‘It’s more than just beer – it’s a community’

Rich Palzewic

Staff

August 5, 2024

MOSINEE – Jacquelyn Forbes Kearns, owner of Mosinee Brewing Company, said she took “the road less traveled” when opening her brewery.

“Very few women own breweries statewide,” she said. “Also, as you hear often, many times, people start with homebrewing out of their garage – that wasn’t me. I had a friend who wanted to start a craft brewery. Before we opened the brewery – a month and a half prior – I was a nurse practitioner in a rheumatology clinic. I knew nothing about making beer and still don’t know much about making beer – but, I’ve grown to appreciate it.”

When Forbes Kearns started the process of securing a loan for the brewery, she said she got some “interesting looks” from the bankers.

“They looked at me as though I was a little crazy, but I painted a picture of what this would do for this community,” she said. “The bank understood what I was after and what I was trying to accomplish.”

Though admitting she has never been a beer drinker, Forbes Kearns said she appreciates the different flavors and the creativity that goes into the art of crafting beer.

When she bought the building in 2013 (located at 401 Fourth St.), she said Mosinee “was underdeveloped.”

“There was not a lot here when we bought the building,” she said. “The building was also in rough shape – I’m not exaggerating.”

Forbes Kearns said meeting Mosinee Mayor Brent Jacobson – who had just been elected at that time – was a great partner in making the brewery a reality.

“He saw what I wanted to accomplish and championed us from day one through the whole process,” she said. “He and Jeff Gates, the city administrator, helped us get a Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC) grant – that was huge.”

Forbes Kearns said her vision for the brewery was simple – “it’s more than just beer – it’s a community.”

“I envisioned this as being a focal point in this community,” she said. “I wanted a gathering place for people to have business meetings, weddings, baby showers and parties – different family types of events. The brewery has done exactly what I envisioned it could be.”

The brewery, Forbes Kearns said, has also been a catalyst for other developments in the city.

“(The area has) a lot of things going on that it didn’t have before,” she said. “There was a Mexican restaurant that started after we opened, and there was another nice music venue a block away. We also got a Cobblestone Hotel. In my opinion, those are all things that occurred because of having the brewery in town.”

Choosing Mosinee for the brewery, Forbes Kearns said, was strategic.

“We did a population study when we first identified this as being a potential location, and we have a higher percentage of people within a 30-mile radius than Wausau or Stevens Point has,” she said. “You wouldn’t think that when you look at the map, but when you draw that circle and look at the population in that 30-mile radius, we have a larger population than others.”

Restoring a historic building

Between 2013, when the building was bought, and March 19, 2019, when the brewery received its federal brewing permit, Forbes Kearns said, “it was quite the process to get (things) up and running.”

“Due to some circumstances, I didn’t get full control of the building until 2015,” she said. “We (also) had to wait a long time for our federal brewer’s permit because that’s when the government was shut down. Our paperwork was on somebody’s desk in Washington D.C. during the shutdown.”

During that span, Forbes Kearns said renovation work was done on the building.

“We gutted the whole building,” she said. “The building was built in 1909, so it has a lot of history. It was a general store, then an IGA store and then the Mosinee Mall. Now it’s got its fourth life as a brewery, and hopefully, a long life at that.”

The work, Forbes Kearns said, didn’t stop there.

“We harvested every piece of wood from this building and repurposed everything,” she said. “We built all the tables in the brewery from the floor joists… All the accent wood is from the building.”

Forbes Kearns said there were three ceiling types in the building – all of which were in rough shape when renovations began.

“The first one was like a typical industrial drop ceiling that was in a horrible shape and falling down,” she said. “Another was tin without much detail, and the third had this beautiful 100-year-old wood. We took all of that wood down, pulled out the nails and sent it to Merrill to get stored for 14 months. It got wire brushed and re-stained, and we put it back up.”

Before reinstalling the refurbished wood ceiling, Forbes Kearns said soundproofing material was also added.

“We did that so you could have a conversation in here, even if there’s a lot of people,” she said.

Kearns said artistic elements were also added.

“An artist from Milwaukee made our chandeliers in the event space,” she said.

The beers

Forbes Kearns said she recognized the importance of bringing someone on board who understood brewing beer.

