By John Soper, Brittany Radocha, Evan Benner, Samantha Overgaard, Gayle Cottrill

Photos by Evan Benner

Need a tasty cocktail after work? Try one of these delicious concoctions containing Wisconsin’s nectar: milk.

 Peaches & Cream

1 oz. Peach Schnapps

1 oz. Kahlua

top off with milk

The 43

1 oz. Cuarenta Y Tres

1 oz. milk

Raspberry Chocolate Kiss

2 oz. Jagermeister

1/2 oz.  raspberry vodka

1/2 oz. chocolate liqueur

splash of cream

Anything But Expected

1 1/2 oz. caramel vodka

1/2 oz. coffee liqueur

1/2 espresso

1/2 oz. cream

By Beth Pickhard

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By Beth Pickhard

Jeff and Vince Naimon name their beers after fairytale characters. Photo courtesy of Brothers Grim.

Vince Naimon, 29, and Jeff Naimon, 23, brothers and home brewers from Appleton, Wis., began brewing under the name Brothers Grim in January 2011. The brothers rely on friends and acquaintances to taste test their beers, each cleverly bearing the name of a different childhood fairytale.

Q: Why did you decide to name your brand “Brothers Grim”?

Vince: When trying to think of a name for this brewery, everything that we came up with was just twisted. I just remember thinking, ‘Wow, that’s wrong.’ One of the first beers we wanted to brew was a maple porter. We were trying to think of things we could name it, and somehow Rumpelstiltskin came up.

Q: When did you develop an interest in home brewing?

Vince: My friend Josh had a home brew set up in Baltimore, and I would assist him when needed. He wouldn’t let me close to much stuff. It was kind of his thing. It got me thinking, ‘Hey, this is something I could really have fun with.’

Q: What persuaded you to begin your own operation?

Jeff: I had been working full time and going to school for business, and I came to the conclusion that I didn’t want to work for anybody else. It was that and Vince coming back to Wisconsin. It just made sense. When Vince sets his mind to do something, and I set my mind to do something, typically we can do it pretty well.

Q: How do you come up with the names for your beers?

Vince: Behind each beer is a slogan. My favorite is Cinderella vanilla cream stout: “If you had a job like Cinderella’s, you’d drink too.”

Jeff: One of the best examples is Red Riding Hood. When you read “Little Red Riding Hood,” you have a young girl skipping through the forest to visit her grandmother. That’s not what we made our Riding Hood. Riding Hood the beer is aggressive.

Q: What are your future plans for brewing?

Jeff: For the next two or three years we’re planning on running the brewery out of our home. We’re both going to have to keep full-time jobs during this time. Hopefully three years from now we’ll be able to get a full-scale facility.

THE BROTHERS GRIM ON TAP:

Beers by Brothers Grim take on titles and taglines based on fairytale characters.

• Big Bad Wolf dark ale: After a hard day of huffing and puffing, even the Big Bad Wolf needs to kick back and relax.

• Cinderella vanilla cream stout: If you had a job like Cinderella’s, you would drink too.

• Little Red Hen strawberry wheat: Who will help you drink this beer? I will!

• Rumpelstiltskin maple porter: Please enjoy and return the bottle as it cannot be spun into gold.

• Rapunzel blonde ale: It’s time to let your hair down and enjoy.

• Red Riding Hood American amber ale: Next time you go to grandmother’s house bring this beer. Forget the baked goods.

By Beth Pickhard

Central Waters strives for sustainability by investing in renewable technologies. Photo by Beth Pickhard.

Tucked away in Amherst, a village of 1,000 in central Wisconsin, a group of individuals are putting values before profits at Central Waters Brewery.

It’s a small business in a small town, but Central Waters sees itself as a model for other corporations by using its modest income to invest in sustainable methods.

“I think that’s what really makes us different,” Paul Graham, president of Central Waters Brewery, says. “It’s never, ‘What’s the return on investment?’ or ‘How am I going to make money on this?’ For us, it’s an ethical question on should we do this, and when the answer is ‘yes,’ you just do it.”

Graham, a 35-year-old with brown hair and scruff on his chin and cheeks, wears simple wire-framed glasses, a T-shirt, stained denim jeans and a faded brown hat with “Central Waters Brewery” embroidery. Graham was hired as a brewer a few months after Central Waters opened in 1998. At 24 years old, he and a partner bought the brewery in 2001.

