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Owners Kevin Richey, Danny Haddad, Merna Brown and William (Billy) Hacker (pictured l-r), along with co-owner Jon Brown (not pictured), opened the doors to their small craft brewery on Luigart Court in December. Photo by Theresa Stanley
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Photo by Theresa Stanley
The North Limestone neighborhood near the intersection of Loudon Avenue continues to grow with the addition of a new brewery that opened its doors Dec. 17. Joining other businesses in the area such as Broomwagon Coffee + Bikes, Minton’s at 760, Fleet Street Hair Shoppe, Granola Culture and Charmed Life Tattoo is Rock House Brewing, located just off North Limestone at 119 Luigart Court – the street just to the left of Minton’s.
Despite being tucked away off the main road, owners liked several things about the property, including it having the proper zoning, its room for growth and the neighborhood itself.
“The Night Market is over here, and that brings in a huge crowd, and we really like the community,” said Merna Brown, a co-owner of Rock House along with her husband and brewer Jon Brown, as well as Danny Haddad, Billy Hacker and brewer Kevin Richey. “There are a lot of small shops that are opening up around here, like Broomwagon, Bullhorn, Minton’s, [Lucie’s] Red Light. I feel like it’s more of a homey community where everyone wants to help each other out, so we kind of like that vibe.”
Being located on a small road off N orth Limestone puts Rock House in good company with several other Lexington breweries that have an “off the beaten path” location, including Country Boy and Ethereal. Richey also cited West Sixth as an example of a brewery that came into a quiet part of town and helped foster growth in the area.
When entering Luigart Court., two main buildings can be seen – the tap room and the warehouse, separated by a couple hundred feet. The tap room, a small, standalone building that used to be an office for Lexington Quarry, was built in 1923 and showcases the Rock House logo on the wooden ramp out front.
The minimalist Tetris-style symbol, which was designed by fellow North Limestone company Bullhorn Creative, is a lowercase “r” and a lowercase backward “h” that resembles a chair pulled up to a bar top.
The temperature-controlled warehouse, where the brewing equipment is set up, has a soon-to-be-completed bar with 20 taps, along with picnic tables, a drop-down projector screen, bathrooms and plenty of space for cornhole and other festivities. The space is also available for private events.
The tap room is quite literally a rock house, made mostly of limestone. Richey and Jon Brown are also self-proclaimed music lovers, making the name Rock House take on somewhat of a double meaning. The theme carries over to the beers, with names such as Double Kick Drum (Double IPA), Groupie (Cream Ale), Riot Act (Red Rye IPA), and Roadie (American Pale Ale).
Richey added that small experimental test batches will be a big part of their tap rotation.
“We’re trying to get more people into experimentation and not drinking the same beer every day,” he added.
“People want to try different stuff,” said Merna Brown. “They want variety in their beer. That’s what craft beer is all about.”
Richey and Jon Brown first met about two years ago at the Brewers of Central Kentucky Iron Mash – an Iron Chef-like competition where participants have to brew with surprise ingredients. From there, Merna Brown brought in her cousin – Haddad – and Richey reached out to Hacker, who years prior told Richey if he ever started a brewery, he wanted to be a part of it. “Ever since I drank his beer,” said Hacker.
Rock House will carry beers by many of the other local breweries as well, with owners noting that it’s important for those in the craft brewing community to support each other.
“If there’s a fight of any sort, it’s against the Anheuser-Busches of the world,” said Richey. “We’re not going to win that fight on our own.”
Owners emphasized the diversity of the NoLi neighborhood as one of the area’s strong points and look forward to fostering a brewery environment that acts as a melting pot of people and ideas.
“We want people of different interests to come in here, have a good time, drink a great beer and have fun,” said Hacker. “I’ve met customers through this whole process that I don’t think I would’ve ever met in my life. That’s the cool part about it. It’s a coming together of people over great beer. That makes me excited. I’m excited right now. I got chills thinking about it. That’s why we’re doing this.”