My buddy Andy at the Brewers Association shared this on Facebook and I got a huge laugh out of it. Since being in Colorado we’ve seen the number of breweries grow from about 120 to 350, so I’ve witnessed many good and ridiculously bad brewery names. Haters be hatin’. I’m sure there will be people who won’t like the name Inventors Brewpub, but let me tell you some background on the name and maybe you’ll come to understand a little more.
When I was in elementary and middle school I was involved in a program called Odyssey of the Mind.
Today there are Lego Leagues and Robot Wars and lots of opportunities; my school at least had O.M. One of my teams made a Rube Goldberg machine that was scored on all sorts of variables like creativity, accuracy (did it complete in the time we said it would), diversity of elements, etc. We took 3rd place at state competition that year. Another year we built a tiny one-person electric car that could drive in forward and reverse, oh and we only had a budget of $75! (Everybody’s bill of materials was scrutinized so that nobody was cheating.) It competed so well we took 1st at local, 1st at regional, 1st at state and got to compete in Knoxville, TN at the World Finals. We miscounted the number of laps we took and shorted ourselves points. Despite that we still took 11th overall out of 35+ countries that competed. It’s hard not to be influenced by an experience like that amongst other student “inventors.”
I was always good at math and was writing my own computer programs at age 10, so it was no surprise I decided to major in Engineering and attended UW-Platteville. I liked it so much that I couldn’t decide between Electrical or Mechanical Engineering, so I kind of did both by switching my EE major to Engineering Physics. Being a life-long learner, I also really enjoyed reading history on people like Thomas Edison, Nikola Tesla, and even more modern inventors like Dean Kamen.
After college I kept making things, usually tinkering in my workshop or office. Woodworking and electronics/microcontrollers were my two favorite hobbies until I could afford my own 3D printer. And now that laser engravers have come down in price, you’ll see more of that media from me as well. What a great time to live with smart phones and affordable microcomputers and drones and desk-top fabricators.
I wanted to share my enthusiasm towards these electro and mechanical contraptions that fill our lives. So a celebration of inventors and the inventors who created them inspired the logo. The Edison bulb with barley/wheat as the element and the mechanical sprocket came first and the name seemed to just fit. The green color is a tip to my Engineering Physics background. One of the jobs I applied for was a technician for a nuclear power plant (yes, like Homer Simpson). Nuclear lime green is a comical toxic waste color. It just looks cool.
When you come to Inventors Brewpub I hope you will be either educated, entertained or both and who knows, maybe somebody who visits will someday be inspired to become a great inventor too.
Prost!
eat.drink.invent.