By Chris Cornwall
People have been consuming beer since the beginning of recorded history. But nine years ago, it was beer that consumed Plainfield resident Bobby Klene, making it that is.
He had just finished his first ever batch with a homebrew kit he bought for $100 at Great Fermentations. It was drinkable, Klene said, and what started as a hobby, soon turned into a passion.
“I just love beer and I became obsessed,” said Klene, an electrical engineer by trade.
Over the next few years, Klene worked on recipes from his garage and eventually became ingrained in the local homebrew community. But it wasn’t until 2016 when he became friends Mike Huffman, a software engineer and fellow craft beer enthusiast, that Klene considered going into business.
At the time, Huffman’s wife was friends with Klene’s now ex-wife, so a meeting was inevitable.
“Normally, I hate those kinds of meetings because you’re forced to hang out with a guy you don’t know,” Klene laughed. “But I found out that we are like-minded with a passion for beer and food. ‘Instant friends’ is the best way to describe it.”
Klene said the idea to start a business came up while the two were enjoying a beer, of course.
“We started drinking and talking about how we could do something that’s more fun than our day jobs,” Klene said.
They continued to work their day jobs but spent nights and weekends laying the groundwork for their business, Mind Over Mash Brewing Co., which opened on May 12th in Brownsburg.
“We have a really good vision of where we want to take this,” Huffman said. “Today, you’re seeing breweries start to close, which you didn’t see 5 years ago, and people are saying it’s because the industry is on a downturn. But that’s not true. I think the industry is getting to the point where you have to make a great product to stick around.”
It seems Klene and Huffman are willing to go to great lengths to produce a great product. In fact, they said they “build water from scratch.” An example would be treating water so it matches what’s found in Dublin, Ireland, to create an Irish Stout, which they did.
“I think that is what it takes in this industry to be different and good. I’m not making beer to make beer. Every batch of beer is something that I truly worked hard on and care about.”
Mind Over Mash Brewing Co. is located at 486 Southpoint Circle, Ste. 106, Brownsburg. For more information, visit mindovermashbeer.com.