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Combine one part exceptional brewmaster, three parts driven entrepreneurship, two parts stumpy bottles and unique labels, plus five parts full bodied craft beer; what do you get? Nothing short of Iowa’s own Peace Tree Brewing Company.

Words: Keely ShannonDesign: Allen BrownPhotos: Amanda Wilson

Peace Tree Brewing Company’s name is derived from the historic sycamore tree

that juts out from under Lake Red Rock.

Combine one parts exceptional brewmaster, three parts driven entrepreneurship, two parts stumpy bottles and unique labels, plus five parts full-bodied craft beer. Let it ferment and what do you get? Nothing short of Iowa’s own Peace Tree Brewing Company.

In just one year, a family of innovative entrepreneurs turned an abandoned brick building in downtown Knoxville into a prosperous craft brewery. After brewing their first batch of beer in October 2009, the company flourished from a small-batch brewery to a top-selling, well-accepted Iowa craft beer producer.

Husband and wife Megan McKay Ziller and Scott Ziller, along with Meagan’s father, Dan McKay, bought and renovated the abandoned

building without the intent to start a brewery. The trio of owners, who also own McKay Insurance caddy-corner from the brewery, toyed with the idea of housing a laundry mat or indoor storage but decided a business that would kindle downtown Knoxville was needed.After Dan McKay read an article in the Wall Street Journal about the growing population of craft beer, they purchased equipment, hired an experienced brewmaster and embarked into the world of craft beer.

Craft breweries differ from say, Budweiser or Koors, in that they are small, independent and traditional. As defined by the Brewers Association, the annual production is less than 6 million barrels of beer or less than 25 percent of the brewery is owned by an alcoholic beverage industry-member who is not a craft brewer. And lastly, a craft brewer will have at least 50 percent of product in either all-malt beers or in beers that use additions to

improve the flavor, rather than lighten. In other words, craft beers pack a little more punch.

Joe Kesteloot, brewmaster at Peace Tree, said, “We couldn’t have asked for a better start than this with the fantastic support of Knoxville and surrounding community.” Peace Tree Brewing Company’s name is derived from the historic sycamore tree that juts out from under Lake Red Rock. The tree was supposedly a meeting place for traders and a spot where Indian treaties were negotiated.

The owners say their hope is that Peace Tree beer will be shared by friends and strangers and become a means for conversation and newfound friendship.

With ten employees and a philosophy that beer and music are like hops and barley, the

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front-of-the-house taproom becomes a stage for local artists on weekends. Any other night it’s a cozy, low-key hangout for locals and visitors to taste Peace Tree beer, toast with friends and unwind for the day.

“I think we were kind of missing a space where people could gather on weekends that you could bring your family, bring your parents and

Within minutes of sampling Peace Tree’s brews, it becomes apparent that the mastermind behind these full-bodied flowing beers is some kind of genius.

Take the Double IPA, for instance. Indian Pale Ales (IPA) are known for their high-hop content and bitter tang that for many, is an acquired taste. Kesteloot manages to double the hop-count of the Hop Wrangler and bump the alcohol volume to nine percent, all while maintaining an intensely satisfying brew without a harsh aftertaste. McKay Ziller said she contributes the exceptional beer to the domestic ingredients and the talented brewmaster.

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have that full mix of things,” McKay Ziller said. The classy, yet contemporary taproom is complete with the original crackled flooring and large front windows from the Nash Rambler car dealership, which inhabited the space many years prior.

Co-owner, Dan McKay, said brewing in Knoxville has allowed them to bypass the big-city problems of dealing with bigger banks and suppliers.“The ability to work with a local bank is just unbelievable,” McKay said. “You go in with a plan and if it’s well thought-out and has a chance of succeeding, they’re going to be there to support it.”

packaging. After sampling the beer, he wanted it on tap immediately. “Everyone went to Short’s to try our beer and pretty soon we had everyone from Iowa City calling us,” Kesteloot said. “From there, it just spread and we were doing tastings and shows.” Only a year later and Tia Tiesenthaler, manager at Shorts, said Peace Tree brews are top-sellers at Shorts Burger and Shine and are very popular in Iowa City. According to Tiesenthaler, Peace Tree’s Hop Wrangler sells better than any of the Court Avenue, Millstream, Mad House, Sutliff Cider and Old Man River craft beers on tap at Shorts.

“They always come back for the Peace Tree,” Tiesenthaler said. “They know what they want to drink and it’s Peace Tree.”

Peace Tree currently brews three year-round beers, root beer and several seasonal batches. The Red Rambler Ale, Hop Wrangler and the Rye Porter are the staples of Peace Tree. The seasonal brews include the Cornucopia, Blonde Fatale, Double IPA and the Black River Gumbo Stout. Deciding which beers to bottle was no easy task, McKay Ziller said. “All of a sudden we have this big giant brewery and we have to limit it to three or four brews so we really did some sole-searching to figure out what sold well,” McKay Ziller said. “We tried to find things that were different than what other people were brewing.” She said if Millstream Brewery was doing a great IPA, they wanted to stay away from the standard IPA.

The Beer

He is very dedicatedto the art and science

of brewing

“He is very dedicated to the art and science of brewing,” McKay Ziller said, “He is creative and likes to come up with his own unique takes on beer styles, but he balances that with strict adherence to good brewing and sanitation practices for excellent execution of his creativeness.”

Kesteloot said his schooling at the American Brewers Guild provided him with a much-needed base to brewing beer.

“Without that foundation it would have been difficult to be in the position I am in now,” Kesteloot said. “It’s important to know what an ingredient will do and how much is enough or not enough.”

