Noon – Mike Wojtila Trio (polka!) German Family Society Youth Dancers – 12:30, 1:30, & 2:30 ~ Join the fun and dance along during the 2:30 performance! 3:30 – Brent Kirby Trio 5:30 – Ringer 8:00 – Van Sailin’
With three beer trucks in the event area, we’re offering a variety of great beverages: Spaten Oktoberfest, Goose Island Oktoberfest, Elysian Night Owl, seasonal cider…AND Seasonal beer from our local guys: Bell Tower Brewing Co., MadCap Brew Co. & North Water Brewing! Something for everyone! Prost!
All beverages will be served in recyclable plastic cups; no glassware will be available for purchase and guests may not use glassware from previous events. Commemorative plastic Oktoberfest beer pitchers will be available while supplies last. Cash and credit cards are accepted.
There are a multitude of ways to bring life into the world. The very acts of bringing this brewery to fruition, are all labors of love guiding this dream into a reality. Bridget Tipton is a designer by trade, and she is constantly breathing new life into spaces and communities by restoring and rebuilding. Ryan Tipton, is a UX designer, but the heart of what he does in all his endeavors is to foster connections between people, at times, with a good beer in hand. Jennifer Hermann is a skilled brewer creating beverages that whet the appetite and encourage authentic conversation and connection. All three founders are opening the doors of a new space, where brewing and community will flourish.
On this Mother’s Day 2021, we celebrate three amazing women who have been integral to raising up these three lives and what they bring to the Bell Tower Brewery!
Barbara Adams
Barbara enjoying life
Bridget’s gift for creating beauty is both an attribute of nature and nurture. Barbara Adams has always had an eye for beauty, as well as the ability to share it with others in her home, at events, and in her extended family. She weaves creativity, celebration and craft into all the spaces she inhabits.
Barbara raised three daughters as both a homemaker and a realtor. She and her husband Mike also loved and served their parents well in the twilight of their lives in her own home. Barbara is so full of life and good humor, which is why she is always at the heart of the party planning committee! She is famous for the pitchers of margaritas she serves at events with friends and family and always has a craft (or two or three) ready for all of the children in her life to create.
As Barbara never arrives at any place empty-handed, she contributes to the brewery by offering her aesthetic expertise, financial savvy, and spotting good bargains on needed materials. She is constantly on the search for cool finds that can be incorporated into the brewery. She has been so supportive throughout the process, an open ear to the many trials along the way. So too, the decades of hospitality she demonstrated throughout Bridget’s youth laid the groundwork for the business of hospitality that is about to unfold at the Bell Tower Brewing Co.!
Linda Hermann
Linda Hermann has raised two daughters and one granddaughter while also serving with distinction as Carol Cartwright’s Administrative Assistant at Kent State University. A long-time Kent resident, she has watched Kent bloom over the past several decades into the town it has become. She has supported the idea of a brewery in Kent since the beginning and is eager to be involved in the process of bringing fresh, local beer to Kent.
Linda & Jennifer
Linda. Margaritas. Celebrating. Life.
Linda watering her gardens with Jennifer’s chill water from brewing
Linda is an avid gardener and spends most of her free time tending to her beautiful gardens surrounding her home. She is highly competitive and loves to be challenged on the pickleball and cornhole courts; chances are, you will lose. With the occasional exception of Framboise, Linda is not a beer lover. Yet her enjoyment of strawberry kombucha margaritas is well known!
Jennifer’s audacious move into the professional realm of brewing years ago would not have been financially, emotionally or physically possible without the support of her mother. She has continued to be Jennifer’s greatest ally and her loudest cheerleader. She has been so much more than a provider and caretaker, becoming a friend to her daughter – always seeing her potential, always encouraging. She has been steadfast, through and through. She eagerly anticipates the brewery opening so she can continue to brag about her daughter.
Mary Tipton
Ryan comes by persistence, integrity, and craft honestly. In these three ways, he is most certainly his mother’s son. Mary Tipton has raised three sons while also pursuing her career at Kent State University as an educator and Director of Instructional Technology. The woman can sew anything – and she has! In addition to decades of creative Halloween costumes, when Main Street Kent needed a beer-toting, human-sized Black Squirrel-wearing lederhosen, Mary made two! She is always ready and willing to contribute her time and creative gifts in caring for 3 grandchildren and supporting all the endeavors that her sons dream up. Mary also donates time and talent to the local community through her church, her Bible Study group, and wherever needs are present.
