Business & Tech

Lake Bluff Brewing Company Going Strong, Mulls Expansion

The owners of local microbrew started in 2009 are starting to consider what's next. The answer could be more beer.

By Jacob Nelson

Lake Bluff residents Rodd Specketer and Dave Burns decided to open Lake Bluff Brewing Company, unsurprisingly, while drinking beer.

The two neighbors were part of a brew club along with 13 others. Every few weeks they would meet, brew beer and drink.

"The 15 of us would get together and brew beer on a Tuesday night, and drink way too much, stay up till midnight and be dragging the next day at work," Specketer said from inside the brew pub, a small, welcoming storefront with wooden booths and a bar facing the front door. It was a sunny Friday afternoon and the two were preparing for another block party that Lake Bluff Brewing Company has been hosting this summer.

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"We're super happy to be a great local pub," Burns said. 

It's been a steep learning curve for the two friends who admittedly decided to open a microbrew in 2009 because they had no idea how hard doing so would be.

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"What actually made it work was the fact that we didn't think too much about it," Burns said with a laugh. "If we had listened to our wives a little bit more we probably wouldn't have done it."

It wasn't just a matter of improving the beer they were brewing, though that was important. It was hiring staff, finding and setting up a place and making much more beer than they were used to -- all while balancing kids and their other jobs. 

"We were coming from our day jobs I was jumping out of a suit and getting behind a bar," Specketer said. "It was unsustainable."

But the 70 to 80 hour weeks the two pulled in the beginning seem to have paid off. Lake Bluff Brewing Company has become a designated hangout for people in town, and a destination for people throughout Lake and Cook County. Publications like the Chicago Reader have even encouraged readers to take bike trips from Chicago to Lake Bluff, just for the beer.

"We've been able to establish our brand pretty well," Burns said. 

And while the work is tough, it's rewarding and, as you might imagine in a profession powered by beer, enjoyable.

"It's way more fun than working in a bank," said Specketer, who spends his days working for JP Morgan.

Specketer and Burns have expanded their staff so they can spend less time there. They've also hired Mike Dorneker as a master brewer and Pato Thornycroft as the Assistant to the Master Brewer.

"Hiring them was a huge step… to kind of keep things moving smoothly," Burns said.

Burns and Specketer now have more time. Not much, but enough to plan block parties in Lake Bluff and to consider what's next for their budding business. They don't bottle their beer yet to sell outside the bar, but they're thinking about it.

"We'd love to be in convenience stores," Specketer said. "This is the only spot we have right now and we've still done really well."

It might not happen anytime soon, but the two would also like to get a second space so they could brew more beer at a time to distribute to other bars.

"The scale isn't big enough (currently)," Burns said. The idea is to make it full time... How cool would that be?"

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