{"id":73,"date":"2014-05-01T17:32:25","date_gmt":"2014-05-01T17:32:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/visions\/?p=73"},"modified":"2018-02-08T13:38:22","modified_gmt":"2018-02-08T13:38:22","slug":"going-with-the-grain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/visions\/going-with-the-grain\/","title":{"rendered":"Going with the grain"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"calfkiller-banner\"<\/a>Don (left) and Dave Sergio, owners of Calfkiller Brewery<\/p>\n

Tech’s Sergio Brothers brew sustainable suds and encourage grassroots practices.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Along a narrow windy road a few hundred yards from one of Tennessee\u2019s more interestingly named rivers is a small, reconstructed horse barn, a multicolored Volkswagen van and a delicious smell.<\/p>\n

It is the home of the Calfkiller Brewery, owned by Tech alumni Dave, journalism \u201902, and Don Sergio.<\/p>\n

\"calfkiller_1\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Dozens of visitors filter through the White County brewery most Saturdays. On a Tuesday afternoon in October, 10 current Tech students in Lachelle Norris\u2019 Sociology of Appalachia course came by to learn about the brewery\u2019s local and sustainable practices. While there, the upperdivision students sampled a few beers as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were talking about voluntary simplicity, environmental sustainability and working to create an economy that\u2019s based not on growth but on sustainability,\u201d Norris said. \u201cThe Sergio brothers just fit perfectly. They are grassroots: They\u2019re local, and they\u2019re running their own show.\u201d<\/p>\n

The class spent the semester visiting a variety of cottage and local businesses, with an eye to creating a website that catalogs the businesses and their methods. Students have interviewed soap makers, honey producers, artists and artisans, and several farmers around the Upper Cumberland with the goal of helping build a network and introduce area residents to the traditional, grassroots economy.<\/p>\n

\"calfkiller2\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cIt was neat that we were included because beer making wasn\u2019t something that has been passed down to us,\u201d Dave Sergio said. \u201cBut if we weren\u2019t making beer, God would be making it because there would be a farmer who left grain to get wet or something. One day a thousand years ago, a guy saw a puddle bubbling and decided to drink it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Sergio brothers, whose four older siblings also graduated from Tech, decided to open their brewery in 2010. After a few years and a few thousand dollars in legal fees, officials in White County \u2013 which was dry at the time \u2013 gave them a license to start brewing.<\/p>\n

As they began brewing, the brothers continued to work in their family construction business until June 2011.<\/p>\n

Using reclaimed debris from construction jobs, they rebuilt and refurbished the horse barn on Don\u2019s property in Sparta. They spent months chiseling mortar off bricks from a century-old building and used washed-up beams from the Calfkiller River to expand the barn. Old wooden pallets form the bar, and all of the signs for their beer in restaurants or around the brewery are painted by hand on reclaimed pieces of wood, old cabinet doors or other random bits and pieces.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s good for these students to see graduates of Tech who are doing these brave new enterprises,\u201d Norris said. \u201cThey\u2019re role models.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to hosting the sociology class, the Sergios have returned to their alma mater for the past two years to speak to business students about being entrepreneurs during the College of Business Professional Development Week.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe try to go back because we believe that anytime you can inspire and bring out what\u2019s inside a student, it helps them to realize that what\u2019s inside them is possible,\u201d Dave said. \u201cThe idea of selfworth is something that not everybody has built in themselves. I think it\u2019s one of the most important things you can have \u2013 the idea that you\u2019ve been an integral part of making the world turn.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Don (left) and Dave Sergio, owners of Calfkiller Brewery Tech’s Sergio Brothers brew sustainable suds and encourage grassroots practices. Along a narrow windy road a few hundred yards from one of Tennessee\u2019s more interestingly named rivers is a small, reconstructed horse barn, a multicolored Volkswagen van and a delicious smell. It is the home of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":106,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-73","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-spring14"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/visions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/visions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/visions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/visions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/visions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/visions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1221,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/visions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73\/revisions\/1221"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/visions\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/visions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/visions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/visions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}