Mary and her husband Chuck celebrating Fall
Mary restoring our historic 14 foot doors
Mary has given countless dollars and hours to further the development of the Bell Tower Brewing Co. She has graciously spent several hundred hours scraping and sanding and refinishing the four original, 14-foot wood doors in the building in order to restore them to their historic glory. Mary has also cooked many delicious meals for the family & friends demolition teams at the brewery and spent hours watching our nieces and nephews so that family members could help with building projects.
We are so grateful for all the ways these mothers have brought life into the world, the countless impacts they have had on our own growth, and the many contributions they have made to make our dream of the Bell Tower Brewing Co. into a reality that will impact many for the better.
Pretzels are amazing things! We are excited to celebrate National Pretzel Day today, April 26th, by sharing a bite of history about them. As many know, they are a traditional bavarian snack that comes in so many different shapes and sizes and can be oh-so-delicious when served hot and fresh. Pretzels are also so old that it is unclear exactly where they came from or when they were first made.
Beer, mustard and a freshly baked pretzel. This pretzel was part of our exploratory recipe development.
Several texts state that the history of the pretzel dates back nearly a millennia. Some say pretzels were invented by an Italian monk as a treat to the children for completing their prayers (around 600 A.D.). The pretzel shape is said to resemble arms crossed over one’s chest. Another legend ties the invention to a French monastery while another says they were invented by German bakers who were held hostage, for some reason or another.
The earliest recorded evidence of pretzels appeared in the crest of the German bakers’ guilds in 1111. The pretzel symbol was often used by German bakeries on their shop signs. These date back to a time when most of the general population was illiterate, so bakers got smart and came up with a symbol for what they were hand-crafting inside. And what better way to let passersby know what you made in your shop than to have a wooden pretzel hanging out over the street? It’s a call sign, a symbol, and a question all wrapped up into a single statement saying “Hey dummy, why aren’t you in here eating a fresh pretzel right now?”
According to some historians, the soft and delicious modern lye pretzel we know today was a tasty mistake. Legend has it that a baker at the royal coffee house in Munich inadvertently glazed his pretzels with a lye solution he had on hand for cleaning baking trays, instead of the usual sugar water, prior to baking. He then realized the mistake, but the perfectly browned pretzel smelled so good, he decided to serve them — to the visiting King of Bavaria, Ludwig I, no less. Clearly, they were a big hit and have become the golden-brown standard to this day.
Even in small geographical areas such as southern Germany, there are regional pretzel differences. In Bavaria, pretzels are allowed to split on their own, whereas in Stuttgart and the surrounding historic region of Swabia, the fat bottom portion of the pretzel is slit in order to predetermine where the split will be, which is caused by the expansion of the dough during baking.
Pretzel Necklaces
In a prayer book used by Catherine of Cleves in 1440, there was a picture of St. Bartholomew surrounded by pretzels. By this time, pretzels were considered a sign of good luck and spiritual wholeness—possibly due to the three holes in the common pretzel shape touted to represent the Holy Trinity at this point. The “good luck” connotation carried the pretzel to other holidays, including New Year’s Day, when in Germany children hung pretzels around their necks; pretzels hung on Christmas trees in Austria in the 16th century; and parents hid little pretzels on Easter for children to find, an early version of an Easter egg hunt. In Switzerland, the pretzel shape was used as a marriage knot, and couples would each pull on a side of the pretzel on their wedding day. The larger half brought prosperity to the marriage—it was kind of like a doughy wishbone tradition.
Pretzels have long been integrated into the Christian faith. By the 16th century, it had become tradition to eat pretzels on Good Friday in Germany, and Catholics once considered them the “official food of lent.” Earlier laws of the Church stated that only one meal a day was to be eaten during lent and the food couldn’t come from an animal. Yet another origin story says that pretzels were developed as a food for lent. Whether or not this is true, pretzels did become a popular staple during the season because it was easy to make and fulfilled the Church’s guidelines.
A basket full of fresh pretzels which was part of our exploratory recipe development.
