On
July 29, 2016, Andrew Wright had his first beer.
No,
he didn’t just turn 21.
No,
he didn’t suddenly decide to drink.
He
literally had his first beer.
It
was a process that started almost two years before. Andrew and his wife Tea, high school
sweethearts and parents of two teenage girls, opened T&A Brewing, a tap
room with the motto “No crap on tap!”
This might not seem like a big deal, but Tea and Andrew spent the first
year convincing patrons to drink beer other than Bud Light.
Andrew
had been home brewing as a hobby for about four years. Then he got sent out of town to work for
eight weeks. This job did not just send
him to the community down the road, but all the way to Arizona, with no options
to come home on weekends. This was just
too much for a family man like him. It was the
final straw that pushed him and Tea toward brewing on a larger scale and owning
their own business.
The
couple purchased a historic building on Main Street of their home town, Newcastle. Though the Wrights have heard this structure
was originally a hardware store, most locals referred to it as the Bronco Bar, the
business it held for decades. They then
gutted the space from front to back, exposing original stucco and brickwork and
making room for the brewery.
As
Andrew and Tea jumped through the numerous federal, state, and local hoops to
receive all the required licenses, time quickly passed. Financial hurdles also acted as obstacles to
the brewing timeline, but each time a complication occurred, Andrew found a
solution. Though Tea and Andrew did not
have any business partners or financial backers, they did have a lot of friends
and family supporting them at every one of these twists and turns.
This
leads back to Andrew’s first beer: T&A’s
747 Amber—the first in a series of beers Andrew is going to name after those
who helped him and Tea make this dream a reality. The beer’s namesake has a long history with
Andrew. Garrett Borton and Andrew go
back a long time…way back. Andrew and
Garrett moved in together as seventeen-year-old seniors, both longing for their
own freedom and space away from home.
Fast
forward nearly fifteen years, and Garrett was one who helped gut the historic
building. He spent hours sandblasting
the stucco and brick walls. He loaned tools,
vehicles, and trailers for the moving of the brew equipment. He may even be a valued customer at T&A
now and again…wink, wink. This helpful
energy Garrett has given to Andrew and Tea’s business is shown in Garrett’s
time of birth—7:47—proving Garrett’s high-octane, jet-fueled personality, a
personality reflected in the amber ale.
Andrew
chose an amber—Garrett’s favorite style—as the inaugural brew because it fits
many palates. It is more serious than a light
beer, yet can still be good for non-craft beer drinkers. Keeping with the high-octane motif that
Garrett’s character provides, the ale is nearly seven and a half percent alcohol…yes,
basically 7.47 percent. The 747 is “light on the palate for a dark beer with
light caramel maltiness and a clean finish.”
Need
any more proof that this initial brew is truly something exceptional? Keep in mind the entire brew process took
nearly six weeks—four weeks in the fermentation tank, one week in the brite tank, and one week
in the kegs (carbonating). That is six
weeks of work to create a quality product...that sold out in just half that
time.
Yes, in a mere three
weeks after the release, the 747 was gone.
Sold out. Done. Drank.
Enjoyed by Black Hills beer enthusiasts.
Enthusiasts that just can’t wait
for Andrew’s second beer.
