For Gerrit Lewis and Beejay Oslon, co-founders of Pipeworks Brewery Company, brewing great beer is about more than just having the right skills. Brewing great beer is about having passion, working together as a team, and bouncing all kinds of ideas off each other until you can’t remember who suggested what. Since its humble beginnings in Chicago, Pipeworks has grown immeasurably, and its team can’t wait to share all its unique products with the Region.
Oslon and Lewis met each other in 2008 while working together at West Lakeview Liquors in Chicago. Back then, a lot of craft beer was still mostly coming from Europe and hadn’t become super popular in the United States yet, but West Lakeview carried all kinds of unique brews. It’s there that the young duo discovered and absolutely fell in love with craft beer.
The owner of West Lakeview knew that Oslon and Lewis were interested in learning more about craft beer, so she helped them get in contact with the owner of De Struise Brouwers, a microbrewery in Belgium. The owner of De Struise invited the boys out to Belgium so they could help him out at his combination ostrich farm and brewery and learn a thing or two about crafting beer.
After working and learning as much as they could for three months, Oslon and Lewis brewed their first original Pipeworks beers in Belgium. Not too much later, they came back to the States with a passion to get started, an idea for a business name, and hardly a dime to their names.
Kickstarter was starting to grow at that time, so the duo applied to Kickstarter to get the funding they needed to get their brewery idea off the ground. They got funded, and Pipeworks became the second brewery ever to get its start from Kickstarter.
The pair found a location to brew at in Chicago near Bucktown and Wicker Park and officially started brewing and self-distributing in 2012. That very first year of business, RateBeer awarded Pipeworks the New Brewery of the Year award.
“It was just really cool,” said Lewis.
Things took off from there, and in 2015, the duo decided to move their operations to a bigger 25,000-square-foot facility in Logan Square. Pipeworks quickly became known for its innovation – in 2020 alone, Oslon and Lewis brewed 99 different packaged beers. In total, they’ve brewed over 1000 unique beers.
“We do everything from American kettle sours to imperial stouts to lagers. We really cover the whole spectrum of brewing. We just developed a new Italian pilsner called Alla Salute which is basically a dry-hopped lager. Really, what sets us apart is our ability to do a bit of everything,” said Lewis.
Pipeworks also became known for its incredible, eclectic-style packaging. After brewing so many different kinds of beers, the pair knew they needed unique pieces of artwork to capture each individual product. They enlisted the help of their artist friends and started creating all types of artwork.
“We have a wide spectrum of different artists and perspectives, which makes it really fun. It’s neat to see Pipeworks imagined and captured in so many different ways,” said Lewis.
Today, Oslon and Lewis have continued to grow and expand their brewery. Pipeworks has a small team that self-distributes beer in Illinois, and Milwaukee and Madison in Wisconsin. It also partners with several distributors throughout the country. Right now, its products are sold in almost 20 different states.
In fact, Pipeworks just formed a partnership with Indiana Beverage to start growing here in Northwest Indiana. Oslon and Lewis have been close with many people in the Northwest Indiana community for years and are beyond excited to share their love for craft beer with the Region.
“Working with Indiana Beverage has been great; we’re so excited. We have so many brewery friends in Indiana, especially in Northwest Indiana–3 Floyds Brewing in Munster has invited us to Dark Lord Day many times. We’re just really happy to bring Pipeworks beer to our neighbors. It’s such a natural thing,” said Lewis.
Lewis and Oslon have high hopes for the future. In 2019, they had plans to open up a Pipeworks brew pub, but COVID-19 disrupted their plans. They hope to soon open a small tasting room at the Pipeworks production facility so more people can come out and see what Pipeworks Brewing is all about.
The pair also strives to keep improving on all the wonderful products they make and share them with as many people as they can. They can’t wait to attend more beer festivals here in Northwest Indiana and have people give their amazing beers a try.
“It’s just great beer – we've been making great beer for 10 years. I think a lot of people in the beer world, especially in Northwest Indiana, know Pipeworks, so hopefully they're excited that we're a little more accessible to them. For those people that don't know about Pipeworks, I think we’ll attract a lot of people between our art and our flavors,” said Lewis.
To learn more about Indiana Beverage and its goal to bring more amazing breweries like Pipeworks Brewing into the Region, visit indianabev.com.
To learn more about Pipeworks Brewing Company and check out all its amazing products, visit pdubs.net.
