If you go ...
• What: Hopothesis "tap-unveiling" party, with live music
• When: 8:30 to 11:30 p.m. Saturday, April 13
• Where: Bean and Barrel, 1609 10th St.
• RSVP: Reservations accepted for dinner, which starts at 5 p.m.
MONROE - Twin brothers Tim and Tom Quinn, 41, have been homebrewing a long time. To avoid the long arm of the law, let's just say it's been 20 years.
Recently the Quinns turned their hobbyist enthusiasm for beer into a business venture: two beer companies that brew and bottle locally at Minhas Craft Brewery.
Tim, who lives in Monroe, started Hopothesis Beer Company last August with partners in Chicago. The company's first product, an India Pale Ale, is already on tap at about 60 bars in the Chicago area, he said. In Monroe, it's available at Bean and Barrel, the Laughing Trout, Pancho and Lefty's, the Monroe Country Club and Monroe Beverage Mart. The IPA is already getting accolades. A few weeks ago it took second place at the Heidel House Resort Brew Fest in Green Lake, Tim said.
This Saturday, Hopothesis is having a "tap-unveiling" party at Bean and Barrel. Owner Hans Wampfler has developed a menu of barbecue ribs on the grill, rutabagas and mustard mashed potatoes to accompany the signature IPA. Musicians Gary and Derek Hendrickson and Alec White (The Crashers, The Family Business) are playing blues for the party.
Together with friends, the Quinn brothers are starting another beer company named after the river that flows through Lafayette County and the stateline region where they all grew up.
Pecatonica Beer Company will also have its beer brewed at Minhas and is releasing its first product, Nightfall Lager, in early May. Like Hopothesis, Pecatonica Beer is being distributed locally by Paul Peterson of River City Distribution.
Pecatonica Beer Company is a collaboration between the Quinn brothers and several longtime friends, including Russ Ruegsegger of South Wayne and Cory Mosley of Browntown. The company's namesake river is no coincidence. They all grew up fishing on the river and they're still connected to it now.
"All of us have water on our farms going to the Pec," Mosley said.
Where Hopothesis has an urban, scientific theme, Pecatonica will have "more of a rural, artesian feel to it," Tim said. Both beer companies focus on what he describes as a flavorful and balanced "malt-forward" taste, a break from the current craft beer trend of hop-focused brews.
Hops are still vital to their beers, of course. His brother Tom has started growing hops on his dairy farm between South Wayne and Gratiot and eventually they'd like to develop an amber beer made with these locally grown hops.
"Wisconsin used to supply 25 percent of the world's hops before 1900," Tom said. Then a blight ruined many of the fields. Prohibition soon followed, effectively killing the state's large-scale hops production. "When Prohibition came, all the hops yards got plowed over and corn put in."
Tom and his wife, Julie Quinn, expect to be harvesting usable hops for beer in 2014, from the plants they planted in 2012.
"It's a family thing," he said. "We have five kids and they help, too."
Because Minhas takes care of the brewing and bottling, the partners in Hopothesis and Pecatonica have time to devote to their fulltime jobs in farming, construction, biochemistry and other fields. It also means their companies are essentially run virtually, though Pecatonica will have an office in Gratiot.
For Pecatonica Beer Company, the partners are developing an Oktoberfest, an amber and an "Alphorn lager." They're also planning to open a taphouse this summer in Warren, Ill. The taphouse will serve as a retail space with opportunities to sample flights of the company's beers. Tim said he wants to attract tourists and daytrippers on their way to and from nearby Galena.
As for Hopothesis, Tim's plan is to increase annual production to 10,000 barrels within five years. Already he's readying to roll out a farmhouse ale called Drafty Window, as well as a Dortmunder lager and toasted coconut chocolate porter.
"We just want to make more beer," Tim said.
Recently the Quinns turned their hobbyist enthusiasm for beer into a business venture: two beer companies that brew and bottle locally at Minhas Craft Brewery.
Tim, who lives in Monroe, started Hopothesis Beer Company last August with partners in Chicago. The company's first product, an India Pale Ale, is already on tap at about 60 bars in the Chicago area, he said. In Monroe, it's available at Bean and Barrel, the Laughing Trout, Pancho and Lefty's, the Monroe Country Club and Monroe Beverage Mart. The IPA is already getting accolades. A few weeks ago it took second place at the Heidel House Resort Brew Fest in Green Lake, Tim said.
This Saturday, Hopothesis is having a "tap-unveiling" party at Bean and Barrel. Owner Hans Wampfler has developed a menu of barbecue ribs on the grill, rutabagas and mustard mashed potatoes to accompany the signature IPA. Musicians Gary and Derek Hendrickson and Alec White (The Crashers, The Family Business) are playing blues for the party.
Together with friends, the Quinn brothers are starting another beer company named after the river that flows through Lafayette County and the stateline region where they all grew up.
Pecatonica Beer Company will also have its beer brewed at Minhas and is releasing its first product, Nightfall Lager, in early May. Like Hopothesis, Pecatonica Beer is being distributed locally by Paul Peterson of River City Distribution.
Pecatonica Beer Company is a collaboration between the Quinn brothers and several longtime friends, including Russ Ruegsegger of South Wayne and Cory Mosley of Browntown. The company's namesake river is no coincidence. They all grew up fishing on the river and they're still connected to it now.
"All of us have water on our farms going to the Pec," Mosley said.
Where Hopothesis has an urban, scientific theme, Pecatonica will have "more of a rural, artesian feel to it," Tim said. Both beer companies focus on what he describes as a flavorful and balanced "malt-forward" taste, a break from the current craft beer trend of hop-focused brews.
Hops are still vital to their beers, of course. His brother Tom has started growing hops on his dairy farm between South Wayne and Gratiot and eventually they'd like to develop an amber beer made with these locally grown hops.
"Wisconsin used to supply 25 percent of the world's hops before 1900," Tom said. Then a blight ruined many of the fields. Prohibition soon followed, effectively killing the state's large-scale hops production. "When Prohibition came, all the hops yards got plowed over and corn put in."
Tom and his wife, Julie Quinn, expect to be harvesting usable hops for beer in 2014, from the plants they planted in 2012.
"It's a family thing," he said. "We have five kids and they help, too."
Because Minhas takes care of the brewing and bottling, the partners in Hopothesis and Pecatonica have time to devote to their fulltime jobs in farming, construction, biochemistry and other fields. It also means their companies are essentially run virtually, though Pecatonica will have an office in Gratiot.
For Pecatonica Beer Company, the partners are developing an Oktoberfest, an amber and an "Alphorn lager." They're also planning to open a taphouse this summer in Warren, Ill. The taphouse will serve as a retail space with opportunities to sample flights of the company's beers. Tim said he wants to attract tourists and daytrippers on their way to and from nearby Galena.
As for Hopothesis, Tim's plan is to increase annual production to 10,000 barrels within five years. Already he's readying to roll out a farmhouse ale called Drafty Window, as well as a Dortmunder lager and toasted coconut chocolate porter.
"We just want to make more beer," Tim said.