- I was a Philosophy major at Kent State.

I also studied Psychology, I also studied Religion.

So I loved that those three things brought me into a church where the beer that we're creating is being served.

Sometimes it seems like that is the only reason why I'm here is to brew beer.

(Jennifer laughs) I found my purpose.

(upbeat music) Hi, I'm Jennifer Hermann.

I'm the head brewer here at Bell Tower Brewing company in beautiful Kent, Ohio.

- I'm Bridget Tipton, and I'm the designer for the project.

- And I am Ryan Tipton, I'm also a co-founder and the general manager.

- I started home brewing about 23 years ago.

I'm still pretty fascinated by the whole fermentation process and by the whole combination of art and science that brewing brings.

- Jennifer and I met about 10 years ago, Jennifer was hosting a local home brew demonstration in her driveway.

After connecting on the home brew level five years later, we got serious about pursuing a brewery in Kent.

- Took us a while to get to this point.

We looked at every single building I think that was available and this building became an opportunistic dream come true.

- [Ryan] The second we all walked in, we knew this was the place.

- We are the third group to take care of this property since it was built, it's held a lot of different functions over its long life.

It was built in 1858 and there were three additions to the building.

And the area that the brewery is in now was built in 1915, and that was the last addition.

So yeah, a lot of history that's already taken place here.

(upbeat music) - I'm gonna talk to you a little bit about, where I am in my brew process today, I'm brewing our Kolsch, which we call, Klosch.

And the reason is because the first time we brew this beer, I had a technical difficulty with my brand new brew house, so it didn't quite turn out to be a Kolsch, but it was Klosch.

(Jennifer laughs) So we're doing it again.

So I will tell you that this system is a 10 barrel system.

One barrel of beer equals 31 gallons, so it's about 290 to 310 gallons, I'm getting in the fermentor at the end of this process.

The more beer you have, the more fun you have, right?

Now, this is hot wort.

There is hops in here 'cause I'm first worting, which means I'm adding hops before the boil.

This is simply just chilling down the wort, so I can take a proper reading to see where our gravity is at.

And that gravity is gonna tell us what our potential alcohol is at the end.

So this is just a quick reading to make sure that I'm on the right track and it looks like I am on the right track.

So once beer is done, it just means that the yeast has done its job.

There's nothing more for it to do, and now it just needs to rest and then it can be consumed.

So this is the German style Pilsner.

(guitar music) Which we have named Geist der Glocke, which means "spirit of the bell."

(soft cheerful music) Really nice.

- [Ryan] We couldn't have chosen a better response from the community I think, as soon as we opened that door.

- It's crazy to imagine people who you just don't know at all, willing to come here and support the business.

Beer does have the power to bring people together.

And when you've got an agloric space like this, where it's extremely inviting and you have room to share and enjoy life with your friends, if you have those beers that are conducive to that kind of socialization, I think it's great.

Beer is very, very simple.

Talking about it can be very complicated, but enjoying it shouldn't be.

Cheers.

(soft cheerful music ends) - Ideastream public media received support from PNC bank, which has made a home in the heart of Cleveland by investing in businesses, communities and people, focusing on giving back as part of an ongoing commitment to the communities that PNC serves.

PNC Bank, National Association, member FDIC.