When Erik Cloe and Jake Walton met as Battle Ground High School students, the duo had no idea they’d one day end up going into business together.
But through a mutual love of beer, the two, who are both 25, have decided to go for broke and open their own brewery in Clark County.
They’ve already secured a business and liquor license, but the next step is a bit harder. They’re trying to find money to get their dream off the ground.
They’ve launched a Kickstarter campaign to get $25,000 to buy equipment for the brewery, which is linked from their website at http://www.doomsdaybrewing.com. Ideally, they’d like to get a three-barrel brewing system, which would cost $60,000, Cloe said.
“I learned about Kickstarter on a random Google search, and I thought it was a great idea to have a bunch of people come together to fund our brewery,” Cloe said.
If it doesn’t work out, though, the pair will likely go for a small-business loan for the larger brewing system, he said.
“Either way we’re hoping to open in either downtown Vancouver or Ridgefield sometime in April,” Cloe said. “That’s our goal, anyway.”
The pair picked the name Doomsday Brewing after reading about all the apocalypse fears this year, they said.
“So we made it through Dec. 21 and nothing happened,” Cloe said. “Now we’re waiting for the next prediction.”
Their beers will all have a doomsday theme, he added, such as Nuclear IPA, Solar Flare Wheat, Blackout Chocolate Stout, Prepper Pumpkin Brown Ale and Plague Vanilla Porter.
The two twenty-somethings hope to start out with a tasting room that’s open all week, and eventually to expand into a full-service brewpub with food.
“We all plan to either go to part time or quit our day jobs to do what it takes to make this work,” Cloe said.
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