The secret ingredients in the beers brewed at one hometown shop on Vine Street might just be friendship and community spirit.
Bronze Owl Brewing will celebrate its first anniversary as a brick-and-mortar business on Saturday with the kind of get together that's fitting for the creators the 573 cream ale, the coffee dark Charles Bronson and the lightly sweet Black Cherry Shandy -- a block party that offers a little something for everyone.
The street in front of the business will be closed from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. for family friendly entertainment, music and games.
Bronze Owl was created by craft brewers Travis Taylor, Mike White and Jon Trammell, a group of Poplar Bluff friends who say the joy of making their product and doing something good for the community is an objective they have achieved.
"I like to see people's faces when they drink it ... I think that's what got me hooked, plus I just like the process of it and the science behind it," said Taylor, who was the first to start brewing, joined about five years ago by White and Trammell.
Their beer is brewed 20 gallons at a time, on site, using a variety of grains and hops. Each batch is its own unique kind of science experiment. Everything from the water and grain temperatures, to the barometric pressure, as well as when hops are introduced, can impact the outcome, they explained.
"We change a lot of our recipes. Our 573 has changed multiple times, for the better each time usually," Taylor said. "That's the fun part, coming up with different beers all the time and trying different hops combinations, different grain combinations, and seeing what works and what doesn't."
The process starts with soaking grain in hot water to extract the sugar. Different grains provide different flavors, just like with bread, Trammell said.
The liquid -- or wort -- that results from this is moved to a brew kettle, where it is boiled, becoming more concentrated, Taylor said. Hops is added during the process. Introduced early, the plant can add bitterness. Put in late, it provides more aroma.
Yeast is combined with the mixture when it has cooled to at least 70 degrees. The yeast eats the sugar in the wort, creating alcohol, said Taylor, a Poplar Bluff native and city firefighter.
The entire process takes six to eight hours per batch.
"You never have a favorite because every time you make something new, you're like, 'Oh I like that.' We're going to make it better and better, and about that time, you find something else you like," White explained, joking, "You have to be a little bit ADHD in order to enjoy it."
Bronze Owl currently has nine of its own creations on tap, along with selections of wine and liquor.
But the location shouldn't be mistaken for a bar. That's why it serves lunch and dinner, as well as providing high chairs and games for children.
"None of us wanted to be bar owners. We looked to being family friendly, a family environment, offering something nobody else in this town has offered the community," White continued. "That's part of why we came to the downtown."
This business, an experiment in it's own way, has always been about providing something unique, the men said.
"Every one of us live here. We spend all of our money here. We pay all of our taxes here. Everything we do, we put right back into this business," said White, who grew up in Ellsinore and now runs a business repairing transmissions. "We don't take anything out of it. It stays here for the community. This is something all three of us knew would not be profitable for us, but we gave something to the community."
Many visitors have told the men they made a special stop in Poplar Bluff to try a local brewery. People from Oregon said they traveled three hours out of their way, the men said, and a group of business people from out of state made this their home base while working in southern Missouri and Illinois.
A year after the doors opened, the best part is the people they get to share their experiences with, said Trammell, a Puxico native who works as a medical device sales representative.
"It's that and knowing we've created something nobody else has," White said, of what the men say is Poplar Bluff's first microbrewery.
Bronze Owl expects to start providing beer to go and should have cans available in the next month.
They are also experimenting with craft sodas, or at least the daughters of Bronze Owl are, Taylor said. The men have seven daughters combined, who have recently taken up brewing. Their first attempt was a vanilla cream soda, and an orange soda may be up next, he said.
Bronze Owl is also hosting a fundraiser in October for John J. Pershing VA Medical Center employee Vicky Slaughter, who is undergoing treatment for breast cancer. A percentage of proceeds from the pink Black Cherry Shandy will be donated to Slaughter.