ROWAN COUNTY, Ky. (LEX 18) — We begin another year of spotlighting our community by spending this week in Rowan County. We kicked things off in the downtown area with a visit to one of the city's more popular destinations, whose customers have been dropping by for years now.
In 2018, Nick Hollan and his partners took a calculated risk on the corner of Main Street in Morehead.
"Opening a business in your hometown comes with a bit more confidence than trying something else," Hollan said.
But not long after completing their first fermenting process at Sawstone Brewery, that level of confidence was rattled.
"When we initially opened, it was right when COVID happened, but we had people so thrilled to have us here; a brewery in their hometown, that they were having us fill growlers, because we weren't allowed to have anyone in here," said Hollan, co-founder of Sawstone Brewing Co.
The money kept pouring in, even when the customers couldn't.
"I think myself and Derek were here for two hours a day just opening up and filling growlers the entire time we were here and people loved it," Hollan said.
The brewery was launched by three friends from their school days who had a dream and a skill.
"We had been home brewing for a few years before we started doing this professionally. Home brewing in Blake's carport and we'd go there once a month, I brought my turkey fryer and we would brew in that," said Cozmo 7.
And just like that, business started hopping.
"They were coming to experience it, so we thought, wow, maybe this could be a bigger thing. And here we are," Cozmo 7 said.
From the fermenting room down to the basement, the beer is carbonated in tanks, then put into kegs, tapped, and the lines run up to the main level. The fan favorites remain a staple on the beer list, but Hollan and the guys are always experimenting and willing to turn up the heat.
"The first time I did a spicy beer was recently here, the Dante's Inferno. I hadn't done that before, so I wanted to learn how to do it, so I did," Hollan said.
Now it's up on the board along with their 23 other selections, some of which you can find selling at retail locations.
"It's not a huge thing that we've done yet, but I think this spring we'll start canning a little more and get things out across our end of the state a little more," Hollan said.
But their main focus will always be the big, old building they converted into Morehead's community pub.
"That's exactly what makes a brewery what it is as opposed to something else; having your local place, where local people come, with, in our case, local people brewing your beer, with ingredients that come from Kentucky," Hollan said.
Hollan says Sawstone Brewing likes to get out in the community whenever possible, so it's likely you've seen them at various city, county, or church festivals over the years.
They are open year-round, and with the proper cup, you can take your beverage outside to the city's common gathering area right next to the brewery. It might be a better idea to keep it indoors this week!
Even the Sawstone name is rooted in our old Kentucky home.
"That name came from the wall you see behind me," Hollan said. "They would saw a big chunk of the stone out of the ground, so that's where it came from. This is local stone that created a historical building."
The historic stone provides Hollan and his partners with the solid foundation they needed to take that calculated risk.
