Catholics among partners behind Little Rock brewery

Eight craft beers on tap at renovated storefront in MacArthur Park Historic District

Published: November 9, 2013

by Dwain Hebda
Associate Editor

Dwain Hebda

Brad McLaurin, of Our Lady of the Holy Souls Church in Little Rock, toasts guests at Stone’s Throw Brewing. Another partner in the venture is Shawn Tobin of Immaculate Conception Church in North Little Rock.

Dwain Hebda

As the Advent season approaches and you begin to make preparations for Christmas, choose your gifts carefully — you never know where indulging your spouse’s interests might lead. Consider, for instance, the case of Marie McLaurin of Little Rock, who indulged her husband Brad’s interest in beer.

“My wife is the one who got me into this,” Brad McLaurin said. “Thirteen years ago, for Christmas, she bought me a home brew kit. She didn’t know what she was getting into.”

The considerate gesture unleashed McLaurin’s creative side and resulted in endless experimentation in the family kitchen, handing out samples of his creations to friends and then fellow enthusiasts through a local brewer’s club and finally into business.

If today, McLaurin seems a kid in a candy store sidled up to the bar in the taproom of Stone’s Throw Brewing, well, he is.

“It’s a fun hobby and it’s still a hobby, but it’s become a lot more work, obviously,” McLaurin said. “This past year has wore the four of us out. But we’re glad we’re here.”

One of the newest practitioners of Little Rock’s growing craft brew community, Stone’s Throw is the product of four beer enthusiasts and two years of work. Located at the corner of Ninth and Rock Streets, the 2,000-square-foot nano-brewery opened in July.

“We had a lot of questions just among ourselves trying to figure out how this was going to work,” McLaurin said. “We all have so far managed to keep our day jobs.”

McLaurin and his partners, Theron Cash, Ian Beard and Shawn Tobin, all met in a local homebrew club, Central Arkansas Fermenters. Each brought two beer recipes and a passion for the craft into the business venture that employs them in a rotating schedule of brewing and hosting guests in the taproom four nights a week.

“Ian is a director at the Statehouse Museum, Sean is a private investigator for the federal defense attorney, Theron is a pilot for ExpressJet and I’m an architect,” McLaurin said. “So we’ve got an eclectic mix of partners. But we all love beer.”

All well-worn jokes about Catholics and beer drinking aside, the history of the brew and the Church are in fact, inextricably linked. While monks did not invent the beverage — evidence exists that trace beer recipes back to the Babylonians — the perfection of the brewmaster’s art in Europe largely occurred in monasteries and convents during the first half of the Middle Ages. Religious communities would support themselves through the sale of beer and it would also be on hand for hospitality purposes for pilgrims and other guests.

Stone’s Throw keeps that proud Catholic representation in play. Besides McLaurin, a member of Our Lady of the Holy Souls Church in Little Rock, Tobin grew up a student at the former St. Joseph Orphanage, and he and his wife Amy attend Immaculate Conception Church in North Little Rock.

The business’ logo was designed by longtime advertising graphic artist and fellow Holy Souls parishioner Nancy Ferrara and the enterprise was blessed by Father Mark Bylander, LC, Amy Tobin’s brother.

It’s also comfortably nestled at equal distance between St. Edward Church at 801 Sherman Street and Cathedral of St. Andrew at 617 Louisiana Street.

“We’ve love to get a few more Catholic beer drinkers in here,” McLaurin quipped.

Funding came from Kickstarter, a website that allows ordinary individuals the opportunity to invest in startup businesses of their choice. The $23,215 from contributors — all of whom are listed with the owners’ thanks on the company website and in the taproom — more than doubled the initial funding request of $10,000 in just 20 days’ worth of contributions. Some local contributors even showed up to help rehab the building, along with a healthy dose of family.

“We had a lot of help from our friends on Kickstarter, but also our family and friends who were helping us do demo and helping us pour and finish concrete,” McLaurin said.

Early indications are positive for the new business. In a recent newspaper poll, Stone’s Throw was runner-up to the much larger and much better-established Little Rock brewery Diamond Bear. Weekly taproom crowds have been such that the partners are already investing in additional fermenting tanks to help keep the eight taps stocked commensurate with demand.

“We’re very self-critical; we’ve already dumped a couple of batches because they weren’t performing,” McLaurin said of the development process that has yielded the eight varieties currently in rotation. “Is that a lot of money? Yeah, but what’s worse than putting a bad beer on tap? Nothing.”

And even in an industry where smaller is considered to produce a better, more artisan product, the owners are looking for more growth as the company’s brews find their way into local bars and restaurants.

“We know what we’re looking for and what it should be, but we’re also about experimenting,” he said. “We can grow a lot and still make the same quality of beer, still be able to experiment and do offshoots like we’re doing now and not be hurt at all.”