How Morehead’s first and only brewery grew from three friends with homebrew kits
The idea for Sawstone Brewing Co. came from a love-hate relationship. Actually, it was more of a love-love-hate relationship.
Co-owners and brewers Blake Nickell, Derek Caskey and Nicholas Hollan love the city of Morehead, the town where they were all raised and came together as friends in middle school.
Even though they eventually ended up in different cities for their work, the three also loved craft beer to the point where they each bought homebrew kits and would organize weekend trips to check out breweries in Lexington, Indianapolis and other spots in neighboring states.
“We were frequenting a lot of breweries and a lot of bars that had craft beer and I think the amount we were consuming, you kind of get to that point that, you know, we’re kind of making a habit of this thing. What if we started brewing our own,” Nickell said.
“We sort of got obsessed with it and started upgrading because it was the same amount of effort to brew one gallon as it was to brew five gallons,” Caskey said.
As much as they loved Morehead and craft beer, they also hated that there wasn’t a local brewery in town. While they did have typical conversations homebrewers might have over a glass of their latest creation about possibly opening up a brewery themselves, Nickell, Caskey and Hollan actually started to see the potential for that idea working in Morehead.
After the three of them moved back to Morehead around 2014, the first promising seeds for their Sawstone Brewing Co. were planted a few years later when they would brew large batches of homebrew and take turns hosting their own monthly “Brew Days.” Whether it was Hollan’s patio or Nickell’s garage, they served homemade beer and appetizers to as many 35 people from the neighborhood, friends or even old professors (both Hollan and Nickell attended nearby Morehead State University).
“It became kind of an event and we started to see it was more of a community thing. So, we thought maybe we could do this differently,” Hollan said.
It was during these events that they really fine-tuned the quality of their beer and started entering it in homebrew competitions. But it was their entry and interactions at the 2017 Brew! Ha! Ha!, a homebrew event held at the Rowan County Arts Center in downtown Morehead, that the owners saw a market for craft beer in Morehead and met the landlord for the more than 100-year-old historic and vacant corner property at 175 E. Main St.
It took roughly a year-and-a-half renovation, including the owners building the taps and bar by hand, for Sawstone Brewing Co. to open in Aug. 2019.
And the response to the brewery has been overwhelmingly positive, so much so that it had to close for a week during its first month because it ran out of beer. This prompted them to purchase an additional fermenter and step up production, brewing as often as two to three times per week.
“We’re not businessmen. We’re common dudes,” Nickell said. “We had jobs and we liked making beer and we wanted to do something. Turn this into our dream. Or rather, turn out dream into a reality.”
Of the 24 beers it has on tap, which include beers from many of the Kentucky breweries the co-owners frequently visited in Lexington and other locations, Sawstone has six of its own. Mainstays like its best-selling cream ale, their “stepping stone” into more flavorful craft beer, and the darker, maltier Kentucky Common are always on tap. Others, like its current offerings of a porter and centennial IPA, are in rotation (they also have draft apple cider and wine for non-beer drinkers). Regardless of the type of brew they serve, Sawstone’s signature tends to steer toward balance rather than boldness.
“We wanted to kind of hit the middle of the road. We understand where we’re at as far as where our brewery is and who our clientele is,” Caskey said.
“We wanted it to be approachable,” Nickell added.
Sawstone Brewing Co. is a warm and cozy setting with a seating capacity of around 50 in its main room. That doesn’t include the upstairs space that can be rented for gatherings or the wrap-around patio where patrons can get a whiff of local food trucks that make frequent appearances during warmer months.
The brewery has wood floors and the building’s original stone wall as the bar’s backdrop. Sawstone also makes it a point to showcase Morehead and the region’s creative talent, whether it is the work from local artists that adorn its walls or the music acts it has booking to play almost every weekend.
“We’re in that phase right now where we have growing pains and we’re still getting used to the ride. But we’ve had tremendous support from the community and I really do think we are making great beer,” Nickell said. “I think you get people in the door because they want to support us. They stay because of the beer.”
Sawstone Brewing Co.
Where: 175 E. Main St., Morehead
Hours: 2-10 p.m. Mon-Thur; Noon-midnight Fri.-Sat.
Call: 606-691-4459
Online: Facebook.com/sawstonebrewingco/
This story was originally published December 5, 2019 at 7:30 AM with the headline "How Morehead’s first and only brewery grew from three friends with homebrew kits."