Mark and Kelly’s shared love of beer, he joked, “was more on the consumption side when we first met.”
Like so many successful craft breweries out there, the story of 2 Crows Brewing began with a beer kit. “I had done a few of them,” Mark explained. “They were the kind where the work is already done for you; you just add the hops – nothing spectacular. So before I even started the business plan, I knew we had to find someone who could brew a beer of the highest possible quality, someone who could push the envelope as far as beer styles go.” Kelly explained that once Mark had the business plan together for what was to become 2 Crows Brewing, they both started looking for their Brew Master. “It just so happened that a friend of my family had recently finished school in Scotland with Jeremy where he did his Masters in Brewing and Distilling. We reached out to him and it was amazing how really well it all worked out. Jeremy’s wife is from Dartmouth and at the time we first reached out to him he was working for a big company in Vancouver and really wanted to relocate to the East Coast for his wife,” she said. Jeremy received his Masters of Brewing and Distilling from Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, which included a bar- rel-aging program. “He was working for a brewery in Vancouver called Bridge Brewing for a few years before we even started talking, but like Kelly said, his wife, her heart was here in the Mar- itimes,” Mark explained. “So we got lucky in that respect; it was a timing thing “From the beginning, even before we first spoke to Jeremy, we knew that we didn’t want just anyone to brew for us; it wasn’t just about turnover. We wanted someone from the start who wanted to be part of a company. This really was a perfect fit for Jeremy. He was looking to be part of a business and not just an employee of the business. That’s why he makes such a great business partner for Kelly and I; he has the same vision. I know I keep saying that we got lucky when we found Jeremy, but it’s the truth. Not everyone can say that they always see eye-to- eye with their business partners, but we do. It’s an intimate
“One of Kelly’s cousins was at our place and we had a plum and Bailey’s kettle sour saison on tap,” Mark continued. “It’s not something you’d pick-up at the NSLC – at least not yet. It was one of our one-offs. I gave her cousin, who’s more of a wine drinker and really not a fan of beer, a sample and by the time she finished the sample, she was asking for a full glass. That kind of thing really puts a smile on my face “This will always be our number one priority, and everything else is secondary.” That’s how people initially become educated about craft beer: by considering the ingredients, the recipe, and taking a chance. There’s a craft beer out there for everyone.” Kelly sees Mark’s beer acumen as a cultural trait. “In Belgium, rather than drinking a wine with dinner, they drink different styles of beer with different meals. Beer there is something you put a lot of thought into in terms of pairings and taste palates. It’s very personalized that way. It was when we were dating and he took me to Belgium that I fell in love with different styles of beer,” she said.
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