Rising Stars: Meet Tessa Wehri

Today we’d like to introduce you to Tessa Wehri. 

Hi Tessa, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start, maybe you can share some of your backstories with our readers.
We started as home brewers with a passion for good beer. Both owners homebrewed for almost 10 years prior to opening. We had dreams of one day owning a brewery but thought just that it was only a dream. Then in 2017, we learned that a local family started a malt house in our county. We already had local hops, and Malt is the base of all beer, and we figured with a malt house so close, it is only natural to also have a brewery. From there, our vision grew and expanded. Originally thoughts were to just make beer and distribute it to local bars and restaurants; however, after some market research and many trips to breweries, we decided food was a must and expanded to what we offer today. 

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It has definitely not been a smooth road. Our first obstacle was the purchase of our building. We are lucky enough to have found a space in a 100+-year-old building on our town square. With the 100-year-old building also came 100-year-old leasing and laws that no longer fit modern times. We had a fantastic team that helped us navigate this and said this is something they had never seen before and will probably never see again. This whole process took almost a year to straighten out, but once it did, we were excited to make ownership in October of 2019. We started renovations shortly after. While renovating, March of 2020 hit, and we all know what happened then. Thankfully we were already set up for delivery but had to learn this new setting as new business owners. Despite all that was happening in the world, we continued to renovate and forged on. We open as a brewery in Nov 2020 amid covid rules and regulations. 

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
As stated earlier, we started this whole journey based on local barely available. We took this philosophy of local and expanded this to our entire business model. We are from a small town/county and wanted to showcase everything that is available. We use over 80% local barley in all of our beers. Based on using these local ingredients, our supplier expanded, and we now use local wheat and specialty malts that are from them as well; we use seasonal ingredients in our beer when available, and we are able to use local blackberries in a seasonal beer and use local hops whenever we can. We are hoping to expand to more local farmers as we grow. 

When we expanded our food menu to include flatbreads, we wanted to use local ingredients as well. We are able to source locally made fresh mozzarella for our Margherita flatbread and recently added locally grom basil as well. We are able to use local romaine and bib lettuce for all of our salads. 

Before we go, is there anything else you can share with us?
We are family owned and operated. We love to use hyper-local ingredients and see our suppliers grow with us. We are family-friendly with a relaxed atmosphere. 

Not only do we use local ingredients in our food many of our decor items are made from locally found items. We were able to reuse lights from the steak house that was in the same location 40 years ago. We used local barn wood to make out bar and statement table tops. We used wood from an old shed as accent pieces on our wall. We made a light fixture out of an old barn beam as well. 

We are all about using local whenever possible. 

The owner’s names are Tessa, Andrew, Amy, and Ryan (Butch) 

Contact Info:

• Website: 1820brewwerks.com
• Instagram: 1820brewwerks
• Facebook: 1820 BrewWerks
• Twitter: 1820 BrewWerks