Kesteloot grew up outside of Chicago and studied engineering at Iowa State University before switching gears and studying fine arts. He said brewing is the perfect combination of the two concentrations.

Prior to attending brew school in Vermont, Kesteloot brewed beer form his home. After school he completed an apprenticeship at the Bighorn Brewery in Chicago.

From there, Kesteloot brewed at Cold Tree Brewery in Minnesota for four years. He said after hearing news of a brewery opening in Knoxville, he jumped on the opportunity to get in.

“It’s every brewers dream to jump into a brewery at the beginning because it’s all your own recipes and you get to see it grow from the start,” Kesteloot said. His craft beers have created buzz all over Iowa, and not just by the graces of a nine-percent alcohol content. The owners agree word of mouth turned this small-town brewery into a big deal in the Iowa beer scene. Iowa City’s Shorts Burger and Shine gave Peace Tree a helpful push in the early stages of business. A manager from the bar/restaurant visited the brewery before they started

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According to Chris Coston, manager of the Windsor Heights Hy-Vee Wine and Spirits, customers love Peace Tree and specifically, the sweet Belgium yeast that’s used in the beer. “Right now, it’s currently my best selling Iowa beer and as far as the whole craft beer segment, it sells very well,” said Coston. “The IPA is outstanding.”

A growing number of liquor store and bar managers consider Peace Tree beers top-sellers and the company already received a glimpse of demand higher than supply when Kesteloot released the first batch of the Double IPA.

They sold out of Double IPA in three weeks. According to McKay Ziller, requests continued so they brewed a double batch that fall. The 40 barrels of Double IPA sold out in two weeks. She estimates 25 percent of all requests are for the Double IPA and the owners have considered brewing it year-round.

Until shortly after Peace Tree’s first batch, Iowa brewers were hindered by a law that prohibited production of beer higher than a 6.25 alcohol percentage. With the growing popularity of craft beer and the help of grassroots movements, the law changed the definition of beer to 15 percent alcohol volume.

“By changing that alcohol percentage, even just swaying it a few percentages, it opened the door to do several different styles of beer I wasn’t able to do,” Kesteloot said. Like the name of the brewery, behind each label is a story about the beer’s name. McKay Ziller said naming the beer is “an interesting process.”

Originally, the Hop Wrangler was dubbed the 3-Way IPA because it has American, English and Belgian roots. McKay Ziller said she was nervous the name would be ill perceived. They decided on Hop Wrangler because every time Scott Ziller, co-owner, wears his hops-covered cowboy shirt and they call him the “hop wrangler.”

It only made sense to call the smooth red ale the Red Rambler, as the newly renovated building that Peace Tree inhabits was once home to the Nash Rambler car dealership.

The employees reminisce on the night of the Blond Fatale debut. The hazy golden German beer is deceptive, as it packs a well-hidden 8.5 percent alcohol volume in an innocent-looking blonde ale.

As for the rich, warm winter seasonal, the Black River Gumbo Stout’s name comes straight from the river bottom near the location of the Peace Tree. Black gumbo dirt is pulled from the Des Moines River bottom and used on the Knoxville Raceway track. “We try to tie the names in with something historical or something that has to do with us,” Kesteloot said.

From the first batch brewed in late 2009 to the 690 barrels sold in 2010, Peace Tree shows no sign of a plateau in production. In February they added another brew tank and plan to add one more soon, raising their brewing capacity to 2,000 barrels/year. One barrel holds 117 liters of beer.McKay Ziller said she expects to double the barrels sold this year and by the end of two years, double the current capacity. Increase in production leads to a growth in distribution. Peace Tree’s current distribution consists of two guys by the names Paul and Taylor who drive a van around Iowa delivering beer and dropping off samples to stores and bars. As the brewery continues to expand, the owners expect to go through a distributor in order to reach farther from Knoxville more efficiently.

“We’re pretty well spread out right now and I wouldn’t say we’ve penetrated any one market,” McKay Ziller said, “We’re getting

The Future

there.”She said they expect the brewery to push Iowa boarders in order to meet out-of-state demand but insists it’s not their focus. “We really want to be a good native Iowa brewery,” McKay Ziller said. “We don’t want to be a Boulevard, we don’t want to be a giant, huge brewery.”

The family of entrepreneurs also own two buildings next door to Peace Tree. Physically expanding wouldn’t be an issue and the owners entertain the idea. However, McKay Ziller said if a major expansion was needed it would most likely be in a different location.Kesteloot said, “We hope to grow steadily from year to year and who knows, we may need another facility at that point. We plan on continuing to explore interesting avenues of brewing.”No matter the size, McKay Ziller is adamant about keeping Peace Tree’s roots planted. “It’s more something we want to keep really manageable and focus on making really good

beer and having a lot of fun with it,” McKay Ziller says, “and not get to the point where it’s this mass-produced stuff that we have to push out.”

One has to wonder, though, could Peace Tree become worldly known in the craft brewing industry? Several Iowa bartenders and beer aficionados say Peace Tree’s brews could take them to the top. Mark Nauman, owner of Beer Crazy in Des Moines, said Peace Tree has created a niche with their innovative styles. “They’ve got a real good following,” Nauman said. “What keeps the buzz going is they’re thinking outside the box, which many other aren’t doing.”Whether Peace Tree becomes a top-selling national beer or not, their loyalty to Iowans is apparent. “I think we’re just trying to have a really good time with it,” McKay Ziller said. “Not take it to seriously and really promote the craft of beer.”