More than a decade ago the craft beer movement arrived in Stillwater, establishing a renewed sense of community to the downtown district.
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LOCAL BREWS
More than a decade ago the craft beer movement arrived in Stillwater, establishing a renewed sense of community to the downtown district.
Iron Monk founders Jerod Millirons and Dave Monks were part of the lobbying effort that changed Oklahoma’ s liquor laws to allow breweries to sell the high-point beer they produce in their own taprooms.
This served as a driving force for revitalization, leading to the redevelopment of commercial buildings that had sat vacant and forgotten for years. It all started with Iron Monk Brewing Company: as local as it gets.
Iron Monk Brewing Company brought the craft beer movement to Stillwater in 2014, when founders Jerod Millirons and Dave Monks began sharing their love of artisanal beer by opening the city’ s first brewery and tap room in a long-vacant commercial building that had previously housed the AT & T telephone office.
“ It was just two guys and a dream, trying to get away from being professors,” Iron Monk Head of Marketing and Sales Derek Fix said.
But it wasn’ t as simple as tearing out drop ceilings and cubicles and opening the doors to eager customers. Despite the craft beer scene’ s popularity across the country, when Iron Monk opened Oklahoma’ s more restrictive liquor laws still prohibited what had become normal in many other states. Sale of high-point beer was limited to liquor stores, which prevented breweries from distributing or serving their products cold in their own tap rooms.
Millirons and Monk were part of the group that lobbied Oklahoma’ s legislature, making an economic case for updating the law. They were ultimately successful but until the 2016 passage of Senate Bill 424, Iron Monk had to find a workaround.“ We couldn’ t sell beer so you had to buy the glass and the beer just happened to be in it,” Fix said.
Ten years later, Iron Monk is a fixture in downtown Stillwater with a well-established clientele,
Iron Monk Original
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