Hey, hey, it’s the Monk

You might think Modern Monk would be the next Belgian-style brewery on the local horizon. But you’d be wrong.

 “It does kind of sound Belgian, but we’re more taking the British monk angle,” says brewer Thomas Croskrey.  “I’m really into British styles, Old World styles, as well as American beers.”

He and business partner Dave Musser recently signed a lease for their location, a former mechanic shop at 2017 N. Monroe, and have applied for state and federal licenses.

They’re starting small, with a one-barrel system. “We don’t want to overextend ourselves,” Croskrey says.

Croskrey, 33, who picked up homebrewing a few years ago after watching a friend, says he’s still dialing in recipes for the brewery. One style he’s excited about is braggot, a type of mead made with malt in addition to honey that originated in Wales.

“It’s something not a lot of people know about,” Croskrey says. “We won’t be doing exclusively, but we’ll have a few. You can pretty much do braggot with any base beer syle – porter braggot, IPA braggot.”

If all goes well, he’s hoping for a soft opening this summer.

“We’re trying to be ambitous, but we’re also trying to be flexible in our own heads, so we don’t get frustrated,” the landscaper says. “I’m not quitting my day job, by any means.

“We’re taking some big steps – securing that building, going through licensing. We know it’s going to be kind of crazy, but hopefully a good kind of crazy.”