ABOUT KELSEY CITY BREWING
The Kelsey City Brewing Company is the culmination of rich history, friendships, and a love of craft beer. Founded by Jo Brockman, her son AJ Brockman, and a 30-year friend of the family John Hampp, this endeavor was the natural progression for Jo and AJ. They started The Brewhouse Gallery in 2014 as an artist co-op that just continued to evolve. Over the years their work has turned this craft beer bar, music venue, and art gallery into a community staple that has led to the revitalization of the area. Other businesses, breweries, restaurants, artists, and musicians have followed giving birth to what is now known as The Lake Park Arts District. Among all the success, there was still something missing… The ability to produce their own beer! So, in 2020 they joined forces with award-winning brewmaster and lifelong friend John Hampp. Now, the ecosystem is complete and they are able to produce some of the highest quality craft beer, entertainment, artist opportunities, and above all provide for the incredible community that has graciously supported them from the beginning.
A note from our Brewmaster John...
I’ve been around beer all of my life, from pouring beers for my grandfather as a kid, to learning to brew beer in a college lab class. My journey progressed into becoming a homebrewer and finally professional brewer. When a group of strangers became friends at a local restaurant that had just added a brewery, We were excited to learn that most of us were in fact homebrewers ourselves.
In 2012 two of those friends decided to step up our homebrewing and build the home brewery of our dreams. No more plastic buckets and glass carboys because our new homebrew system was going to be what all the professionals had, stainless steel. This would make it easier for us to brew any style of beer we wanted to brew. and thus 2ManBrew was born. That is where my passion took a more serious turn to allow me to have a brewery of my own one day. The early days were tough, sometimes dumping entire batches, but that is how you learn. All along we were making beers we liked to drink, exploring many styles, and developing our own recipes. Soon brew days were not 2 or 3 of us but instead grew to a dozen or more folks hanging out to enjoy our beers while we were making new ones.
When we joined the Treasure Coast Brewmasters homebrew club we learned that there were several competitions within the state where we could enter our beers. Not only was this an opportunity for exposure but it was also a great opportunity for feedback. Improving on that feedback, we started picking up medals for the beers we entered. At this point, we were producing pretty much every style from ales and lagers to mixed culture wild ales. Homebrewers love to brew. It seemed like a natural progression at some point for that hobby to lead to a desire to brew professionally. Thus began my plan to open a brewery.
When a chance meeting occurred at The Brewhouse Gallery about the potential of building a brewery there, a new plan was formed and The Kelsey City Brewing Company came to life. Our focus is on working to create new flavors and beers we like to drink while honoring the history of our area.