places my liver is starting to hate me (I’m kidding. All in moderation, my friends!)
One of the last trips I took was to Milwaukee, WI. Yup! Yet another great America beer city! And although a lot of the big (legacy) beer comes from Wisconsin, they have much to be proud of when it comes to their craft scene! By now, you know I’m a customer of Tavour’s and get to try beer from all over the country. The brewery featured in this post brewed one of the coolest brews I had this year (and I got it from Tavour). No joke.
Every year for the third year, the crew at MobCraft collab with Girls Pint Out and feature a recipe from a woman brewer. It’s hard not to love the concept, frankly. I mean… women in craft are kind of the shit, but you guys know I’m absolutely not biased 😉
Anyway, I met Henry Schwatz, CEO of MobCraft Beer, while one my trip. Cool guy. Took me on a quick tour of their brewery. Neat place. Nuff said. Henry, you got the floor…
Tell us about the team. How did you guys get involved in craft beer?
Our story, like most, began with home brewing. We picked up the hobby in college and that hobby turned into a career. My first experiments were with making wine, but that quickly turned into beer brewing and brewing with weird ingredients.
When and how did MobCraft get started?
The concept started in our last semester of college. We took the concept for a crowdsourced brewery to a university business incubator and created a more formal business plan and financial projections through that program. From there we tried to raise $1M to start a brewery but weren’t able to, so we bought one 7bbl fermentation tank and installed that at a brewery called House of Brews in Madison (now closed) where we got to brew once a month. We saved up money and that one tank became two then 4… until we were eventually large enough that we could attract some investment.
Who are the brewers? How do they go about creating recipes?
We have 4 brewers that all specialize in different areas of brewing. Andrew, my business partner, is a microbiologist so he manages all things yeast and QAQC. Josh has been brewing with us since 2015 and has a heavy hand in recipe development. Adam manages the Wild and Sour Program as well as the clean-side barrel aging. Together they are a dream team of brewers bringing their skill and experience to the table to create recipes. All of the crowdsourced recipes that are submitted by people around the US come in as concepts for beers, a couple flavors that someone wants to see together, not yet viable recipes, so the crew has to put a lot of time into taking those couple flavor profile suggestions and create a recipe that won’t disappoint!
Any plans for the future at MobCraft?
Of course! We’re always scheming on something. We’re just about to launch our annual release of Padishah which is a barrel-aged imperial stout. We’ve got six single-barrel variants coming out this year on December 14th. We’re working on opening up the Chicago and Minneapolis markets. We’re planning a beer garden too!
What do you think of the craft beer scene in the area and its expansion over the past few years?
The community is great! All the brewers I know are wonderful people pouring their hearts and souls into their craft. We’re a few years behind the times when it comes to local beer at local events, and being served at local establishments, but I hope the community continues to support local products.
Why Mob Craft?
MobCraft, one word, is a combination of the Mob- the people coming up with ideas for beers, and the Craft- us and our brewers turning those ideas into beer.
A BELGIAN'S BEER DIARY 