Upon closer inspection, the establishment revealed itself to be the Cool Springs Brewery, and the red neon “Open” sign in the front window was lit. On New Year’s Eve some 1,000 miles from my home, Father Time had given me one last brewery visit for 2009.

Inside I met Chris Hartland, who along with his wife, Jane, opened the brewery in September and poured the first pints a month later. They emigrated from the United Kingdom in 2008 wanting to be closer to family and hoping to open a restaurant.

They found just the spot in Franklin, Tenn., at a pizzeria known as Guidos. The owner was looking to sell and Hartland was ready to move in.

As the brewery was preparing to change ownership, the local newspaper profiled Chris and Jane Hartland and that’s how brewer Mike Kraft (pictured below) got involved. He immediately drove to the brewery after reading the article and handed in his resume. A veteran brewer, he worked for a number of breweries in Texas, including a spell as corporate brewer for the Two Rows Restaurant and Brew Pub chain.

Kraft too had returned to Nashville to be close to family and was soon hired as Cool Springs brewer.  Currently he has five beers on tap: Franklin’s First, a Kolsch, BushWacker, an American-style unfiltered wheat, Fatback amber ale, Pecker Wrecker pale ale and a Porter.

Max’s, previously called Max’s on Broadway, is a local icon in the Fell’s Point neighborhood of Baltimore, Md., an area full of shops, restaurants and historic buildings along the city’s waterfront. You know the area well if you’ve seen the TV series “Homicide: Life on the Street,” which was largely filmed just a few blocks from the bar. Max’s has been known as a great beer destination in the mid-Atlantic region for more than a decade now, but it’s really in the last five or so years that the bar has achieved much more wide-ranging acclaim. This is due in part to the incredible success of its Belgian Beer Fest, which draws beer lovers from around the
country each February. 

To give you a picture of the incredible beeriness of Maryland’s premier beer bar, Casey Hard, the general manager, said late last year that the number of beers on draft at Max’s would soon increase from 72 to 100. “We will also add two new beer engines to the three we already have, which will give us five cask-conditioned beers,” he noted. “We occasionally put firkins on the bar for special events as well. And we have over 1,000 different bottled beers.” 

It’s a classic example of how to start a small brewery, beginning with a passion for brewing and beer.

I first became aware that our friend Bruce was planning to open a brewery in late 2010. Once his beers debuted at local beer festivals I must admit to developing a fancy for Irie IPA and its blend of hops and piney aroma. Incorporated in 2010, the brewery opened its doors a little over a year later in Mundelein, Illinois, which is just about the average time it takes to jump through all the hoops of incorporation, construction, and set-up.  The 15-barrel brewhouse has the capacity to produce 3,500 barrels annually. Partner Billy Oaks is the head brewer.

Since receiving his first homebrew kit as a gift in 1993, Dir has learned from some well established veterans of the brewing business. A founding member of BABBLE Homebrew Club of Lake County, Dir added to his 16 years of brewing experience by attending the world-renowned Siebel Institute of Technology Brewing School in Chicago. “Siebel definitely provided me with the guidance and consultation on every aspect of the industry,” said Dir. “That proved really valuable while creating the business plan and building the brewery.”

The tiny community is named for Chief Niwot, the peaceful leader of the Southern Arapahoe tribe that inhabited the area when prospectors arrived in the mid-1800’s in search of gold. In the Southern Arapahoe dialect, Niwot means “left hand.”

The treasure hunters continued west into the nearby mountains seeking the mother lode, but Left Hand Brewing has struck gold (and silver and bronze) numerous times in its 17-year history. In 2009, Left Hand’s Smokejumper Smoked Imperial Porter won the gold medal at the Great American Beer Festival. The previous year, the brewery’s silky-smooth Milk Stout was awarded gold at the prestigious World Beer Cup competition.

“Our purpose is to brew beer that we’re interested in drinking and, hopefully, that other people are interested in drinking, too,” explained Wallace, who now holds the title of president. (Doore, the other co-founder, is no longer active in the business.) There’s little question that the brewery’s eclectic collection of ales, lagers and wheat beers have captured the interest of craft beer enthusiasts both locally and in more distant locales. Left Hand beers can be found in 27 states and a handful of European countries.