New brewery coming to Carson City

If the shoe fits, then wear it.

For brothers Jeff and Paul Young of Carson City, becoming professional brewers just seemed to fit like the right pair of sneakers.

Their company, the Shoe Tree Brewing Company, is scheduled to break ground on its roughly 2,000 square-foot brewery and retail space Monday on the Carson Hot Springs Resort property located at 1500 Old Hot Springs Road in Carson City.

If all goes as planned, the Shoe Tree Brewing Company will open for business in late July or August this year.

The Youngs said they estimate about 120 days from ground-breaking to the installation of their brewing equipment. All of this also depends on whether all permits get processed timely, too, they said.

“We are optimistic about a July opening,” they said.

Monday’s scheduled ground-breaking represents a milestone for the Young brothers that has literally been years in the making.

The pair started home-brewing beer as a hobby about ten years ago, and it grew into a real passion for both of them.

“We’re nothing if not obsessive about beer,” Jeff said.

Once they began engaging in this shared passion, they knew almost right away that brewing was something they wanted to do professionally.

But opening their own brewery together was more than a career goal. It was really a matter of time, and the stars aligning just right.

When Jeff was laid off from his job drilling water wells in 2010, he faced a decision that turned out to have a significant impact on the future of Shoe Tree Brewing Company.

He could either seek other work right away, or else take a leap of faith and volunteer to work at High Sierra Brewing Company in Carson City, learning all he could about the brewing craft.

Acting on faith and the belief that he had in the brothers’ dream of starting their own brewery together, Jeff chose the brewery.

And the stars began to align.

Within a month, his volunteering experience at High Sierra resulted in a paid position as an assistant brewer with the company. Two years later, Jeff found himself taking over as brew master for the business.

While Jeff, 38, was learning the art of brew-making, younger brother Paul, 29, focused on getting a business education through the University of Nevada, Reno, so that he had the knowledge and training to handle the financial end of the brothers’ brewery dream.

Paul graduated from UNR with a business management degree, and went right to work for Jeff at High Sierra. He moved into the role of brewery production manager within nine months of hire, and held the position until the brewery ceased Carson City operations in April 2014.

But it was before High Sierra’s closure that the Youngs became convinced the time was drawing near to launch their own brewery venture.

At the 2013 Great American Beer Festival (GABF) in Denver, Colorado — considered the “Super Bowl” for brew masters – the Youngs were awarded the Gold Medal for High Sierra Brewing Company in the specialty honey beers category for their Buzzed Bee Honey Ale.

The GABF Gold Medal is the highest honor in brewing, the Youngs explained.
This national honor, coupled with High Sierra’s closure six months later, brought the rest of the stars into alignment.

Call it a sign, or call it fate. Either way, the Youngs felt it was time to start planning their own brewery business.

Beginning their new venture was all very exciting, the brothers said, but they had to exercise a lot of patience to be sure the time was right to invest. This required preparation and waiting.

To prepare, they down-sized portions of their lives, combined living expenses, and took money out of savings.

Then it was a matter of waiting for the right place, the right time, and the right people, the Youngs said.

“We’ve seen others jump into the game quickly and fail,” Jeff said. “We didn’t want to do that.”

They were tipped by their friends at Sassafras Eclectic Food Joint about space available on the Carson Hot Springs Resort property. After negotiations with the resort, a lease agreement was drawn, and the brothers had found their space.

Shoe Tree Brewing Company will occupy, in part, an existing detached two-car garage behind the main building occupied by Sassafras.

The garage will be converted into a storefront and tasting room.

The brewing facility will be constructed from the ground up directly behind the garage. An area of about 1,000 square feet has been marked off with chalk, awaiting the ground to be broken for the brewery’s foundation.

Paul said he and Jeff plan on a staff of 3-5 people to start with, along with 6-8 beer recipes available by the brewery’s opening.

The beer menu will feature a broad range of brews, Paul said, from light cream ales to “really dark coffee stouts.”

“We want to offer a full spectrum of beers, both traditional and non-traditional,” Jeff said. “We appreciate the traditional English and German beers, but we also appreciate the new American styles.”

American-style craft beers, the Youngs said, offer a more creative and even edgy blend of flavors that add to the appeal of the more traditional brews.

“It’s putting more paint in your palate,” Jeff said.

Paul agreed, referring to American craft beer-making as more of an art form.
“This is my art,” he said. “I can’t draw, I can’t paint, but I can make beer.”

Jeff calls brewing one of the last true craft trades where more is learned by doing.

“It’s where art meets science,” he said.

Although beer will be Shoe Tree’s signature product, the brewery will be anything but one-dimensional.

In addition to craft beers, Shoe Tree will also brew its own sodas, including hand-crafted root beer, as well as its own unique brand of cold-brewed coffee, Jeff said.

The java, he said, will be chilled using nitrogen, the process of which creates a cold product that is less acidic, and more bright and citrus-like, the Youngs said.

An even more unique twist employed at the Shoe Tree Brewery will be the use of local hot springs water in its brews.

This water will come from the resort’s underground supply of natural hot spring water, which the Youngs say has a much lower sulfur content than other hot springs found elsewhere; a feature that is quite rare, they said.

While there are a few other beers around the country that include hot springs water in their ingredients, the Youngs said none have the lower levels of sulfur content that Shoe Tree’s brews will boast.

And none use natural hot springs water as a base the way Shoe Tree will, either.

Using the natural hot springs water from the resort upon which the brewery will sit is but one way the brothers hope to keep their business truly local, a principal they both place high value on.

“We’re going to try and use as much local stuff as possible,” Jeff said. “There are even some grains grown here in Nevada, and we’ll take them as we can get them.”

Doing local business is what the Youngs say they want the Shoe Tree Brewing Company to be all about.

This includes giving back to the community that has supported them through the process of starting their own business together.

“We both grew up here, and we want to support local business because it’s been so supportive of us,” Jeff said. “We want to give back to our community.”

Choosing a name that befit the area they love so much was just as important as keeping ingredients and supplies as local as possible, too.

Now, about that name.

The Shoe Tree Brewing Company lends its name from the iconic “shoe tree,” which graced the arid landscape of Highway 50 east near Middlegate, Nevada, for decades.

It was not merely a place where travelers stopped to decorate the tree with their shoes, but also to symbolically declare their hopes and dreams.

Endeared not only by local Northern Nevadans, but famous nationwide to travelers who ventured along the “Loneliest Road in America,” the shoe tree has had a broad appeal.

“It has a local feel,” Paul said, and it’s recognized by out-of-state travelers as well.

The Young brothers are hoping the endearing nature of the “shoe tree” will result in a similar love for their products.

“We definitely wanted a name that was local and unique,” Jeff said. “People have personal stories about that tree, and some people were even married under it.”

The original shoe tree was cut down by vandals in December 2010. Since then, shoes have begun gracing a sister tree nearby, resurrecting a Nevada tradition that the Youngs also hope to carry on with their label.

Visit the Shoe Tree Brewing Company's web site, or follow it on Facebook.