The Star Spangled Brewing Co.
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tar Spangled Brewing Co is an entire vibe. The warm lighting, open space, bubbling brew, and friendly faces are the perfect combination for an amazing night, every night. The warehouse space is both functional, and completely cool. Sitting at one of the big wooden spool tables, with the big garage bay doors open, sipping on a seasonal fave is the best way to spend a summer evening. Star Spangled Brewing Co. has taken over the Clarksville scene, and is expanding even further. We recently got the chance to catch up with owner, Joshua Romaker. First, could you tell us a little bit about you, your background, and your career in the military? Finishing up my career in the 5th Special Forces Group, Ft. Campbell Ky. I had given 22 years of service, 13 of which were in Special Forces as a Green Beret, including 7 combat deployments and countless other foreign travel. I decided to go all in financially on a brewery, using my own money and cashing in everything I had to purchase a small 3-barrel system (93 gallons), ordering and coordinating delivery of the equipment through limited connectivity while deployed overseas. Retiring from Active duty, I had already created The Star Spangled Brewing Co. a family oriented, unapologetically patriotic, upscale microbrewery. My sense of family, community and my passion for brewing had brought me into creating great American Made Craft Beer, leaving the military and bringing my carefully crafted beer to Clarksville and the State of Tennessee.
84 • JUNE 2021 | THE MEN’S ISSUE
How did you get into brewing? I actually began my career brewing as a Distiller. I would make different distilled spirits at my house, Then I was given a Mister Beer all extract brewing kit for my birthday. I made it the next day and a few weeks later I tasted it, it was horrible. I bought another and it was a little better. I then switched to all grain brewing and that’s when my creative side took off. I was creating recipes and learning the grains and yeasts and how they paired with each other. Ya see, I have a personality fault where I want to be the best at whatever I do, and brewing beer has limitless possibilities. This naturally keeps me intrigued and wanting to constantly learn more from whoever I can. All of this to try to be the best brewer I can. Needless to say, I
began purchasing bigger and better equipment as I went. I remember thinking how awesome it was when I purchased my first stainless steel kettle! No more brewing in plastic Home Depot buckets for this guy! Over several years I had pieced together a 1bbl brew system in my garage which is 31 gallons. I would brew once or twice a week to fill my fermenters which were kept in a temperaturecontrolled room that I had created in my garage by using a window A/C unit and a piece of equipment called a Coolbot which allows you to hack and override the internal thermostat on A/C units and let you run them down to 34 degrees if you wanted. This was ideal for my fermentation room.
