So tell us the story.

I’ve wanted to start a brewery of my own for awhile. I’m not new to brewing; I started in Austrian home brewing circles over fifteen years ago, which was a hoot. I’ve had the pleasure of working at one of Vermont’s original craft breweries, Magic Hat, from 2015 until the pandemic in 2020. I started there hefting kegs around, and worked my way up to working as head brewer in charge of wort production and fermentation from 2018 to 2020.

That’s nice. What about Lucy and Howe?

I brew beer in an old house in Jericho, VT. It was built way back in 1850-something by Lucien Howe, father of Frank Howe. The two of them ran the Red Mill in Jericho for a time, and were the ones responsible for modernizing the mill and installing a multi-roller system. They made flour, more or less, which as it happens is very close to what I do when I start to brew.

I was telling my daughter this story one day, while she was helping me put together one of the brewing vessels. I was talking about Lucien building the house, and how much work that must have been, so many years ago.

Lena, who at the time was 5, did not hear the story as I told it. She kept going on about how nice it was that the builder had a friend, someone she could rely on when things got tough and she needed some help.

Huh?

I was telling a story about the guy who built our house, Lucien Howe. My daughter heard a fascinating tale about a crack 1850s carpenter named Lucy, and her somewhat bumbling assistant, Howe.

Lucy and Howe, that mysterious and legendary team.