Today we’d like to introduce you to Derek.
Derek, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
It began in the early 2000’s when I began volunteering at Rahr and Son’s Brewing in Ft. Worth. I would help with bottling, merchandise sales, cleaning, etc. on Saturdays. My wife joined me and we both volunteered for quite some time. While I was there, I learned that your typical commercial pilsner beers were a far cry from what good beer is or could be.
My palate was immediately changed. I was curious and began watching the process and asking many questions. After we stopped volunteering there, I began reading multiple books on the science and history of brewing. After several years of sampling, reading, and chasing the openings of DFW breweries; I bit the bullet and purchased a home brewing equipment kit. The bug bit me quick and before long my wife Lashawn and my best friend Justin Watson were joining me and learning what I had so far. We wanted to begin entering homebrew competitions but were having trouble sticking with a name.
One day, after I had replaced our entire house with new flooring, Lashawn came home from work just in time to see that I had spilled my first 15 gallon batch of brew all over those beautiful new floors. Right before she was going to kill me I was on my knees with towels and smiled at her and said, “It’s a dirty job and someone’s gotta brew it!”. It actually tickled her enough that I was spared my life and we had our name and mantra. So we entered our first competition, the Labor of Love sponsored by Deep Ellum Brewing and we walked away with a gold medal in fruit beer for our Raspberry Hefeweizen (Raspberry Beeret).
From there, we continued to win awards around Texas and were receiving tons of feedback from the public and industry people, as well. I had just finished my MBA and had done some research on the Craft Beer industry, so I knew it was getting competitive but was still very doable for those interested in joining the wave. It wasn’t long that we were looking for locations. While looking, we happened to drive down to downtown historic Mansfield and knew immediately that we were home. The community and the city were so happy to have us decide to build our business there as they were beginning a revitalization process for the historic downtown area.
Has it been a smooth road?
Though a sweet ride, it has definitely not been entirely smooth. Along the way, we have encountered few obstacles. The biggest struggle so far is that all three owners still work our full-time jobs. We haven’t reached the point where we are comfortable saying we have grown enough to just do this. Instead, we re-invest into the brew so we can grow. A challenge with the actual brewing is that we can’t always keep our favorites on the boards as we have so many seasonal brews.
We make our own purees and extracts for flavored beers and we use locally sourced produce to do so. That means when our gardens run bare we rely on finding local growers in Mansfield to provide. For example, our Tis the Saison (cantaloupe saison) was only able to be made again this season because two local residents heard my garden was done and brought me their cantaloupes. We know this will need to be addressed as we install our new larger system, but we already have a plan to work with a farm of Veterans to up our local production of ingredients.
We’d love to hear more about your business.
Dirty Job Brewing is a North TX Microbrewery located in Historic Downtown Mansfield. The location consists of roughly 2000 square feet of brewing space and a nice 2200 square foot tap room with 20 taps pouring craft beers and ales brewed on-location. While we do make some straightforward brews such as our Main St Wheat (American Wheat beer), we specialize in creating new things to try such as our IPAin’t (cucumber IPA) and our Better Off Red (Irish Red fermented on graham crackers).
We also pride ourselves on being a family-friendly environment where people can bring their kiddos. We have soda, coffee, water etc. and multiple activities such as corn hole and board games. We are extremely proud to be Mansfield’s original craft brewery and keeping our business a big part of the growth in the area. We set ourselves apart by continuing to find ways to have our entire process inclusive of the local community. From using locally-sourced products such as local honey for our OMG Blonde ale to pecans for The Short Stack maple pecan porter; we strive to keep our community involved while bringing attention to the city by distributing around North Texas.
Sticking to our mantra, Dirty Job, it is important for us to always do things the not-so-easy way. We pride ourselves on taking the path of hands-on, DIY rather than throw money at someone else to do it for us. You can tell by the quality of our brew and the comfortable warmth you will feel in our taproom. Our blue-collared brothers and sisters will get us because we know what it takes to get through the hard day. At the same time, the white-collared folks will appreciate the lengths we go to produce a quality product and an industry-acceptable growth.
How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
I think the explosion and growth of the Craft Beer industry over the past 2 decades in and around DFW speaks for itself.
Pricing:
- Regular hours – $5 pints, $7 flights, $8 premiums – Merchandise varies
- Saturdays – $20 1 hour yoga + 3 beers, $15 keep able glass + 3 beers, regular hours pricing as well
Contact Info:
- Address: 117 N Main St Mansfield, TX 76063
- Website: www.dirtyjobbrewing.com
- Phone: 682-518-1791
- Email: dirtyjobbrewing@gmail.com
Getting in touch: VoyageDallas is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
