Hello!  I hope this finds all of you well and healthy during these crazy times. 

I just had to post something that was on my heart tonight.  Some of you know that tomorrow is the grand opening of our long awaited brewery, Third Eye Brewing Company.  This is Tom's dream come true.  Tom has been brewing beer in our basement for years and years, close to ten years.  The guys who have brewed with him have changed over the years and the brewing configuration in our basement has expanded and eventually taken over a majority of our basement area, but Tom has never given up on his dream.  I jokingly called the set up in our basement the "meth lab", as often I'd hear the guys down there yelling that something was overflowing, exploding or on fire! 😳 

When Maya relapsed for the 3rd time, the beer brewing was put on the back burner.  And when she passed away it was still a thing of the past.  But as time went on, Tom started to tinker around down there and soon his brother, Tim, joined him.  Tim, has always been Tom's faithful brewing companion, and then Tom Schaefer joined in and brought along Terry Krieg and Mark Buchy.  And the partnership was complete.  The "meth lab" was in overdrive again and the beer was flowing!

After a while it was decided (a large part of this was yours truly telling them to get the meth lab out of my basement!) that they needed to move this craziness out of our basement and the search for a brewery location had begun.  They searched for 2 years before they landed on Sharonville and the Northern Lights District.  Sharonville is an up-and-coming area that currently does not have any breweries.  The location is directly across from the Sharonville Convention Center and is surrounded by hotels, one of them (the one next door) owned by friends that we have known for years!  It was a perfect location and the city has been amazing to us.  They have embraced us with open arms!

Then the search for brewers and a chef began.  Tom Schaefer's daughter, Chloe, is a microbiologist and a graduate of the University of California-Davis master brewer certificate program.  And how awesome to have a female brewer!!  Shortly after posting a job request for another qualified brewer, we received a message from Kelly Montgomery, a very well known and award winning brewer in Cincinnati. They are the perfect pair!

So the quest for a chef began.  Months ago, out of the blue, I received an email from Steven Vanderpool who was in Houston and looking for work in Cincinnati as he planned to move back home (he is from Cincy). He had Googled "graphic designers in Mason" and my name popped up.  I worked with him to update his resume and was very impressed with his credentials (and drooling over his food pics!).  Fast forward several months, Covid was hitting and we were in desperate need of a chef.  I mentioned to Tom that maybe we should give Steven a call as maybe he still was unemployed due to the pandemic. Tom called "Cheffy" and they hit it off and he indeed was still job searching.  

How lucky are we?!  The menu Steven has been working on is incredible.  The beer that Chloe and Kelly are creating is perfection.  Our kitchen and brewery staff are amazing and we already feel like they are part of our family. We are so blessed.

Maya knew that her daddy's dream was to open a brewery. I truly believe that she is showering us with her pixie dust as everything is completely falling into place. We had a few soft openings last weekend to iron out the kinks and it went beautifully.  On Sunday night, as the staff was sharing a celebratory drink, Steven mentioned that Maya has been visiting him in his dreams, even though he never had the privilege to meet her.  How amazing is that?  I still think it's crazy that Steven Googled for a graphic designer and my name popped up... some little angel must've had a hand in this! 😇 

Third Eye has partnered with the Live Life Maya Foundation and we have some exciting fundraising plans in the works.  We hope to make Maya proud.  Thank you Maya for helping to make your Daddy's dream come true. We know that you have a big part in this.  

For more info about the brewery, check out these articles that were published today:

The Enquirer
365 Cincinnati

And be sure to follow us on social media at Third Eye Brewing Company.

Wish us luck for tomorrow and we hope to see you all at our brewery sometime in the near future!!

#LiveLifeDoGoodDrinkBeer
#LiveLifeDoGoodSaveLives
#GoodThingsAreBrewing