Solemn Oath Brewery Has No Growing Pains During First Year In Business

Before the owners of Solemn Oath Brewery built the brewery’s infrastructure, they were preparing for growth, anticipating its growing customer base would require it to produce more beer.

Celebrating one year in business as of May 17 (the taproom opened May 19), Solemn Oath’s growth is about six months ahead of schedule and has its owners, John, company president, and Joe Barley, managing partner, planning to branch out distribution.

“We have a Naperville following and have a lot of support here,” he said. “It snowballed ahead of where our projections were. We are still a Chicagoland brewery and a great deal of our beer goes to the city, places ahead of the curve.”

Plans are underway to branch out distribution of the craft beer outside of the Chicagoland area into larger areas in Illinois, Wisconsin, California and New York. In addition, beer is being sent to Denmark this month for a tap take over at the bar Mikkeler in Copenhagen.

When Solemn Oath hit the craft beer market in May 2012, it started off with 25 business accounts and added 10 new accounts a week until the early fall, Barley said. Solemn Oath stopped taking on new accounts.

Then, in January the business added tanks, which provided 57 percent more brewing capacity, John Barley said. With plans to install additional tanks soon, Solemn Oath’s capacity will grow another 54 percent.

In 2012, Solemn Oath produced 780 barrels of beer (a US barrel is 31 gallons), Barley said. In 2013, it is anticipated that production will be closer to 3,000 barrels.

The room for growth is there. Chicago has about 14 breweries producing craft beer, as compared to an area like San Diego County, which has about 60 breweries.

Locally, the beer can be found at the Bavarian Lodge in Lisle, Jackson Avenue Pub, Front Street Cantina, Heaven on 7 and World of Beer. So far, Solemn Oath does not sell packaged beer, but as it grows and expands, plans are in the works to bottle the beer and begin selling it in some stores.  

As Solemn Oath has grown and expanded over the last year, the number of employees has also grown. When it first opened, the brewery employed four full-time employees and one part-time employee. Now, it has five full-timers and 12 part-timers.

The employees bring multidimensional experience to the job, John Barley said, adding one employee is a Yale graduate who was a teacher.

Tim Marshall, the head brewer, who previously worked at Rock Bottom, wasn’t formally trained, Barley said.

“He was a learn-by-fire guy. He understands the process and making as clean a beer as possible,” he said.

At Solemn Oath, there are no test batches of beer. They brew 30 kegs at a time and nothing is left to chance, Barley said. Using a spreadsheet, they basically look at the numbers and understand what different grains will do to the beer.

In addition, they don’t have a silo for grain because they don’t know what they will want to make. Rather than having one IPA they are known for, they hope in time the drinkers will help them determine what beers are best.

Over the course of a year, they serve between 65 to 70 different beers and at Solemn Oath they try and change it up as much as possible. Many of the brewery’s fans come in several times a week.

The growth in the craft beer industry is due in part to the more complex flavors and also a local movement that allows patrons to visit the taproom and buy the beer directly from the people who make it.

“We are four-feet away. I love making that connection. My favorite thing to do is washing glass, having conversations that show the passion we have. We love people and love meeting our patrons. It gives us the opportunity to shake hands and tell people why we are doing what we are doing.”

Solemn Oath Brewery is located at 1661 Quincy Ave., #179, Naperville, IL. You can also find them on Facebook.