alumni profile
Opening Miami’s First Craft Brewery Kody Schnebly ‘13 By Maegan Apiazu
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t’s no secret that the South Florida craft beer scene has taken off in the last few years. And Kody Schnebly ‘13 was at the forefront, helping to open the doors of Miami’s first craft brewery – Miami Brewing Co., in October 2011. Schnebly, whose parents Peter and Denisse Schnebly own Schnebly Redland’s Winery, has been brewing beer since he was 16. “When we started the winery, we noticed that a lot of wives were dragging their husbands in,” Schnebly says. “They would ask if
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“[We] went through … such rapid growth. Now we’re trying to scale back and figure out, what is Miami Brewing Co.?”
we had beer, or anything to drink other than wine. We didn’t, and so we started looking into what it would take to brew beer.” Schnebly teamed up with two welders to create the brew kettle Miami Brewing Company uses to make its beer. He started off in the winery’s retail room, but soon outgrew the space, prompting a move outdoors to an on-site tiki hut. That, too, proved to be too small and didn’t carry the right vibe in Schnebly’s and his team’s eyes. In 2015, he moved the brewery to its current location, a warehouse formerly occupied by the family’s produce company. So, what’s next for Miami Brewing Co.? Schnebly is developing the venue’s outdoor area and beer garden, and he is even considering adding turf and mini golf to its Homestead grounds. But, he’s also focused on getting back to the basics. “We’re working on getting our identity back. We opened the brewery right before craft beer took off, so we ended up going from making a little bit of beer to a lot of beer almost from one day to the next,” he says. “[We] went through a time of such rapid growth. Now we’re trying to scale back and figure out, what is Miami Brewing Co.? What should it be, where is it heading, where do we want to be in five, 10 years?” An active member of the Gulliver Alumni Association, Schnebly currently serves on the Alumni Reunion Weekend Committee, representing the Class of 2013. He feels it’s his duty to get involved and give back. “The younger graduating classes like mine and those that follow, I believe we have a great opportunity and a responsibility to connect with the students that are graduating now,” he says. “We’re the ones that can sit down and have conversations with them in such a manner that they’ll take something away from it. We can identify with issues they’re having, directions they want to take, and their goals. I think it’s our responsibility to be that bridge.”
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