Pretzels made their way across the Atlantic with German immigrants who were later to be known as the Pennsylvania Dutch in the 1700s. Many pretzel bakeries popped up in Pennsylvania around this time, and Pennsylvania continued to be the seat of American pretzel production and consumption; around 80% of pretzels made in America are made in Pennsylvania today. While it’s estimated that Americans eat two pounds of pretzels in a year, pretzel consumption in Philadelphia is estimated to be around twelve pounds of pretzels per person per year.
Early pretzels were of the “soft” variety; hard pretzels are something of a relatively modern invention. However, contrary to popular belief, hard pretzels did not originate in 1600 when a baker fell asleep while he was tending his fire, burning pretzels to a crisp, as good of a story as that might have been. In 1861, Julius Sturgis created the first commercial pretzel bakery in Lititz, Pennsylvania. It’s believed that his factory was the first to develop hard pretzels. These crunchy, salty snacks lasted longer in an airtight environment than soft pretzels did, allowing them to be sold in stores far away from the bakery and kept on shelves much longer.
Historic image of a man and his pretzel cart – New York City circa 1920
These attributes allowed their popularity to spread rapidly and hard pretzels are now one of the best-selling salty snacks in America, sandwiched between potato chips and popcorn. Soft pretzels continue to be a popular snack item as well with push-cart pretzel vendors prevalent in Philadelphia and New York. The push-carts follow a long tradition of pretzel street vendors—it’s believed that they first started appearing in the mid-1400s. Pretzel vendors also provided one of the first confirmed types of food delivery service, as they would go door to door selling their baked goods.
Today, pretzels are most popular in America and in Germany, where they are featured at Oktoberfest. In America, besides covered in salt, hard pretzels commonly come dipped in chocolate or yogurt, while soft pretzels are commonly served with mustard or a cheese dip. Different flavors are available all over the world, featuring nuts, seeds, and glazes—a long way from the simple dough pretzels that were commonly served religious purposes so many years ago.
If your mouth isn’t already salivating after reading so much about tasty pretzels you can be assured that Bell Tower Brewing Co. will be serving, fresh, hot, house-made pretzels that traditional way straight from our kitchen. Now all you have to do is wait until we open!
Entrepreneurship has deep roots in my family’s past and in my personal life. I have many aunts, uncles, cousins, and my immediate family who all have tried, and successfully, pursued entrepreneurship.
I have several inspiring examples in my family that led me to start Bell Tower Brewing Company. When my mother’s father came home from WWII, he married my grandmother, started a family, and cultivated an apple farm in Geneva, Ohio for 18 years. Sadly though, when Interstate 90 was built in the 1960s the state used eminent domain and located the highway through the middle of my grandparents’ farm. This crippled his production levels and he was forced to get creative for the second time in his life. As a self-taught general contractor, he started replacing the apple trees that remained orchard land with houses that he built and sold to area residents.
Early in my parents’ careers, and while they were starting their family, my dad decided to start a feed & tack store in Streetsboro where he had several successful years in retail. My parents later pursued the rental business with much success.
My entrepreneurial life started when I was in elementary school. By happenstance, I ended up selling a single stick of gum to a friend on my bus for ¢5 (that’s $0.05). I learned on my long bus rides home that my fellow schoolmates loved gum but their parents didn’t allow them to have their own, so they were willing to buy it from me for a small price. Learning this, I went to the grocery store the next day and bought big packs of gum for cheap. Now knowing how much I could sell a stick of gum for I made sure I would retain a profit after the sale based on the price I paid upfront for a large pack. The profit was used to buy more gum to sell and occasionally helped buy extra candy for me. I started selling hundreds of sticks of gum over the next several weeks to everyone I could on the bus ride home.This was my first lesson in sales and economics.
And then the principal found out… I still have a distinct memory of being called down to the principal’s office where I had to explain to him what I was doing on the bus each day. I pulled out my large ziplock bag of quarters, nickels and dimes, and my other ziplock full of sticks of gum. He confiscated it all and called my parents. I’m sure my parents used this experience as a teachable moment when I got home, them being teachers and all, but all I could remember is that people were happy when I supplied them with something they wanted and I loved selling them something they wanted.
