Fairhope has long been known as a haven for artists and writers. Now, beer enthusiasts can feel at home there, too, thanks to the people behind the brand new Fairhope Brewing Company — Brian and Michele Kane, Jim Foley, Gabe Harris and Dan Murphy.

Beer background

Brian, Michele and Jim are all lawyers. They met during their time at the University of Alabama, and Brian and Michele ended up getting married. Brian and Michele’s first jobs out of law school took them to Juno, Alaska, the home of Alaskan Brewing Company.

“We visited there a lot,” Brian said. “We really started to understand the craft beer concepts from them being right down the street from us.”

During their time in Alaska, Brian and Michele took road trips to visit the other breweries in the state.

“For vacations, when we were deciding between two cities, if one city had a brewery, we’d choose that city,” Michele said. “We like the culture, we like the people, we liked talking to them — we felt like we met people from that area in an interesting way.”

After moving back to the south, they learned about two laws that had passed in Alabama, which made it easier to open and sustain breweries in the state. Breweries were popping up all over north Alabama, but none had opened on Alabama’s Gulf Coast.

Brian and Michele began thinking seriously about opening their own brewery in south Alabama around the time of the 2011 Alabama-LSU game in Tuscaloosa, where they mentioned the idea to Foley.

Becoming a reality

By Christmas of 2011, the Kanes, Foley and Harris, a friend in Birmingham, decided to seriously pursue the idea. But they didn’t know anything about actually brewing beer, Brian said.

That’s where brewer Dan Murphy entered the plan.

At the time, he worked for the Mobile Press-Register, writing the beer column for Bay Weekend. But he was also a self-taught brewer and was interested in a career in the beer industry.

Brian heard about Murphy, and in January of 2012, he sent him an email asking if he would be interested in becoming their head brewer. Murphy responded with an enthusiastic “yes” about 10 minutes later, and it was official by Mardi Gras.

“I would write about other breweries in the state or in Louisiana, and I just really started to figure out this was the industry I wanted to be in,” Murphy said. “So I pretty much said at that point that I want to do whatever it takes to get into the beer industry — whether it’s working for a distributor or a brewery or a retail store. That was when their email came along. I didn’t know it was five months before I was going to get laid off (from the Press-Register), but it worked out really well.”

Starting in October of 2012, Dan traveled to other breweries in north Alabama to learn more about large scale brewing, and the team brought a consultant from Alaska to extend his knowledge even further.

“One of the reasons we’ve come out with good tasting beer from the start is we’ve taken the time to make sure we’re doing every little thing the way we’re supposed to and not trying to cut any corners or rush the process,” Brian said. 

By the time Dan brewed the first batch, he said he was about 90 percent certain of what he was doing.

“It was surreal,” he said. “I felt like I knew what I was doing, but it was still kind of a leap of faith. There are some things we’ve learned along the way, and we’re still learning something new every single day. I don’t expect that to actually ever end, because you can never know everything.”

Local support

Deciding to locate the brewery in Fairhope was an easy decision, said Brian, who grew up in Mobile.

 “I’ve had a lot of people comment, ‘I can’t believe we’re getting a brewery in Fairhope,’ but being from Mobile, I’ve always viewed Fairhope as having the cooler stuff — the arts and crafts festivals and being on the bay, or a lot of times you’d come over to Fairhope for a nice dinner,” Brian said. “So to me, it seemed like a perfect match.”

And locals have responded with resounding support, especially other businesses. Contractor Cain Roberds worked with the group to research the best way to construct a brewery, and local artisans have made tables, signs and artwork.

One business came through in a moment of great need for the brewery team — the day they made their first batch of beer. At the last minute, they realized they needed a hose for their oxygen tank to complete the fermentation process.

“We couldn’t find anywhere that had one, so we called the dive shop, and Chaz from Underwater Works meets us over here Sunday morning, takes us back to the shop, gets us everything we need and brings it back over here,” Brian said. “This was two days before Christmas, and he was here helping us. He’s one example that sticks out, but we’ve had a lot of people here and there who have helped us.”

And the customer demographics have been surprising, too, Brian said.

“We expected that 25 to 40 crowd, but we get a lot of the over 60 crowd in here, and that’s been fun to see that interest,” he said. “And a lot of people are not just here to drink the beer, although they enjoy that, but they’re interested in knowing how we got here and how equipment works. It’s a more thorough interest in the business.”

Future plans

The brewery plans to offer four beers by the beginning of February. Currently, they are selling Everyday Ale, an English-style golden ale, and Section Street Wheat, a wheat beer.

Soon, Fairhope Brewing Company will also offer Fairhope 51, an American pale ale, and Painted Black IPA, a black India pale ale. Both will boast a higher alcohol content and more complex flavors.

The Jubilee series, a series of small batches of experimental beers, will be announced through social media. Like an actual Jubilee, there will be no pattern or warning, and the beer will only last for a short time.

“We’re doing that to keep things fresh,” Brian said. “It’s something new and different, and Dan would get bored with just brewing four beers.”

All four of the regular beers will soon be available in local bars and restaurants, Brian said.

Currently, the taproom’s hours are Thursday through Saturday from 5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m., but in early February, hours will lengthen, and the taproom will be open six days a week.

The Fairhope Brewing Company team hopes the brewery will become a gathering place for meetings, parties and other events. Alabama law prohibits taprooms from serving food, but patrons are welcome to bring food with them. Under the law, however, customers cannot bring in any other alcohol.

To keep track of Fairhope Brewing Company’s news and updates, visit www.fairhopebrewing.com.