Homebrewing is a time-honored tradition, and two Columbus, Ohio-based women have a dream of taking their special brew to new audiences. Lauren Spence and Ruth Thurgood Mundy have long awaited the opportunity to do more with their passions. Both are avid homebrewers and have spent years brewing together at home using a single firkin for their brews. What the frak is a firkin? As our brewer readership knows, it’s a cask measuring 10.8 U.S. gallons, which is the basis of their vision for growing their homebrew business, Firkin Ales, into a public brewery and taproom of cask-conditioned ales in Columbus.
Both women have a love for beer and recognize that cask ales are a niche within the craft community, and they have a dream of starting a taproom that is built on that brew model. “It is an art form that Columbus is just coming to fully appreciate,” says Spence. “A taproom devoted to it is just what’s on the horizon.”
Firkin Ales have decided to go the humbling route of Kickstarter to get the first round of funding for their dream. Since Kickstarter operates under the model of a countdown, Firkin Ales has a short amount of time to reach their goal, until May 18, 2015, to be exact. To date, they have already raised $1,900 of their goal.
“We both come from fields rooted deeply in culture, and that creativity and history is essential to the brewing of cask ales,” Mundy said. When they decided to bring this craft into their homebrewing, they bought a cask and started experimenting. “We started with the recipes we knew and loved, but wanted variety and creative exploration. The beautiful thing about cask-conditioning is that it lets you accomplish that and really allows the flavors to develop and evolve as the beer ages,” Spence said.
Be sure to check out the Firkin Ales Kickstarter and then read all our crowdfunding stories for more about how to raise money for your very own brewery.
