In Milwaukee Record’s “Meet A Brewer” series, we aim to introduce you to some of the professionals behind the scenes who are responsible for making your favorite local beers. The recurring series continues with Supermoon Beer Company owner and brewer Rob Brennan.
Milwaukee Record: What’s your path to brewing? What were the stops on the way to starting Supermoon?
Rob Brennan: The path started here in Milwaukee, actually. I went to school at Marquette and in 2006, I went to visit a friend at Michigan Tech up in the U.P. and these dudes who were living in a college house were making beer in their basement. That blew my mind. I couldn’t believe you could do that. I was instantly fascinated by it. And so I went home and got a home brew kit and started making beer in the kitchen of my apartment. Then I started obsessively taking the Lakefront tour over and over again. I think the tour was five bucks at the time and you got a generous amount of beers, so it was an economical way to drink. Then they introduced fish fry, so I’d go to Lakefront to get a tour and get some information on this new hobby that I’ve been working on, get buzzed, have dinner, and call it a night for a pretty fair price. The Lakefront tour was super inspirational and fun. That kept the fire burning a little bit.
Then I moved back home to Chicago and kept brewing at home. I worked at ad agencies for most of my career, then once of my agencies got bought and I got laid off. I went to Belgium with my girlfriend—now wife—and I was head over heels for Belgian beers. When I came back, I didn’t want to get back into advertising, so I went to nursing school. When I was about halfway through the nursing program, two friends of mine from Goose Island had just left—because Anheuser-Busch had just bought the brewery—and were starting their own brewery. They asked me to come on board to help them launch Penrose Brewing Company outside of Chicago. That’s where I cut my teeth.
I was there for four years, then we decided to move back to Milwaukee on a whim after being in Chicago for, like, 10 years to try something new. I was actually going to get out of the brewing industry and get back into advertising because it felt safe. We fell in love with Bay View, but couldn’t find a home here. This building was on the market for a long time. It was suspiciously priced and a total shit hole, but we couldn’t afford a place or would get out-competed for a home in Bay View, so we decided to buy this shitty old building, live in it, and work on it. That was our way in to Bay View. We had a commercial tenant in the front of the place and she left right after we closed on the building. We had never been commercial landlords, so we looked into what we could do with it and we found out the building was zoned to be a brewery from 125 years ago. So I was on my way out of the industry and, totally by chance, we accidentally bought a brewery.
MR: With what you do here at Supermoon, are you attempting to add to the existing conversation or are you hoping to fill some gaps of what’s out there?
RB: I’m more on the side of filling a gap. When we started to think about starting a brewery in Miller town, we wondered if we’d be taken away sacks on our head. How collegial is it? There was a lot of questions and imposter syndrome. Who the fuck am I to open a brewery in Beer City? I feel like you needed a pedigree to do that, but I felt I had a point of view to share. When we opened Penrose, it was heavily focused on Belgian-style beer and oak-fermented and blended beer. Penrose very quickly outgrew the ability to focus on those styles because of distributor demand and investor pressure, so all the Belgian beer went by the wayside. I always told myself that if I ever got to do this for myself, that’s the lane I was going to try and stay in. I feel it’s not only an underrepresented style or genre of beer, it’s the one I care about the most and am inspired by most. I think a lot of brewers will tell you it’s tough to stay motivated these days. This niche of beer keeps me very motivated and inspired.
MR: In the five years you’ve been here, are there any favorite local breweries or individuals at breweries who you’ve developed a good relationship with?
RB: Third Space has been very kind to me. When we first started scaling up our barrel program, the little brew system I have here was not sustainable for how much beer I needed to put in our oak barrels. So I brewed a lot at Third Space and they were very generous to do that with me. I’ve since gotten to know a lot of folks there. The guys at Good City were always really nice to me and I talk to them pretty frequently. Tommy and James at Enlightened are good neighbors, good people, and good brewers. MobCraft and Component have helped me along the way. The local scene here is phenomenally collegial. It takes a lot of the pressure off to be in the company of people who are in it together. What’s good for Milwaukee is good for all of us.
MR: What are your desert island beers?
RB: I’ll give you three and two of them are macro beers. Not trying to throw shade on our own industry, but if I’m going to land on a desert island, macro beer—from a quality standpoint—is probably going to last the longest on an island. So if I’m on an island, Guinness is essential. It’s low-ABV and delightful. Tiger Beer from Singapore would be absolutely essential, assuming it’s hot. It’s incredibly quenching. You can drink a million of ‘em. Then I would pick something nicer—like a true Belgian Trappist beer like Westmalle Tripel or Saison Dupont.
