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Mother’s Brewing Company in Springfield was recently named the 7th fastest growing brewery in the United States, according to the Brewers Association. At a time when the popularity of craft beer is growing across the country, KSMU’s Shannon Bowers explains what makes Mother’s unique here in the Ozarks.
SB: It’s a busy afternoon inside the Mother’s Tasting Room; and as fast as the glasses can get rinsed out, they are refilled with any of an assortment of craft beers.
When Mother’s Brewing Company opened in May of 2011, inside an old bread factory on Grant and College, they had no idea they would grow so rapidly. They just knew they had a passion for beer. That is why their motto is “Brewed with Love”.
Jeremy Wicks has been with Mother’s since it began.
“We don’t adhere to this style guideline or brew this beer this specific way. If we want to brew it differently, if we want to ferment it at a different temperature, if we want to add different ingredients, we do it. Really we are brewing really based off of our flavor profile. What we are in the mood to drink and what would be fun to put together,” Wicks said.
And brewing different types of beer is just what Mothers does. Recently, they had an event called “Mother’s Tap Take Over” at Patton Ally Pub, where they offered 35 different kinds of Mother’s beer on tap.
Clayton Gaschet shows me how they use a mix of brand new equipment and re-purposed machinery to make beers like their Doozy double IPA, or their most popular, Three Blind Mice brown beer. The company has repurposed a German wine filler from the 1940s to fill their beer bottles.
“So we will typically do 40-60 barrels at a time. We have done over 120 before in a day. So we will actually empty two tanks out. It takes about eight hours. It’s a long day,” said Gaschet.
With a modest staff of 20, you can understand why this passion for beer brings them together as a family. The whole Mother’s team came from extremely different careers and backgrounds.
“We have a former journalist. We have a baker. We have college graduates… We are lucky in that aspect because the people who work here are not working here because they need a job or they need a paycheck. They are here because that is what they want to be doing,” Wicks said.
According to the study by the Brewers Association, there are 2,360 craft breweries in the United States, 45 of which are in Missouri. Last year alone, Mother’s Brewing Company sold 5,773 barrels of beer, or to the Mother’s staff, 5,773 barrels of love.
For KSMU News, I’m Shannon Bowers.