18th Street Brewery to Open New Brewpub & New 32,000 Square Foot Production Facility 

18th Street Brewery, lead by entrepreneur and brewer, Drew Fox, has earned local and international standing as a start-up in Gary, Indiana. Initially built through crowd funding on Kickstarter, the brewery has gone on to win “Best New Brewery in Indiana” from Ratebeer.com, collaborated with some of the world’s most creative brewers, and appealed to a local audience that stretches from downstate Indiana, to Chicago and the NW Indiana corridor, and audiences as far away as Denmark. Now, Fox and his team have found themselves on the verge of an incredible new chapter in the future of the business. 

“Because of the local support we’ve gotten over the past couple years, we’ve been able to turn our hustle into a significant business and cultural opportunity here in NW Indiana. I’m still sort of shocked it’s all happened, but I’m not going to push pause now. It’s time for us to turn all that support into something significant for the community,” says Fox. “We’ve learned a lot of lessons since we started this thing, and one of the most important lessons is in maintaining your independence as a business, and making sure you’re looking far, far ahead.”

Fox and his team have been incrementally expanding the business at their current location on the corner of Miller Ave and Lake Street in the Miller Beach area of Gary, Indiana. They’ve knocked down walls, built a beer garden, opened up more interior space and even taken over the adjacent building for a barrel-aging program. But all that work and improvement created a property with rents rivaling some of Chicago’s best neighborhoods and out of touch with why Gary, Indiana was an important location for them. 

“We chose this area because there was a chance to make a real impact,” explains Fox, who lived in Gary, Indiana for 10 years. “But now, we’re sort of a victim of our own success. So now it’s time to think about the best ways to invest in my own business and my team’s growth for the long-haul. We’re getting ready to take control of our own future by buying a building further down Lake Street, more central to the rest of the business district, with a blank slate we can really develop a long-term vision in.”…Click Here to Read the Full Story at GoodBeerHunting.com