Rock Art Brewery, Kith and Kin Interview
Name of Company: Rock Art Brewery
Name: Renee Nadeau
Location, email, phone website: 632 Laporte Rd, Morristown, VT 05661, rockartbrewery@gmail.com, (802) 888-9400, http://www.rockartbrewery.com/
Description of your business/work? We are a brewery that makes hand crafted beers. We offer a tasting room and retail store that showcase our beers and local artists.
How long have you been in business? Twenty years. We started in our house in Johnson for four years with a seven barrel brewing system.
How did you move to Morristown? We moved the business to Morrisville in 2001. We needed to get out of the house because it was really difficult to carry all that beer up out of the basement! For ten years we rented what is now Lost Nation Brewery and then were able to start bottling which really helped our growth. We built our current brewery in 2011.
What do you like best about Morristown? Morrisville was welcoming to us right along so we were really glad to stay here. The locals have been really awesome and supportive of us and when they have friends and family in town they come to visit. Of course we want to stay here!
What new business would you like to see move to town? A gallery or something, an artisan thing would be really cool. There’s a lot of talent in Vermont. A lot of Vermonters like to make and create their own products and it would be cool to highlight them- more than I do here.
What is on your wish list for the next five years of your business/career? That’s a hard one right now because we had a big wish list and we are accomplishing a lot of it. Renewable energy has been something that we are interested in and so as of last week we are 100% solar powered. Our roof is 75% covered with solar panels which absorbs enough energy from the sun to meet all our electrical needs. We have a high electrical need and are able to create enough energy to meet that including running our pumps and cooling system. Our next item will be a new top of the line canning system. We’ll bring that in by the end of the year- it’s being built right now. We’ve been working with a mobile canning unit who comes and cans for us once a week.
Personal background: We both grew up in Vermont and later we moved to Summit County, Colorado for five years. We always planned to come back to Vermont- because of community and our family. The community feel in Vermont is a huge, huge draw. We have two awesome boys- one going to art school and one finishing high school who plans on brewing.
What was your first job? Helping the farmer across the street hay his fields. And I wouldn’t let him pay me. I’d just help him and his sister out. Every time I heard that tractor I’d run out and help.
What was your most fun job? It’s kind of a dual thing. I love this job because it’s so awesome having people who love beer come in and be so excited about your product. And it’s just so fun. I also worked at Bear Pond Books in Stowe and I loved that job. I love to read.
Favorite quote? “There’s always a reason to dance.”
If you could have dinner with one person dead or alive, who would it be and why? My memere because she was the most amazing, positive lady I’ve ever met. So positive, so happy. Always looked at the good in things.
What book did you read last? The Coconut Oil Miracle by Bruce Fife.
Wild card? We’d love to see more people think about renewable energy and taking care of the environment and each other.
