Brewer Andy Hille to leave Perennial Artisan Ales, open new brewery
Sauce Bold New Brewer 2016 Andy Hille announced today that he is leaving his position as brewer at Perennial Artisan Ales. After St. Louis Craft Beer Week, the last week of July, he will focus fulltime on opening his own brewery: Rockwell Beer Company.
Hille has been planning this move for over a year, with the support of Perennial owners Phil and Emily Wymore. “They’ve been great,” Hille said. “And we’ll continue to work together and probably collab on things down the line.”
But the idea has been around longer than a year. Rockwell was the street Hille lived on in Chicago when he got into the industry. “As a joke we called my apartment Club Rockwell,” Hille said. And his first homebrew was called Club Rockwell Beer. “I just dropped the Club,” Hille said. “It worked from the start.”
So far, he’s stepping out on his own as president and founder without partners, funding the project through loans and some private investors. He’s looking at a couple buildings on Vandeventer Avenue, which he called “ripe for improvement.” By opening his brewery there, Hille hopes to make the neighborhood more retail- and consumer-friendly.
“I should have a lease signed in a month or two,” Hille said. He aims to open Rockwell Beer Company by the end of fall 2016.
Most Recent
Burger 809 is taking over the Citygarden Terrace View space in downtown St. Louis this spring
Burger 809 gained popularity in the St. Louis food scene with two …