Clayton Watson and I Juggling at Beckwith Orchards in Kent, OH
Several years later, after joining my Middle School’s juggling club, my good friend Clayton Watson and I had an idea! Why don’t we start our own entertainment company where we would perform for local events, birthday parties, festivals, etc.? So we did just that. We created a name, a logo, fliers, a set list based on our skills and a price that was reasonable for any interested party. With my dad’s help, who was always encouraging us to be creative and think differently, we created t-shirts with our logo on them. We were the Catchum Jugglers! We had a ton of fun practicing for these gigs and performing at them. We performed for younger kids’ birthday parties and even did a show at Beckwith Orchards on one of their popular summer Saturdays. Looking back it was a great thing for young teens to focus on and it kept us out of trouble.
Skipping ahead to … My career… into the growing field of User Experience Design. UX, as it is often referred to, is about crafting digital experiences that are in tune with what people need and want when using technology. I’ve spent a significant amount of time understanding the needs of both customers and employees. I use that information to design elegant web experiences via websites, web applications, and social media to meet those uncovered needs. I’ve learned from these experiences that I enjoy those efforts as I often replace frustrating experiences with ones that meet people’s needs and even add delight to their daily life. It’s this type of work, crafting enjoyable and sometimes even meaningful experiences for people, that has played into my interest in opening a small neighborhood brewery.
As a side benefit of my work I have spent a lot of time learning about manufacturing processes in my company’s many paint manufacturing plants world-wide. Always having a passion for craft beer and large shiny stainless steel tanks I felt at home in these manufacturing facilities. Making paint, in a lot of ways is similar to making beer. You start with quality raw ingredients, mix and perform special processes to them and ultimately transform them into a high quality end product that is packaged and customers get to purchase and consume them. I helped design the systems that help make these plants operate smoothly which integrate the manufacturing process and the underlying economics from finance to sales to customer service. All of these experiences helped me understand basic manufacturing processes from the perspective of the people performing those functions. I did not go into paint manufacturing knowing how these experiences would later serve me in entrepreneurship, but in retrospect, I can appreciate my meandering path to beer.
My friend Emil and I Brewing
These experiences have helped me really come to enjoy learning about what people need and want and then meet those desires. The basic concepts can be applied to anything really. From how someone uses an app on their phone to how someone experiences the act of going to a restaurant. The whole point is to empathize with these individuals and respond to their needs and wants in meaningful ways. How does that not scream excellent customer service in any field!
This is where my career and my passion collide. The name of that collision is BEER. My beer journey has run concurrently with my professional career since 2008 when my brother, Seth Tipton, and his roommate invited me over to brew beer in their basement. I was mesmerized by the process, the smells, and the experience. Since tasting the first sip of that beer I was hooked on a brand new hobby, homebrewing! I spent the next 12 years brewing beer and other fermentable goods like cider, wine, and kombucha. I even brewed (with help from many friends and family) five different beers and a red and a white wine for my wedding as a chance to get to share my passion with those closest to me. A few years into the hobby is when I met Jennifer. You can read more about our combined story in our other blog post here; https://belltowerbrewing.com/shared-vision/.
My love for craft beer grew even deeper as I helped start Kent’s first craft beer fest as a Kent Jaycee (Kent Junior Chamber of Commerce) in 2019. The Kent Jaycee’s launched The Kent Craft Beer Fest with two objectives: a fundraiser to support community initiatives and to support the craft beer industry.
Kent Craft Beer Fest 2019
We worked with 22 area breweries to make the event happen. It was a great experience to get a taste of the excellent people that work in the Craft Brewing Industry and gave an indication of the strong enthusiasm of the craft beer drinkers out there!
Continuing to add to my brewing knowledge, I’ve also spent about a year as a part-time assistant brewer at Lock 15 Brewery in Akron, OH after the owner/head brewer, Joe Karpinski, offered to give me some real-world experience working in a professional brewery. That opportunity was a game-changer. I was able to take my homebrewing knowledge and understand what it really takes to operate a brewery. This opportunity demonstrates the collaborative spirit of the craft beer industry and is one of the many reasons I am excited to be a part of it.
All of these experiences have led me to today, where I am part of a small team starting this neighborhood brewery together in our hometown of Kent, OH.
