In September 2003, Jeff and his wife, Stephanie, trekked to the nearest homebrew shop in the Denver area to buy what they needed to start a new hobby of brewing beer at home. Jeff was studying business at UNC, and brewing quickly found its way into all of his school projects — business ideas for a brewery and beer-making concepts started popping up in each assignment.

His entrepreneurial spirit bloomed in June 2004, when Jeff said the seven most magical words a man can ever offer his wife: “Honey, I want to open a brewery.” A brewpub in town was closing its doors, and even after the auction, some of the equipment was still there for the taking. Jeff and Stephanie jumped on it for a steal — they just didn’t have a space for a brewery yet, so it all went into the garage while Jeff finished his degree and hunted for a location.

In December 2005, Jeff graduated from UNC. Two months later, the first brewery site was chosen and the equipment finally moved out of the garage. Crabtree opened its doors for the first time on May 5, 2006 — just two years after Jeff first said those seven words. He kept working his full-time, benefit-paying corporate job right alongside running the brewery, until 2009, when he was finally able to quit the cubicle. He’s been fully living the brewer’s dream ever since.

This story is adapted from Stephanie Crabtree’s blog, The Hobbyless Brewer’s Wife — for a much more passionate telling from her side of it, that’s the place to go.