Kraft Beer With Kindsey: Hopkinsville Brewing Company

It is no secret that bourbon dominates this state, but the craft beer industry is growing in Kentucky. There are locally owned breweries and microbreweries scattered all around the state and it is my mission to travel to each and every one and tell their story.

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Hopkinsville made national headlines in August for being the point of greatest total solar eclipse, but Hopkinsville shouldn’t be known as the “city where the Eclipse happened,” it should be known as a city that produces great craft beer.

Kate Russell is not a native of Hopkinsville. The Army brought here there in 2004 and after three years of living in Hopkinsville, she completely fell in love with the city and knew she would never leave.

“It’s a really sweet town where you go to the grocery store and people that you haven’t seen a couple months will just walk up and hug you,” Russell said. “I’ve never been hugged at the grocery store or any other place and it’s just really nice. It’s a town like I said, it’s undergoing revitalization and it seems like a really cool place to do something like this. I knew I wanted to stay here I want to raise my kids here. It’s just a good town.”

It was not Russell’s dream to open a brewery. She didn’t not even like beer that much, let alone know how to brew beer. However, the brewery fell into Russell’s hands six months into the construction.

“I just looked at the equipment, like I don’t know what to do with this stuff,” Russell said. “So we had a friend that came in and he was brewing with us. He taught me how to brew and I loved it. It was just the most fun I’ve ever had at any job and I really just enjoyed it.”

And so Hopkinsville Brewing Company opened in September of 2016 and has become a staple of the city.

When deciding the business plan for the brewery, Russell knew she didn’t want it to be a sports bar with a lot of TVs.

“I didn’t want people to be watching TV,” Russell said. “I wanted them to engage with each other and I figure everyone has a story. I expect people to interact and talk. We have games if you want to know play Chutes and Ladders or Candyland. We got Checkers outside or giant Jenga.”

Russell compares the atmosphere of the brewery to the atmosphere of a coffee house.

“It’s like Starbucks but with beer,” Russell said. “You know someplace quiet and cool to hang out.” 

Hopkinsville is a town with a population of of over 31,000 and there aren’t many places like Hopkinsville Brewing and locals are really proud of it.

“I wanted to make sure that this was the kind of place where you could bring your kids, you can bring your grandparents when they’re in town and people do,” Russell said. “It’s really cool to have people embrace it.”

Locals have embraced it so much, they have shipped growlers to other states.

“We had a customer that told us the other day that they spent $62 overnight to FedEx a growler of beer to their daughter who was stationed in Hawaii because she was raised here and saw on our website that we would release the pumpkin porter and she wanted it,” Russell said. “I mean it is stuff like that where people take pride in the brewery.”

Actions like that are not the only thing that locals take pride in. Hopkinsville Brewing gives back to different local and national nonprofit organizations. Each month a portion of the profits are donated to a different charity.

“We don’t give to national organizations very often, but this month there’s a local woman whose father was a POW during Vietnam and never came home,” Russell said. “She is working with the, I believe it’s the National Association of MIA POW families to go to Vietnam and see like the last place she knows her father was. So we’re helping to fund her trip over there.”

Hopkinsville Brewing has supported Max’s Hope, the Alhambra Theater, The Big Read, the Christian County Public Library and much more.

“By doing it every month we can spread the love and shine a light on organizations that may not get a lot of press,” Russell said. 

The locals have also supported Hopkinsville Brewing because Russell and Joey Madieros, the assistant brewer, make great beer.

There are always eight beers on tap and four are always a stout, porter, Hefeweizen and an IPA.

Many people in Hopkinsville aren’t used to drinking craft beer, but everyone has been willing to try.

“In the beginning and even now, we get a lot of people to come in and they’re like “It’s my first time and I only drink Bud Light what would I like?” So what really struck me was that people are so willing to at least try it and even if they don’t like the first thing they taste, they will keep tasting they will they are determined to find something they will like so I think that’s really cool I didn’t anticipate that,” Russell said. “I mean it goes go back to people being proud that the town has a brewery they want to like it, they want to be here.”

Fruit beers have become very popular, which Russell did not expect.

“With the fruit beer it was supposed to be like a once in awhile, maybe we’ll do a fruit beer,” Russell said. “So now in the summer I think every month we did a different fruit beer.”

The popularity of the fruit beer has allowed Russell to play around with different fruits and herbs. Hopkinsville Brewing has brewed a watermelon mint witbier, watermelon gose and a mango pale ale.

The popularity of the fruit beer stems from the fact that a majority of the customers are women.

“I think that the fact that we are family-friendly has a lot to do with it,” Russell said. “That’s my theory. I don’t know if that’s right. Again it’s not a bar atmosphere where you’re going to be creeped out if you come here with your girlfriends. I think that has something to do with as well. Being family-friendly definitely invites more women because you don’t have to stay home with your kids while your husband goes out.”

Hopkinsville Brewing is Hopkinsville first craft beer brewery in the city’s history and Russell has made it a place that locals are very proud of. Although Russell is not a native, she has embraced the city as her own and never wants to leave.

“I like staying local and continue to bring people into Hopkinsville will always be my goal,” Russell said. “No matter how big we get I want to stay downtown.”

My beer picks at Hopkinsville Brewing

Something light: Cunningham Lane Kölsch is a light beer that all beer lovers can enjoy a few of. It is brewed with lemon and tastes kind of like a beer-lemonade if there were such a thing. 

Something in the middle: I love Hefeweizens. They might be my favorite and HBC’s is very good. Drink it.

Something dark: Pain In the A** Peanut Butter because it combines two of my favorite things, peanut butter and beer.

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