Call it fate or luck or kismet, but whatever you want to call it, Ryan and I seemed destined to explore together this crazy idea that Kent needed a brewery. Our story is as much about our search for the right location as it is about our shared vision.
Ryan and I believe that beer has the power to bring people together, to connect them and to foster relationships. We share a vision that Kent is poised to nurture a neighborhood brewery that supports its community and is a place where friends and family can gather to celebrate life.
2011 – I first met Ryan when he attended an all-grain brewing demonstration I held in my driveway, courtesy of Label Peelers.He had a quiet charm about him that eases conversation and had an obvious excitement to discover more about brewing beer. (Yes. My business partner is a homebrewer too!) As I was on my way to Cleveland to start a brewing gig the following week, we didn’t make plans to immediately connect again. My idea of a Kent brewery was still in phase 1 – learn the commercial side of brewing. Before leaving, it “clicked” with Ryan that I was Kenn Hermann’s daughter. My Dad was the reason why my family landed in Kent in 1980. He was hired by an Akron church to create a campus ministry program at KSU (Radix. Greek for “root”). He was a perpetual scholar who loved to engage in and encourage critical thinking in young adults. Ryan had been inspired by Dad’s teachings presented over a number of lectures at the Vineyard Church in Downtown Kent. To meet someone that was so influenced by my Dad, outside of the young adult groups that I knew as a young girl, made an impression upon me that I haven’t forgotten. I love that my Dad is part of the story of Ryan and I meeting. And, I often wonder what my Dad would think about establishing a brewery in a building that was corner-stoned in 1858 as the First Congregational Church of Kent. (For that matter, ANY church.)
Jennifer Speaking at KACC Luncheon in 2013
2013 – While living in Cleveland and working at Market Garden, I met Anne Moneypenny who was on the Board of Directors at Kent’s Chamber of Commerce. After learning of my desire to bring fresh, local beer to Kent, she invited me to speak at a Chamber luncheon. I was pleased with the opportunity to introduce myself to the Chamber as a brewer, with ambitions to come back to Kent to open a brewery. As guests entered the meeting, I served a homebrewed keg of one of my favorite styles of beer, California Common. I was intent on emphasizing why Kent’s freshest, most local selection of beer was being brewed in a driveway for private consumption and not in a brewery to be shared with the community. I was definitely hoping to spark a conversation with a like mind that saw as much potential for a Kent brewery as I did. At the end of my beer talk…ring ring…”Hi Jennifer. This is Ryan and I was just at your Chamber talk and wanted to meet with you.” Well, sometimes, there is no time like the present. We met at 101 and shared a few beers over a fervent discussion about what we would need to pull together to bring Kent fresh, local beer. We left our meeting filled with anticipation, but we were unprepared to continue the conversation until a date much further in the future.
2016 – This was my year reckoning. I was emerging from a deep despair about my personal ambitions flailing and the dissolution of yet another business partnership. This ultimately prompted my desire to reconnect with Ryan. So, we met at Ray’s to see if we could pick up on a conversation with the same vigor we had had many years prior. I was hoping for the same ease of conversation and I wasn’t disappointed. We seemed to compliment each other’s strengths very well. We had distinct goals of what our primary roles would be in our business design. He wanted to run the business and I wanted to brew beer. We made a commitment to one another that night to do everything we could to make our vision of a brewery in Kent a reality.
2017 – Ryan and I started creating our business plan and sourcing funds to build a brewery. Wow. That was a long time ago! Our slow movement was compounded by our desire to be within walking distance of Downtown. We resolved to search diligently for a location that fit this requirement, even if that meant waiting for the right opportunity to present itself. We toured every establishment available and continued to do so for a couple of years. We looked at spaces too big, too small, too dilapidated and too expensive. We were very patient with ourselves to take location seriously. Our idea was to create a comfortable communal space where people could gather and share just like we imagined the neighborhood breweries of pre-prohibition provided. It was the instigation that precipitated our long wait.
2018 – We found the perfect space for a smaller sized brewery in the heart of Kent with natural surroundings. The space was very raw, but had architectural features and history that were very exciting. We were ecstatic about the possibilities of this location! But, it wasn’t to be. Although this miss created much anxiety and halted the pep in our step, we were convinced that we were poised to pursue the next opportunity armed with a full artillery that now included a third partner, Bridget, Ryan’s wife. A passionate student of architecture and design, she was a natural fit into our planning process. We three forged on having learned some tough lessons while also realizing that if we remained as diligent in our search as we had decided to be early on, our time would be sure to end in triumph. This is what we truly believed. If we had nothing else, we had faith in our perseverance and persistence. To give up now was not an option.
