Quick Sips: His boss told him the work was drying up, so he built a brewery instead. | JR Heaps | South County Brewery

Send us Fan MailThe 2008 housing crash didn't end JR Heaps' career - it started one.JR was doing historic restoration and timber frame design-build work when his boss pulled him aside and basically said: the projects are drying up, you might want to chase that beer thing.So he did.He built his own version of the Brutus 10 homebrew system - pumps, temperature controllers, a 10-gallon setup he'd been dialing in for years. Then he went hunting for affordable commercial equipment and found four Grundy tanks from an old pub in Virginia, originally imported from England. Cut two of them apart to build his own mash tun and kettle. Welded the whole thing together himself.That Frankenstein brewhouse? It's still making beer today - Kyle Neuheimer at Oakbrook Brewing in Reading, PA picked it up and it's still running. That's not just a cool origin story. That's a testament to what happens when a builder puts his hands on a problem.JR Heaps is the founder of South County Brewery in Pennsylvania.Ready To Drink | B2B media for the adult beverage industryCheck out SouthCountyBrewing.comFind more founder stories at ReadyToDrinkPodcast.com + YouTube + Spotify + Apple PodcastsSupport the showPresented by The FreeMind Group - FMGStrategy.com