These are heady days, indeed, for the craft beer industry. A guy can have a dream of brewing Kölsches, of all things, and wind up collaborating with Patagonia. That’s Christian Ettinger’s story, anyway. He founded Hopworks Urban Brewery not to brew Kölsch so much as to do things his own way. He was convinced that the values of business overlap with the values of its employees, customers, and the planet.
Ettinger built his values into the company from the beginning. In particular, he wanted to reuse and recycle as much as possible, to make a small carbon footprint, and to do right by his employees.
Now he runs Hopworks Urban Brewery, or HUB, an exciting young B Corp-certified brewery. Some of their beers are brewed with 100% organic ingredients. Some of them also contain only certified salmon-safe hops. That’s what you called upping your game.
After spending an afternoon with Ettinger and his team, my big takeaway was that all the talk you hear about passion really means something. Yes, you have to have some business savvy and you have to find good people to help you, but you need to have some purpose that defines you, too.
Ettinger has that in spades, and it has led to great collaborations and unique opportunities for Hopworks.
To learn more about how Ettinger founded and grew Hopworks—and became the first brewer to brew with the new grain, Kernza—check out my full write-up here.
Photo taken by me.
