Today we’d like to introduce you to Mike Condon.
Mike, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
There are three of us who started the business; myself, Paul Kreiner and Jim Cagle. We have been friends since middle school, Paul and I went to college together and all of us remain great friends up till today. Paul is the driver behind it all. He was in the beer world for a number of years on the sales/distribution side. After college Paul started home brewing and between brewing and working for a distributor he turned us on to craft beer. Much like a lot of friends we always talked about wanting more out of life and never settle for the norm.
These conversations often brought us to discussing the desire to open a business together but always concluded with one major questions, what was that one thing we wanted to do and be great at… As Paul’s passion for beer grew he went to school for brewing (Siebel Institute) and eventually it becomes clear that this was his one thing. With that, he confronted me and asked if I was interested in doing something with him and beer. It didn’t take long for us to have Jim involved and before we knew it we were making a business plan to open a brewery. With a ton of support from our families and friends, the brewery opened in December of 2014. As we approach our third anniversary we have seen tremendous growth and we currently planning an expansion to our current facility.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
It hasn’t always been a smooth road. However, I think we all expected for it to be tough and have things we were going to struggle with. This perspective and support from each other have allowed the struggles to always seem manageable.
Please tell us about Noon Whistle Brewing.
We are a small production brewery. When we started we focused mainly on session beers (5% ABV or less) but as we have evolved over the past three years we have gotten our hands into many new styles with much higher ABV, We brew only ales, but many, many styles. We have been getting a lot of attention for our “Gummy” beers which is a series of North East or New England style IPA. These can be described as hazy and juicy. Basically, it is a beer with a ton of hops and very little bitterness, they are delicious.
Our family and friends are very important to us and we want our employees and customer that come here to feel like they are a part of that family.
I think even if you don’t know where you are going sometimes as long as you are going with those that you trust and love you seem to find yourself at the right place. That might be what sets us apart, I would almost do just about anything for Jim or Paul and I know they would do the same for me. When you have three guys working together with that attitude there’s at least a chance we may do something great.
If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
Raised more capital, which in turn would allow for us to start with a larger facility. We discovered you never have enough space and you always need more equipment etc.
I would have put more time into developing and growing our tasting room.
Contact Info:
- Address: 800 E Roosevelt
Lombard, IL 60148 - Website: www.noonwhistlebrewing.com
- Phone: 630-376-6895
- Email: info@noonwhistlebrewing.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/noonwhistlebrewingco/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Noon-Whistle-Brewing-1381433485432405/
- Twitter: @NoonWhistle
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