Jennifer, Ryan & Bridget on the steps of Bell Tower Brewing Co.
2019 – 2020 – We found it! Oops. Wait. Hold on…We were so very close to closing on a deal in the heart of a burgeoning section of Downtown Kent when we were presented the opportunity to tour a building originally designed as a church. By way of a friend of a friend introduction, we met Shawn Martin and shared with him our vision of a neighborhood brewery. His building, the original site of R.W. Martin, was beautiful with gorgeous architectural elements that were literally awe-some. There was an attached garage that was built as a gymnasium for the church which seemed ideal to house a brewery. (I joke that it was definitely built to house a brewery.) We knew the building was out of our reach… until it wasn’t. A sale agreement was reached with a few contingencies. But the one contingency that was never ever discussed was a global pandemic. So, we had to continue to play the waiting game, but this time believing that we were finally in the right place at the right time.
Sometimes in life, you get lucky and meet people like Ryan and Bridget that share your values and goals and believe in you. It’s a bonus if they make you feel like a million bucks…and like your beer.
I am thrilled with the opportunity to share my story about my fondness for beer. I have had some extraordinary experiences while on my journey to Bell Tower Brewing Co. This blog post is where I give you a glimpse into some life-changing moments that inevitably shaped who I am, as a brewer.
My journey started innocently enough when my Dad and I discovered Bavarian Schweizerhof-Bräuat Rudi’s Beer and Steak Garden (1995). It was a refreshing “premium lager beer” and was packaged in ceramic flip-top style bottles that were too cool not to hoard. I hoarded a LOT of them with the very loose plan to brew and bottle my own beer someday.
A crate of Kulmbacher’s Schweizerhof- Bräu
Three years later, I brewed my first batch – a Bass Ale clone found in the recipe archive at Grape and Granary. I don’t remember the beer being great, but the entire process consumed me. That year, I permanently borrowed some brewing equipment from a friend and started homebrewing regularly. My newfound pastime quickly became my “professional hobby.” I loved sharing homebrews and talking about beer! At the time, I could not have guessed that my young fascination for the magic of fermentation would invariably shape my desire and determination to pursue a career as a professional brewer. Time would tell, but until then there was a whole new world of brewing I would come to discover.
I did not become involved with a homebrewing community until life brought me to Cincinnati in 2002 where I joined the Bloatarian Brewing League. Full. Geek. On! It was an eye-opening experience to be surrounded by so many people gushing about beer. The energy at those meetings was intoxicating. Every meeting was a chance to ask more questions, soak up more knowledge and taste more variations of beer. It didn’t take long after that initial meeting that I made the leap from extract to all-grain brewing which, I have to say, was as invigorating as it was daunting. Brewing did not come easily for me, but my charisma made up for what I lacked and I was lucky enough to receive a great deal of encouragement and guidance from some amazing brewers. I also learned about competitive brewing; how competitions are run, how beer is entered, how beer is packaged and how beer is judged. I passed the hardest test I’ve ever taken and became a Certified Beer Judge in 2007. The Beer Judge Certification Program gave me some invaluable tools that I continually try to keep sharp. There is much more to be said about this program’s influence, but I digress…
I moved back to Kent in 2010…and this is where I tell you that my dream to open a brewery really started with trying to figure out why Kent didn’t already have a brewery and how I figure out how to get a job in one so that I could learn what it would take to bring Kent some fresh, local beer. The Craft Beer Revolution was in its infancy in Ohio with just a smattering of breweries to be found, which, in retrospect, narrowed down my options for seeking out a brewery to hire me. I was very naïve, but I was utterly determined to persevere. I volunteered on both Hoppin Frog’s and Thirsty Dog’s bottling lines and took a data entry job at LD Carlson (a major wholesale supplier for homebrew stores) just to stay close to beer. I traveled to Akron, but mostly to Cleveland, to judge beer and try to stay involved in the homebrewing community. I passed another beer exam in 2011 to become a Certified Cicerone. The same year, Andy Tveekrem gave me my golden opportunity to learn the commercial side of brewing as his assistant at Market Garden.
