Today we’d like to introduce you to David Clark.
David, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
We began homebrewing 6 years ago, developed a blog shortly thereafter to keep track of our brewing journey, then started interviewing new brewers just opening up their own breweries. We realized the beginning of their story sounded a lot like where we were, so we started putting a business plan together and doing some research. We found a unique building, selected some award winning recipes, and built our brand around education and growth. Our symbol, the chambered nautilus, represents perpetual growth. The actual nautilus creature builds each New Main chamber throughout its life when their current chamber gets too small. This is a perfect metaphor for our story and craft beer as an industry, building on the past into the future.
Has it been a smooth road?
Our biggest struggles have been working with contractors to make the space usable and finding the necessary funding to renovate and brew enough beer to sell. We spent a lot of time talking to banks and lenders and essentially timed ourselves out of the production brewing market model. We decided to carry on as a smaller neighborhood brewery, serving primarily out of our taproom and drawing our community in with weekly and monthly events. While we waited for our last bit of brewing permits, we operated as a craft beverage taproom serving beer, cider, kombucha, soda, and coffee made right here in Texas, and primarily North Texas.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the New Main Brewing Company story. Tell us more about the business.
I come from a large family of teachers, and I’ve always held education as one of the highest and noblest of professions. I wanted to incorporate education into the burgeoning craft beer scene so that we weren’t just another craft brewery, but a place where people could come and learn about beer as well. As more and more people try craft beer for the first time, we want to help them continue to grow their knowledge and love for beer by offering tasting flights of each of our beers. We want to present the base beer, brewed according to style guidelines, along with various offerings that accentuate certain aspects of the beer. Spices, herbs, fruit, different yeast strains, wood and barrel aging. We want to show people how changing or adding just one ingredient can make a world of difference in each beer.
How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
I see a trend towards more neighborhood and regional identity coming through in each new and existing brewery. While the breweries that are now celebrating 5th and 10th anniversaries continue to grow to spread out through the state and region, the majority of the new-comers are embracing a more grassroots approach of tying their beer to their communities. For example, we offer our Conversation Room as well as the entire brewery space for Private Event rental. We’ve had lots of people celebrate anniversaries, weddings, birthdays, baby showers, book clubs, and even organize local business committees in our space. You’re already starting to see breweries really take on the character of their neighborhoods and hometowns.
Contact Info:
- Address: 3533 Marathon St
Pantego, TX 76013 Tues-Fri: 3-11pm, Sat: 3pm-12am, Sun: 3pm-8pm - Website: www.newmainbrewing.com
- Phone: 682-990-BEER
- Email: events@newmainbrewing.com
- Instagram: newmainbrewing
- Facebook: Facebook.com/newmainbrewingcompany
- Twitter: @thenewmainbrew
Image Credit:
New Main Brewing Company
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