“What kind of ramshackle operation are you running?”
These are the words Zack Bigelow’s father asked when he first saw his son’s homemade brewing equipment more than a decade ago. Today, Bigelow runs Ramshackle Brewing Company, a quaint brewery next to Olivia’s Chop House in Jonesville.
Since opening the doors in July 2019, Bigelow and his wife Jessy, along with fellow co-owner Joe Kesselring, have found success. The brewery’s revenues have doubled since the pandemic began, as more local restaurants carry their brews and more customers come to their welcoming, tight-knit brewery.
“You will leave here feeling like family,” Jessy Bigelow said. “You might be a stranger at first but we’re gonna know your name before you leave and you’re going to want to come back again and again.”
The brewery has a dry erase bar, bricks to paint on, open-mic nights on Wednesdays, and live entertainment on the weekends. What it doesn’t have are televisions.
“We want to be a little bit different and get people to actually talk to one another again,” Zack Bigelow said. “Everybody used to learn a little bit about a stranger every single day.”
This sense of community is what got Ramshackle through the difficulties of pandemic shutdowns, which hit just eight months after opening.
“What got me through was folks coming by and saying ‘I don’t even drink beer, but I want to buy a hoodie because I know you need to stay here,’” he said.
People frequently stopped by to buy hoodies and gift cards to keep the brewery afloat.
“I felt appreciated, like deep down appreciation,” he said. “The community said, ‘No, you’re not giving up.’”
Jessy said she was scared about being a new business navigating shutdowns with outdoor service and other restrictions.
“I was very scared because we were only eight months old and didn’t have a base level yet,” she said. “And to know that the community rallied behind us really made us feel welcomed and appreciated.”
The brewery has a revolving menu of six brews and local snacks like pretzel bread from Jonesville Bakery, roasted nuts from Cascarelli’s in Homer, and meat from Ferry Farms in Litchfield. Hungrier customers are welcome to bring in a pizza or takeout.
The most popular beer is their English Drizzle, an English-style IPA different from popular American-style IPAs.
“If I would have thought when we opened that an English-style IPA would be the number one seller I would have laughed,” he said.
Bigelow’s personal favorite is the “Czech Yo Self,” a Czech pilsner. While not necessarily a popular style, it is one of the most difficult beers to master.
“Any defect, whether it be a half a degree difference on your process, will show,” he said.
Drew Stella is one of the brewery’s “beer slingers,” a role he describes as being in charge of the taproom and making sure everyone has a full glass.
“I love interacting with everybody in the community,” he said, “and serving really good quality, fresh beer.”
Stella worked in marketing before joining Ramshackle full-time in June 2021. He encourages college students to “broaden their horizons” with different beers.
“Get past the standard beer your mother and father drank,” he said. “Get to know something that’s more mind-expanding.”
Bigelow opened the brewery nine years after making his first brew in October 2010. Ramshackle got up and running with the help of $350,000 raised from local investors and training from the Brewer’s Professional Alliance.
Bigelow, along with his fellow co-owners, owns 53% of the business.
“That’s what we really wanted to do is let anybody that followed our dream reap the rewards, too,” Bigelow said.
But before he could even consider opening the business, Bigelow had to master the art of beer making.
“I am self-taught with books,” he said. “Jessy is next to me reading, you know, some love storybook or whatever, and I’m reading this huge intense beer book on brewing.”
He always loved “the idea of flavor” and worked as a pastry chef right out of school. But the art of beer making did not come easy.
“It’s chemistry, it’s physics. And you’re dealing with a living thing—with the yeast it’s a living product from start to finish,” he said. “It really opened my mind to how much skill is needed to make a good beer.”
Bigelow quit his full-time job last year to manage Ramshackle full time, a move he expected three or four years into the venture. But the brewery’s success allowed it in just two.
“Every day is a different challenge,” he said. “We’re human. Every ounce wants to give up but you gotta stick with it.”
Jessy works a day job at Hillsdale Hospital, and Kesselring is stepping back to pursue his music career as a guitarist with the death metal band Throne.
Ramshackle distributes its beer to the Hunt Club, Johnny T’s Bistro, Saucy Dogs, Olivia’s Chop House, and other local restaurants.
Most outside orders started at 5-gallon kegs. Now restaurants ask for 15-gallon kegs.
“It’s all self-distribution. I throw it in my car and go,” Bigelow said.
Expanding its reach further is on the table since the brewery is at 65-70% of brewing capacity. Around 20% of its sales come from outside, while the store makes the rest.
The Bigelows encourage students, professors, and residents to stop by their brewery from 3 to 10 p.m. Tuesday-Friday and 12 to 10 p.m. on Sundays.
The growth since opening surprised Bigelow, especially given the pandemic.
“It’s strange that I was brewing once a week and now I’m brewing twice a week, pretty soon it’ll be three times,” he said.
Plans to expand the brewery into a production facility and larger bar are also in the works.
“We want it much, much bigger,” he said. “We’ll be looking at that seriously in another two years.”
For now, Ramshackle is open to all for a cold drink and quality conversation.
“Some of my favorite nights have been when we have a group of college people and professors and then guys that just got off work at Martinrea, just hanging out,” he said, “you know, swapping stories and buying rounds.”