The years I spent brewing in Cleveland were very proud years for me. It was a tremendous feeling to be part of the birth of a brewpub while witnessing the re-birth of America’s flavorful brewing tradition. My brewing skills were continuously challenged and sharpened as I became more acclimated with brewing and cellaring equipment, processes and environments. I also had the opportunity to nurture my creative, adventurous brewing side at Nano Brew Cleveland. I embraced it with gusto, even experimenting with kombucha and traditional sours.
My vision for a brewery in Kent was no secret to anyone who knew me. In 2015, I was in the midst of entertaining a serious discussion about my vision when I was approached with an opportunity to help a small brewery transition from a 1.5 bbl to a 15 bbl brewhouse. It was a contractual head brewer position and the opportunity fit perfectly with the timing of the Kent brewery which was looking to be at least a year of planning. I decided to move south and explore the Belgian beers at Rockmill while working out the finer details of the plan in Kent.
So many times we dream of dreams only to realize it was just a dream. I moved back to Kent and watched my first dream fade away…then a second partnership fizzled, then a third…I was forlorn to say the least. 2016 was a slow moving year for me, but I kept the homebrew flowing and tried to keep busy straddling both the homebrewing and professional brewing communities. I was invited to re-ignite a social network for aspiring brewers in planning to meet other brewing professionals. We met monthly to share beers and stories, to give and get advice. I won’t lie here…That group saved my sanity and I took full advantage of being able to keep myself in the game and learning more about opening a brewery. This. I miss. So much. (Thanks, Covid.) And then in the midst of this newfound community, yet another meeting with a young man who shares a vision of a brewery in Kent, so close to my own.
I haven’t brewed in many places like many of my colleagues, mostly because I didn’t seek many places to be outside of Kent. Every path that I have followed throughout my years of brewing has brought me back to this place – Kent, Ohio. This is my hometown. This is where I want to be brewing.
“The birds with feathers of blue are waiting for you back in your own backyard…”
At the beginning of 2020 things were looking bright for Bell Tower Brewing Co. Our team was set to open in the Summer or early Fall. Plans were moving quickly along in January and February and then March hit. It felt like the whole country, heck the whole world, got sucker-punched by COVID-19.
Little did we know then that direct and indirect effects of COVID will likely delay our start by almost a year! The only thing that felt in our control was deciding to continue on with our dream of opening a brewery or stopping right there and put that dream to bed. The tricky thing about dreams though is that if you don’t at least try to pursue them they tend to come back to haunt you later in life as regret! The bigger the dream the bigger the regret! So we pressed on into the unknown hoping for the best.
Starting a business is not for the faint of heart in the best of times, and we were jumping in feet first in the worst of times…The list of things that felt out of our control included:
Financing
Real Estate
Permits
The future of the hospitality industry
Financing: Banks were panicking, investors were panicking even more it seemed, and everyone’s financial future felt in limbo. The last thing a bank wanted to do was provide funds to allow a hospitality-based venture to get off the ground.
Real Estate: While we had found the perfect building (new post about this coming soon) the turmoil in the market and with bank financing was intense. We weren’t sure if we would even be able to purchase the building for several months and experienced many ups and downs that were not for the faint of heart.
Permits: Early to mid-2020 we began hearing rumors that the Ohio Division of Liquor control was experiencing significant permit processing delays. We validated with one brewery that it took them 5 months just for their paperwork to begin the process with several more to follow to complete it and receive their liquor permit. Talk about YIKES! This caused us to quickly apply for our permit knowing that it could take more than half a year to receive it. For reference, the pre-COVID processing times were more in the ballpark of 2 to 4 months.
Hospitality Industry: As bars, restaurants and other hospitality venues like the one we were seeking to establish emptied, we saw an entire industry hollowed out to squelch a virus. As creative entrepreneurs looked for ways to create safety and distance for both staff & clientele, the whole industry was shifting…..many questions about it’s future still remain unknown and unanswered. What does the fate of the hospitality industry look like? Will we ever be able to go to a restaurant with friends and family and feel safe and comfortable like we did pre-COVID? How many businesses and jobs will survive the pandemic? Will masks become a permanent part of society? There are so many questions and so few answers still about what the future may hold. The best we can do is be smart with the knowledge we are given, continue to strive to stay safe, be respectful of everyone’s individual circumstances, and press on together towards a brighter future.