MR: Getting away from beer for a bit, what are some of your favorite artists and musical styles?
RB: The boring answer is I like a little bit of everything. And that’s genuinely true. My Spotify algorithm is a fucking mess. It’s all over the board, from ‘90s New York-based hip-hop to South African jazz to improvisational jam music. My favorite band right now is Goose. They’re just on fire right now and have a ton to say and have an interesting perspective. I saw the best concert I’ve seen in recent memory—King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard—and it was extremely memorable and unlike anything I’ve experienced in live music, almost ever.
MR: What are some of your favorite restaurants in the city?
RB: The place I eat at most is probably Goodkind. That place is incredible. They’re the stewards of Midwest hospitality that I kind of aim our bar there as far as hospitality goes. My favorite takeout is a dead heat between Cafe India and Tenuta’s.
MR: How about TV and movies? Any comfort shows you’ve re-watched a bunch or movies you’ve seen a million times?
RB: I have re-watched the entirety of all seasons of Lost like three times. It’s a warm hug comfort show. I re-watched The Americans. I though that was incredible. And I just convinced my wife to watch Mad Men, so I’ll be re-watching that soon.
MR: Do you have any hobbies?
RB: I knew this would happen, but I made my hobby into my work. I don’t home brew anymore, so I’m open to filling that gap with stuff. If I can, I love going out west to ski. Pretty much every year, we go out to Montana. Montana is one of my favorite places on earth, and we go out to ski with old friends. That’s something I look forward to. I also recently got an espresso machine at home, so I’ve been deep into trying to find my way down that rabbit hole and make really good espresso drinks and coffees at home. So it’s not really cool hobbies, I’d say. I like projects at home. I’m working on plans to make a cedar sauna—a direct wood fire sauna.
MR: Not to live in a negative space for too long, but do you have any brewing pet peeves you’d like to share?
RB: Absolutely the hill I will die on, the number one thing that pisses me off about this industry…I would give a fucking TED Talk about this. I absolutely despise and am embarrassed as hell for our industry at the level of IP theft that breweries are committing. The reason I am so unnerved about the flagrancy of IP theft in our industry is because I worked for very large breweries like Pilsner Urquell, Leinenkugel’s, Peroni—like, global beer brands—on the agency side, which qualifies me to weigh in on this. Small independent craft breweries who tend to hold themselves to the “little guy” standard and “craft not crap” and have such a high opinion of themselves and their integrity also mimic, mock, and steal people’s intellectual property in order to make a buck with a flash in the pan [release], then get offended if people call them out on it.
Craft beer should hold itself to a higher standard than that. Big beer would never do that, and that puts them in a class outside of us entirely. It’s also fucking tacky. This is the crux of it: craft beer would like to think of itself as a bunch of really creative people with good ideas, and you completely diminish that when you steal someone’s logo and make your own version of the thing as a joke or an homage or whatever. It’s lazy and it’s not creative or new. It’s taking something, then flying under the wing of being the small guy so you don’t have to pay the repercussions of it. That’s some of the tackiest shit ever.
MR: Are there any longer-term aspirations or goals for Supermoon? Or are there any milestones you’re trying to hit with the brewery?
RB: In July, we officially celebrated five years of production brewing here. That was kind of a moment for me. This went from something I never thought I would do in my life to something I had done professional for five years. That was a pretty profound accomplishment. I always wanted to start my own business, but was really afraid of failure. So doing this for five years gave me a milestone to walk away with, at least, if it all went to shit. I did it for five years and I ran it well. Other people got paid to work here and we made beer I’m proud of. Every single beer I’ve ever tapped or put out into bottles or cans is a beer I’ve been proud of. And we’ve accumulated some really nice accolades that I was never totally aiming for, but we received anyway. Those are more proof of life or proof of concept, but it’s nice to have those recognitions.
To me, I’ve got pretty humble goals for this thing. The goal was always to be just a neighborhood joint that doesn’t out kick its coverage. Our scale is a pretty modest scale goal compared to what most people tend to do. Our philosophy or ethos is we’re vehemently trying to not take over the world. Our focus is here and giving people the best beer we possibly can—beer that we feel good asking for their money for. If something comes along that reminds me why I’m doing this or validates me doing this, I’m absolutely willing to have a moment about it and appreciate it, then go on making the beer. It’s a privilege.
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