December 2013
| Business World Magazine | 149
whose tales from a life spent traveling are
also the inspiration for the names of each
individual beer. “We never brewed beer to-
gether,” Hovey said. “But we did drink quite
a bit of it together.”
Hovey’s self-proclaimed “aha” moment
came upon attending the 2010 Craft Brew-
ers Conference in Chicago, where he was
particularly struck by a brewery tour with his
wife. “I remember we were walking and we
saw the casks lining the walls,” he said. “I’d
been in love with the craft beer segment for
years and I’d developed a love for the taste of
aged beers. We drank a 6-year-old saison by
Unibroue, and fell in love with the concept
of making beers that will stand up to the test
of time and improve in complexity.”
He subsequently began writing a busi-
ness plan, and, because he was able to leave
his full-time job on good terms, got a few
former colleagues to sign on and invest.
Still, though the midlife transition was sort
of abrupt, it actually fit into a longstanding
plan for Hovey, now 51.
“I always envisioned myself starting a
business of my own,” he said. “I didn’t know
that it would be at midlife and it would have
to do with my love for homebrewing, but it
started to make more sense the more I be-
came a fan. My skill set was always more in