Not unlike this virus, Covid could kill the dream, or make our resolve in seeing it through stronger. These challenges have tested us and strengthened our passion, business plan, ….One of the silver linings is that significant delays have led to much better planning, especially when it comes to the safety of our future guests and staff. Our building is significant in size coming in at almost 10,000 sq. ft. inside. Most of our prolonged decisions allowed us to study Ohio’s safety restrictions for COVID and apply those to the general layout and functionality of our space inside and out.
Thankfully, we have ample room inside including several private dining spaces, larger private reservable dining/event spaces, and an interior mezzanine. Booth seating is sprinkled about providing extra physical distance between guests along with a large open floor space for ease of movement with social distancing in mind. Even our patio has been expanded much larger than originally planned to provide ample room for outdoor seating when Ohio’s weather cooperates.
Let’s hope 2021 and beyond only improves with the hope of vaccines and science to guide our way.
The most logical place to start is with the name, Bell Tower Brewing Co. After several years of researching, touring buildings, looking at properties all around Kent, and dreaming up what we felt was ideal, a unique opportunity fell into our lap.
A conversation was sparked (with the help of friends and family) along with a tour of the old R.W. Martin building on Park Avenue with the owner, Shawn Martin. After a wonderful encounter, the reality of making this beautiful old historic building the home of Bell Tower Brewing Co. sunk in we quickly got to work. The original part of the building was built in 1858 and went through several additions until 1910. The bell in the still-working bell tower was forged and installed in 1867.
The building has seen many different uses over its past life. It was first built by the First Congregational Church and was dedicated on November 30th, 1858. The land and brick for the building were donated by Marvin Kent, who the city was named after in 1864. Marvin’s mother Pamelia, his brother Charles H., and his nephew Charles B. all were members of the church.
The Bell in the Bell Tower: Forged and hung in 1867
The Bell Tower with the steeple.
West side of Kent in 1868
The Bell Tower Today
In 1955 the church had stopped using the building (still trying to learn why it stopped being used as a church) and it went through several unique uses including local housing and a carwash. Eventually, it was abandoned and for several years it fell into deep disrepair. Fortunately, Mr. Martin (Shawn’s father) bought the building in 1969 from the city and saved it from being demolished. The R. W. Martin Company used the building as its corporate headquarters until the end of 2019.
Throughout all those many uses and over 160 years of existence, the bell tower and still-functioning bell are in excellent working order. The building itself inspired the name for the brewery and with such historic roots how could we not name the brewery after one of the most unique features, the bell tower. The bell rings daily throughout the historic West River Neighborhood in Kent from 9 am until 6 pm reminding us all of the yesteryears when church bells had many uses and meanings in everyday life (more to come on this in a future post).
Welcome to the Bell Tower Brewing Co.’s blog. We started this blog with the goal of giving you all a peek behind the curtain to see firsthand what it takes to start both a small craft brewery and a small business in the great city of Kent, OH. We’ve had many grand ideas of what to write about and some that we will explore but in general, the plan is to write short and frequent weekly updates about our process of starting our brewery, our passion for handcrafted beer and food, and all the wonderfully difficult things we have experienced to get us to where we are today.
Historic photo of the First Congregational Church in Kent, OH, now home to Bell Tower Brewing Co.
Our team decided long ago that Kent is the perfect place to start a neighborhood brewery. We are all residents of Kent and have lived here for many years. We care deeply about our city and are committed to making it a better place for all so naturally starting a business here made complete sense.
After deciding to start our brewery we spent several years pursuing the right location and building for our idea to come alive. The big questions we had to begin to answer through this process were; how big of a space do we really need, do we want to offer food to our guests along with our delicious craft beer, how big of a brewhouse do we want and need to start with, what do we want the interior and guest experience to be like, how are we going to pay for all of this and so on and so forth. Answers to these questions and more will be found in future posts.
Check back weekly to journey with us through this process, see progress photos, hear about exciting updates, and hopefully be entertained along the way. Cheers!
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