Central Waters struggled to keep afloat during its early years, Graham says. A geography graduate of UW-Stevens Point, Graham doesn’t consider himself a businessman. He jokes about balancing sustainability with earnings. “I probably qualified for food stamps for about eight years, just had too much pride,” Graham says as his laughter fills the room. “[There were] a lot of years where we were not making money.”

Not Business as Usual

Graham says he is self-educated in the brewing process. He and his college friends practiced home brewing together, and about half of the Central Waters staff is former classmates. In all, Graham and his business partner, Anello Mollica, work with 11 other staff members. “We’re team-oriented here,” Graham says. “We’re not all individuals working on a packaging line. We’re a group of people trying to put out a quality product.”

Employees perform quality-control testing of bottled beer during a full staff meeting every Friday. Workers taste and smell the beer for flatness and bacterial growth.

“We’re in this for a labor of love,” Graham says of his staff’s commitment to sustainability. “We’re not hippies. We’re green-minded people.”

Brew Power

More than 1,000 feet of solar panels at Central Waters help decrease the brewery's heating and electricity needs. Photo by Beth Pickhard.

Behind the brewery sits 1,000 square feet of solar panels. They produce energy to heat the building and offset natural gas usage in the brewing process. Graham hopes new panels will produce an average of 20,000 watts — about 25 percent — of Central Waters’ electricity needs.

The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources awarded Central Waters with Tier 1 status in Wisconsin’s Green Tier program in May 2011 for their strides toward sustainability.

“Brewing beer’s the easy part,” Graham says of Central Waters’ constant commitment to creating a green product.

Buying From Neighbors

Central Waters invests in the local community by supporting agricultural operations near the brewery. Graham says, to him, sustainable means “an ongoing relationship with suppliers.”

“We’ll pay more to a farmer down the road to grow it organically, but we know that farmer, at the end of the year, has to put a new roof on his barn,” Graham says. “If he can’t afford to do that because of the commodities market, it’s not sustainable.”

The barley Central Waters places in its vats during the brewing process comes from Wisconsin, but only a small portion of its hops are harvested in state. Disease killed off most Wisconsin hops production in the 1920s. Today, most hops are produced in Washington, Oregon and Idaho.

A founder of the Midwest Hops and Barley Co-op, Graham wants to bring hops production back to Wisconsin. Graham says hops, in particular, require an investment because they are hard to grow and don’t mature for the first three years. The co-op provides funds for farmers to begin the risky process of growing hops for beer.

“What we’re really trying to do is build that sustainable relationship in a local economy,” Graham says.

Despite helping to bring hops back to Wisconsin, Graham remains focused on beer production. “I’m a brewer,” he says. Central Waters is not in the brewing business for the profits and would rather use funds to assist local farmers.

“1950s-Type Community”

Supporting local entities also means Central Waters invests in Amherst, what Graham calls a “1950s-type community,” because residents are friendly and supportive.

Central Waters was originally located in Junction City but moved to Amherst in 2007. The brewery moved because the closest retailer was six miles away from Junction City, Graham says. “Our number two retailer in the state is [currently] the grocery store here in town,” Graham says.

Specially-designed oak barrels create products like bourbon barrel cherry stout. Photo by Beth Pickhard.

Graham fondly remembers carting beer to a retailer in Amherst while Central Waters was located in Junction City. He says everyone who drove past him on the way to the shop waved. “Amherst was always one of my favorites,” Graham says. “It’s a different type of community, and we knew we’d be a good fit here.”

Central Waters has been able to make their mark on Amherst, calling themselves a “pillar” for the town. Graham says Central Waters donates beer for local fundraisers. “You become a staple to the community, somebody who is always willing to contribute and help out.”

Looking Ahead

Central Waters continues to search for new technologies to aid in its long-term sustainability efforts. Although costly for small-scale businesses, the brewery is considering adding windmills. “Most corporations don’t think that way these days,” Graham says. “Everybody is about short term.”

“If I can afford to do it, anybody can,” Graham says. “There’s no joke, if little old Central Waters can do this stuff, there’s no reason anybody else can’t.”

Sustainability at Central Waters

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