USA, OK: Hold Fast Brewing slated to open in summer of 2019

A new brewery is slated to open in summer of 2019, in an old fire station near Springfield's Shrine Mosque and down the street from Hammons Field, the Springfield News-Leader reported.

Hold Fast Brewing is owned by sisters Carol and Susan McLeod. They have big dreams for the red brick building, involving a taproom, a private event space and potentially even a rooftop bar.

Hold Fast will be Springfield's first all-women owned brewery. Carol McLeod said there are probably less than 100 breweries nationwide that exclusively have women as their owners and head brewers.

The McLeod sisters began thinking about opening up their own brewery in 2014, after their dad passed away unexpectedly.

"Life is too short and we should pursue something we love," Susan McLeod said was their thinking then.

Hold Fast Brewing is a family affair. Another McLeod sister, who runs an accounting firm in California, is the chief financial officer. A brother, who practices law in St. Louis, will help handle legal matters. Their mom, Jan, will be in charge of brewery swag — T-shirts, hats and other paraphernalia.

"She's 72 and she has one of the best beer T-shirt collections around," Carol McLeod said of her mom.

The brewery's name is a tribute to the importance of family, the sisters said. "Hold Fast" is the motto of the Scottish McLeod clan. The bull on the business's logo is part of their family crest.

"We're a very close-knit family and we have a lot of fun," Carol McLeod said.

Carol McLeod has been intensively training for her role as head brewer. She began by working part time at a brewery in Tulsa, Oklahoma named Dead Armadillo. Then, she applied to and was accepted into the American Brewers Guild's educational program. She completed an apprenticeship at Rahr & Sons brewing company in Fort Worth, Texas.

Younger sister Susan McLeod works for the Springfield-Greene County Park Board as a recreation supervisor. She also went to school for industrial equipment technology, so she will be assistant brewer and the maintenance technician.

Fire Station No. 1, located at 235 N. Kimbrough Ave., was active from 1956 to 2001.

Since then, the building had been primarily used by the city to store equipment, according to Jack Stinson, who recently acquired the property. He owns a general contracting firm, Stinson Building Company, which will be doing infill work for the brewery.

His daughter, Natalee Stinson, who has been friends with Susan McLeod for more than a decade, persuaded him to purchase the fire station to lease to the McLeods when it was put up for sale by the city of Springfield earlier this year.

Carol McLeod said she had been looking for a building for about two years before settling on the former fire station.

She said she loved the fact it's a historic building that provides plenty of room for future expansion.

"The possibilities are endless, and it's in a fantastic location," Carol McLeod said. "...Everything just worked. It was just meant to be."

Stinson Building Company submitted its application to the city, and City Council approved the sale of the former Fire Station No. 1 in April.

Stinson Building Company offered the highest bid of $370,000, which was equivalent to the 0.56-acre property's appraised value, according to city documents.

Though the walls and floors are now bare, a few mementos of past residents remain: Wooden lockers, showers and an empty chute where the fireman's pole used to be.

Carol McLeod said she plans to preserve some elements of the original fire station and incorporate them into the design of the brewery. She hopes to have a display case with a fireman's outfit to honor all the people who served there before.

The brewery's first step will be to transform the expansive garage into a taproom and brewing facility.

Wide bay doors line two sides of the garage and can be propped open to create an open-air type of feel. The McLeods plan to have an outdoor patio facing Kimbrough.

The head brewer said she is still formulating her beer menu. She personally enjoys IPAs, brown ales and lagers. The younger McLeod leans more toward stouts, porters and German-style beers.

Food won't be served at the brewery, but people can bring in outside food, and there will be a rotating selection of food trucks parked on the premises.

Carol McLeod said, down the road, she has plans to turn the upstairs, which housed firefighters' sleeping quarters, into a special event space.

The McLeods are also considering building a rooftop bar above the taproom, offering views of downtown. However, they say, that's a distant plan. For now, they're focusing on infilling the taproom and getting all the brewing equipment in place.

Carol McLeod said her dad, James McLeod, was "all about giving back to the community." He helped start the Community Blood Center of the Ozarks and was a Rotarian.

They plan to honor his passions by getting involved with local nonprofits and charities.

"We'll probably do a few events for the (animal) rescue groups in town. We'd like to team up with the community blood bank ... and any of the Rotarian charities they're involved with," Carol McLeod said.

Springfield's craft beer scene has rapidly grown in the past couple of years.

Currently, the city has seven breweries, according to a list compiled by the Springfield Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Another one, Great Escape Beer Works, is expected to open before the end of the year in the new Quarry Town development, near Sequiota Park.

Hold Fast will likely be Springfield's ninth brewery, and the fifth to open since 2017.

"Beer, like it has always (done), brings people together," Carol McLeod said. "It's a social atmosphere and I think people are interested in trying new styles, different flavor profiles."

18 October, 2018