We were lucky to catch up with Elliott Ivory recently and have shared our conversation below.

Elliott, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?

Vine Street Brewing is prepping to open in early 2023 and it will be the first Black-owned brewery in Kansas City, focusing on bringing craft beer to many communities. Local musician and beer enthusiast Kemet Coleman dreamed of opening a brewery in Kansas City but had had little success up until now. That is where Woodie Bonds, member of Ford Motor Company and creator of the Hip Hops Hooray beer festival, comes in.

Coleman came across a building in the historic Jazz district and felt like he was finally close to achieving the brewery he had dreamed of. He then contacted one of the most serious craft brewers he knew, Woodie Bonds, to propose a business partnership. Bonds said, “Kemet called and said he had an opportunity he wanted to run by me, and after thinking about it, I told him I was in as long as I could bring Elliott Ivory in with me.”

Ivory is another local homebrewer that Bonds claims helps balance him out, referring to him jokingly as his “brew-mother.” “He doesn’t tell me no when I start to go off the rails on my creative side, but he offers suggestions on what might work better and helps balance me,” Bonds stated. Ivory’s analytical side blended with Bonds’ creativity will produce fantastic results.

The trio’s location is perfect for achieving their goals, with the building boasting enough space for a taproom and a possible outdoor area for a patio or beer garden.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

My name is Elliott Ivory and I live Olathe, KS where I was raised for most of my life. My curiosity of craft beer started when my fraternity brother, Logan Grieder, approached me with the idea to start brewing beer at home in 2014. The first beer we made was a American Porter. Unfortunately the beer turned out to be terrible, however the process was so intriguing that our passion to chase a delicious drinkable beer did not stop there. We continued to hone our craft and later together created a homebrewing brand known as Wiz Brewing. Under this name we attended many homebrewing festivals, competitions and met various professional and homebrewers in the community.

Fast forward to the height of the pandemic, I receive a call from Woodie Bonds, a local homebrewer/beer festival owner that I had met at Hip Hops Hooray, asking me if I would like to start a brewery. At first I was extremely skeptical of the situation. However after having a meeting with him and Kemet Coleman, I could tell that this brewery would be special and it was exactly what Kansas City needed.

Now, about one year into starting this project and we are looking to be open for business in February of 2023. Even though we have not sold one beer yet we have collaborated and brewed with 15 different breweries between Kansas and Missouri, meeting local professionals in the industry. Through these collaborations it has helped us grow our brand and fan base to support a successful opening.

Okay – so how did you figure out the manufacturing part? Did you have prior experience?

I learned about the brewing process from homebrewing, reading books and shadowing other professional brewers in the KC area. At first beer brewing started out as a hobby. I started with beer kits which yielded 5 gallons of beer, that essentially all you needed to do is dump the sugary substance into a pot of hot water, add hops and then ferment the mixture. As I became more comfortable with this process I moved to a process known as “all-grain” in which I was able to create more complexed beers due to using different types of barley, wheat, rye and other grains. Classic homebrewing books such as “How to Brew” by John Palmer, “Radical Brewing” by Randy Mosher and “Designing Great Beers” by Ray Daniels also helped further my knowledge in the brewing and recipe formulation process. Also along the brewing journey local professional brewers have been key to my success of learning the process. Brewing 5 gallons of beer vs 220 gallons of beer poses quite a bit different challenges. It has been very beneficial to have brewers already in the industry ready to call and talk about brewing as we get our own brewhouse set up.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

I think what’s been the most beneficial to building Vine Street Brewing Co.’s reputation in the market is the amount of collaborations we have done with other local breweries. Since we don’t have our own brewhouse completely finished we are able to take some of our recipes and scale them up at other brewhouses. This has allowed us to give the KC market a sneak peak of what kind of styles of beer we plan to make once we are open.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://vinestbrewing.com/
• Instagram: @vinestbrewingco
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/vinestbrewing
• Linkedin: Vine Street Brewing Co.
• Twitter: @vinestbrewing

Image Credits
BJ Sampson, Sensei Brands