About Us:
How did it all begin? We hear that often and the truth be told, there was no great business plan or any plan at all, really, just a comment, a thought, an item on a bucket list. In October of 2011 at a home brewers' gathering held at the farm of Jane and Craig Deitz, Craig planted the seed with a comment to his friend, Brad Paulson, about a desire to have a micro-brewery on Green Bluff. Brad's response, "I'm in".
And so it began. With collectively over 50 years of home brewing experience between them, Craig's background in chemistry and Brad's expertise in construction, a friendship became a partnership. Over a beer on a snowy winter's day, Craig drew a schematic of the lay out of the brewery system. With the help of family and friends, construction of the big barn took place in the summer of 2012. As fate would have it, the building of the barn itself inspired daughter-in-law, Camille Dietz, to suggest the name - "Big Barn Brewing Company". A soft opening took place for Oktoberfest 2012 and the response to a brewery on Green Bluff was overwhelmingly positive. The summer of 2013 brought home brew enthusiasts to the bluff in droves, arriving in cars, motorcycles, bicycles and limousines. Continuing to brew on two nano systems the two home brewers struggled to keep up with the demand, sometimes brewing five batches a week. With the installation of a seven barrel system in early 2014, Big Barn was able to move into full production that summer.
Our goal is to be self-sustaining, using farm produce from the Deitzes' own farm as well as the surrounding farms, and has resulted in the production of such brews as our Blackberry Porter, Pumpkin Ale andour newest addition, a cherry kolsch. With Craig's original drawing on display in our rustic tap house, Craig and Brad continue to do all of the brewing with their original mission statement always close at heart - to brew the best beer in the world.
