For Derek Fernholz, founder of Fernson Brewing Co. in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, the strongest thread that has held his life and career together has been a desire to create things.
The pre-beer backgrounds of a lot of brewers usually fall into the engineering or scientific camp or the art bucket. For Fernholz, he was in the engineering camp, he worked in Web development, “and made things that people could enjoy.” He worked at a number of start-ups and then some “cool companies” and did work for big corporate clients while living in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota.
While there, he and some of his colleagues would go to the local Old Chicago restaurant and make their way through the expansive tap list, trying to hit all the different styles and brands. On one particular afternoon, the group got it into their heads that homebrewing seemed like a logical next step, especially because of their interest in creating things. Luckily, two of the country’s better-known homebrew shops, Midwest Supplies and Northern Brewer, were a short distance away, so they went all in, bought a full kit, skipped bottle conditioning, and went right to kegs.