USA, OH: Green Valley Brewing Company hoping to open in Hudson by late spring

A local brewer is tapping into his experience at some of Northeast Ohio's best-known breweries to launch his own beer business in Hudson, the Watauga Democrat reported on February 7.

Brewer John McGroarty and friend Nick Speck hope to have Green Valley Brewing Company open by late spring.

They've gutted the interior of what was once the Malted Meeple — and before that, a daycare center — at 53 Milford Drive in Hudson.

While there's still much work to be done, McGroarty is confident that he can have the place up and running before spring ends.

After all, he said with a laugh, spring's not over until June 17. (Actually, it's June 21; he has more time than he thinks).

McGroarty is no stranger to brewing. He started out as a home brewer before finding work at a number of Ohio breweries, most recently HiHo in Cuyahoga Falls.

Green Valley Brewing will offer a wide range of beers, McGroarty said.

"I've always been super passionate about pale lager and Belgian saison, as well as classic west coast IPA," McGroarty said. "But that's not to say that we're not going to have fruited sours, hazy IPAs. We'll definitely make a rotating seltzer."

Speck and McGroarty are angling for a unique interior space featuring exposed wood and metal accents with a stainless steel backbar with around 20 taps.

"It's not going to be some super loud space. It's a small taproom that will be cozy, and then the goal is to have a community driven outside where you can bring your family and have space for your kids to run around," said McGroarty.

The outdoor patio was a large draw when they were selecting a location. Communal seating, a green space measuring roughly four-tenths of an acre, leisure sports — bocce ball and corn hole, for example — and live entertainment are all planned.

For now, though, they're focusing on getting the doors open before they start transforming the patio.

Food will be available to patrons from the minute they open.

"Thankfully, when this was a daycare they installed a pretty good kitchen for what it was," McGroarty said. They're still fine tuning the menu, but the initial plan is to offer small plate appetizers, a few salads and sandwiches.

Speck and McGroarty have known each other for about a dozen years.

This is the first time they've worked together, though their plan to open a brewery has been in various stages of planning and dreaming for six or seven years. Both enjoy Hudson's downtown area but agreed something has been missing: a neighborhood brewery/brewpub with onsite brewing.

"The one thing we always said was, 'Man, why isn't there a brewpub near downtown?' It would absolutely do great," McGroarty said.

"We won't be some giant facility — just a place for people to gather and enjoy themselves," he said.

Speck doesn't have any experience in the craft brew world aside from being an enthusiast. He'll be acting as a partner, helping out with the business end of things. "John's really the brains of the operations here, which is really fun, watching him get to do his own thing," he said. "I just like drinking good beer. My career is in software — software sales, software engineering."

Before pursuing a career as a brewer, McGroarty worked in accounting and brewed as a hobby. He started as a home brewer in North Hill with his brother roughly 15 years ago. Since then, his resume has grown to include a list of some of the city's notable craft breweries.

While living in Texas in 2011, McGroarty decided to forego another job in accounting and instead pursue his passion for brewing at the newly opened Karbach Brewing Co. in Houston, where he got in on the ground floor.

Upon returning to Northeast Ohio from Texas in 2013, he began finding work at craft breweries in Ohio. He and his wife moved back into their Akron home.

"That's when I started with Thirsty Dog," McGroarty said. He worked as their barrel aging manager for around a year, took a couple months off, eventually becoming the brew master at Canton Brewing Co. After that, he spent a little over five years at Butcher and the Brewer. For the past year, he's been working at HiHo Brewing Co.

Because there's still so much work to do, it makes it hard to plan a proper opening day bash. But said McGroarty there will certainly be one.

"I would guess as soon as we're pretty confident and a month out, we'll start getting all that planned out," McGroarty said.

08 February, 2023