“Our head brewer, Ben Schreiner, does a fantastic job,” she said. “It’s amazing for a tiny brewery in a tiny town to have gotten as much recognition as we have, but that is because of Ben – that has nothing to do with me. Ben is the one who makes magic in the brewery. He started with us from the beginning. Unlike me, he was a home brewer for many years. Before he came to us, he worked at a little brewery in Rosholt.”

A quick look at the brewery’s website (mosineebrewing.com) shows various flavors, including Hot Pond, Lemonade Keg Stand, Wally’s Motown Lager, Wissota Raspberry Hefeweizen, Flashover Red, Peanut Brown, Hiking Boots, Shutdown Stout and Roast S’more.

“What we name our beers is a collaborative effort,” Forbes Kearns said. “It seems easy, but it’s not as easy as it sounds. We sit down and brainstorm different ideas. It’s like giving birth to a baby – it’s not easy to pick a child’s name.”

Forbes Kearns said some of the beers have stories behind the name.

“We have six beers that are staples we make all the time, and then we have a lot of seasonal beers Ben comes up with,” she said. “Our first beer, Flashover Red, was named by the fire department. The night before our official opening, we had a soft opening – a lot of people from the community came, including the fire department.”

Forbes Kearns said a fireman in attendance suggested the brewery name a beer for the department.

“I said, ‘absolutely,’” she said. “With me being a nurse practitioner by profession, I know fire and police departments are the lifeblood of every community.”

Forbes Kearns said the firemen came in the next night for the official opening and spent three hours coming up with the Flashover Red name.

The second beer named, Kearns said, was Shutdown Stout.

“It was in honor of our government shutting down,” she said.

Wally’s Motown Lager also has an interesting story behind the name, Forbes Kearns said.

“There was a gentleman named Wally who had a tiny bar in his living room on Western Avenue in Mosinee,” she said. “He didn’t have any TVs, was 90 years old and people came to his tiny house for many years. He knew every story and bit of history of Mosinee – he was quite the character and a nice gentleman. We named one of our beers in honor of Wally.”

In addition to what’s on tap, Forbes Kearns said Mosinee Brewing has various 12-ounce 6-packs available for purchase.

“You can also pre-order to-go beers under our brews tab on the website,” she said. “We are self-distributing, so you can find us in select grocery stores and gas stations. You can check out our ‘find us’ tab under brews to see where we are located.”

Other offerings

Forbes Kearns said Mosinee Brewing Company also serves light snacks and Angelo’s pizza.

“Food carry-ins are also welcome,” she said. “We have multiple menus for local restaurants or you can bring something from home. We also have a food truck that has been a great thing – people like to eat food. Among other things, the food truck offers burgers, fries, smoked pulled pork, cheese curds and wraps.”

Forbes Kearns said the brewery also has trivia nights and scheduled live music.

“Hosting our various events also helps,” she said. “In addition to weddings, parties, etc., we have a business group that comes in monthly – that’s been going on for quite a few years. We also had a robotic business expo utilize the space. There aren’t many event spaces nearby that can hold 100 people. We can have a sit-down dinner in here for about 80, but if it’s a buffet, it can be a larger group than that.”

Awards

Not only has Mosinee Brewing Company made a name for itself locally, but it is also being noticed nationally as well.

Bill Volkening, the brewery’s operations manager, said four Mosinee beers were recently entered into the U.S. Open Beer Championship in Ohio.

“It’s a prestigious competition,” he said. “This year, there were 9,000 beers in 170 categories from across the United States. We took home a silver medal with our Pineapple Comet, which is a milkshake IPA. A little brewery out of Mosinee, Wisconsin beat the big boys – we felt good about that.”

Volkening said Mosinee Brewing also received a couple of seltzer awards over the years – “but that’s a different category.”

The brewery, he said, has some lofty goals for next year.

“Some breweries took home four or five awards, so that’s what we’re shooting for next year,” he said.

Mosinee Brewing is open 4-9 p.m. Monday and Tuesday, 4-10 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday, 2-10 p.m. Friday, noon to 10 p.m. Saturday and noon to 7 p.m. Sunday.