USA, IL: Ten Ninety Brewing Company opening in Glenview on April 25

What happens when a guy and two of his buddies, all who share a passion for craft beer, start home brewing together? Ten Ninety Brewing Company, Chicago Tribune reported on April 20.

On April 25th, Brian Schafer of Glenview, Jamie Hoban of Naperville and Andy Smith of Chicago will officially open their 11,000-square-foot brewery and tap room, located in downtown Glenview on Waukegan Road, across from Heinen's.

"Glenview is a tremendous community, and is our demographic," said 41-year-old Schafer, a former corporate finance executive who holds an MBA from Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, and who started the company with his two friends two years ago. Its prior location was in Zion.

Ten Ninety Brewing Co. has 19 different beers on the market, with 11 fermenting at any given time, according to Hoban, who holds an MBA from the University of Chicago, and who worked in finance and banking for 10 years.

The brewery, with its exposed brick and wooden truss ceiling, can be seen through large glass windows from its tap room, where craft beer lovers can enjoy and sample different beers and beer flights.

With seating for 91, the tap room is decorated with dark hardwood floors, dark wood furniture, high top tables, a bar, a couch seating area, a fireplace and large-screen TVs. The brewery will also have outdoor seating for 20. Ten Ninety will have light snacks for purchase, and customers can bring in their own food or call a restaurant for delivery.

"The tap room is an important part of our business and serves several purposes," said Hoban. "It brings in customers and helps create buzz and awareness, but it also serves to create and maintain customer loyalty, not typical of our industry."

Ten Ninety's beers are available at several retail stores, including Heinen's, Trader Joe's, Mariano's and Binny's.

The owners attribute the company's success to its uniqueness.

"We'll take a traditional beer style and put our own unique twist on it, whether it's a specialty ingredient or a different brewing process," Hoban said. "Even something as simple as adding cayenne pepper has worked. Who would have thought of that?"

"So many things can happen from the start of the recipe to the end of the beer," said Smith, a West Point graduate who served in the military for 10 years before obtaining both a master's degree in computer science and a law degree from DePaul University. "It's a culinary process with many variables, so you have to adapt, and that's the fun part."

Schafer said he met Hoban more than two decades ago when the two worked for the same company right after college. They met Smith a short time later.

"Andy was a home brewer," said Schafer, who lives in Glenview with his wife, Ewa, and their three children. "For his 22nd birthday, one of his brothers bought him a home brewing kit and he introduced me to brewing. I am a foodie, and when I brewed beer for the first time, I saw the similarities to cooking and being able to experiment with different flavor profiles. I caught the bug immediately."

When asked why they named the company Ten Ninety, Schafer said it is brewing term that has to do with high gravity in a beer.

"You had two business school nerds and an engineer in a room, and we were talking numbers," Smith said. "The other part of it is that it adds up to 100. We always say, 'We're bringing 90% effort and 10% love.'"

25 April, 2016