This Is Home: Flying Pig Brewery to open in Caldwell

CALDWELL, Ohio (WTAP) -A new brewery is coming to the town of Caldwell, and the owners say they are squealing with joy about following their dreams and investing in their hometown.

Jensen Croucher and Alex Secrest both grew up in Caldwell and say it’s been a dream of theirs to open their own brewery for many years. Croucher says he started out home brewing and has been able to fine-tune his skills for several years now.

“First batch was absolutely horrible. It was the worst beer I’ve ever had. It was so bad,” Craucher laughed. “But, I just kept going.”

It was trial by error until Croucher said he got his recipes just right. He said the next step was buying and refurbishing part of a 137-year-old building in Caldwell so that they could open Flying Pig Brewery.

“It’s got really great bones but to get it down to the brick has been-just on that has been a couple month process. We took all the plaster off. We sent over 2,500 pounds of plaster out the doors. We refinished the floors upstairs. Upstairs was totally raw so it needed a whole re-doing.”

After nearly a year of hard work, they both say the grand opening will take place soon and that they feel like they will be able to fill a void in Caldwell-their beloved hometown.

“We both have a ton of pride in where we are from. As I said, I left, went to college came back…sometimes we get a little frustrated with people who think there are no opportunities and things like that. There are a lot of positives that our small town has to offer,” Croucher said.

“You can complain about it and go somewhere else or get your boots on and get to work and that’s what we decided to do. We have a lot of friends who have businesses here and have been successful and have been super helpful in helping us get this thing started. As I said, we have a ton of pride in being here and we wouldn’t want to do this anywhere else. We love it here.”

Croucher said the brewery will have 10 different beers and will have seating on two different floors. While they say that starting a business while also still working their full-time jobs demands a lot of time, they truly enjoy every day they work to get one step closer to opening.

“There’s a ton of different beers. There’s a beer for every pallet,” Croucher said.

" If you are someone who likes to drink beer, I promise we will find one for you.”

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