When you are an entrepreneur, you love every bit of turning a vision into reality. What makes it even better is to have a friend or two that share that same passion. For Derek Richards and Todd Hartung, their next venture would be a craft beer brewery.

No strangers to the restaurant business are both Derek and Todd. I met both of these fine gentlemen over the years at Cunningham’s Pub and Grill. It was always a great place for craft beer, food, and fun events. I have fond memories of some ugly Christmas sweater events!

It was about four years ago the two started talking about doing their own thing. If only they knew of a good local brewer. You can imagine it is so difficult thinking of all your brewing acquaintances. It is even harder when the person you are looking for is there right there in front of you.

It would have been fun to be there when Derek and Todd saw Shane Costello in Cunningham’s enjoying some wings like he normally does. Then to hear the priceless conversation with the word homebrew would have been like bells going off.

Needless to say, Shane was excited to have the conversation to be their brewer and was ready to take his homebrewing skills to the next level! Shane had been homebrewing for almost ten years and had experience working at the Upstream Brewing restaurant. He gained an appreciation for what it takes to brew at scale, seeing it done by Dallas Archer. Shane's creative side was ready to explore more and see what beer styles would stand out to him!

I asked Shane about a couple of the first craft beers that he homebrewed. Shane told me the first was a Pale Ale like the Capital Pale Ale from Upstream. The second was this English Brown Ale that today is their Fiesty Walrus Brown Ale. A very nice brown ale with chocolate notes and a great story. The beer is named for a close friend Daniel Stewart. I always love hearing the story about this beer from Daniel!

A great trip that forever influenced Shane was an east coast trip to breweries such as Trillium Brewing Company, Tree House Brewing Company, and Other Half Brewing. At that time, Hazy IPAs were making a big splash. The style had this incredible body and fruit flavors from the hops. The challenge of learning everything about this type of beer became a great focus for Shane.

After roughly 50 trial batches with so many different hops and fine-tuning the recipes, Shane had a great feel for brewing these New England style IPAs. He was ready to introduce them once the brewery would open.

*A really unique stacked setup of fermenters and brite tanks*

The planning was moving forward. Derek and Todd were focused on finding the right location. They knew in their minds that their business model would be based on the taproom and not on distribution. Finding a place in Omaha where they could be that local craft brewery while also having a nice food menu was their top priority!

After a period of time searching, the guys found a great place around 120th and Fort Street in Northwest Omaha. Several nice neighborhoods in the area to support them. The building had the space they were looking for in terms of indoor setting. The outdoor patio was a bonus that has such a great view of a pond and lighted fountains. I can’t imagine after seeing this property of thinking about anywhere else to have this brewery!

Equipment had to be ordered, and the decision was to go with a 3 1/2-barrel system. The perfect size to produce the right amount of beer to keep several tap handles supplied. After working with the architect on the space, there was a configuration that I have never seen before in stacking the equipment to make the best use of the high ceilings!

One thing that was still missing, a name. Never an easy task with so many breweries in the United States! After many ideas turned into no-gos, the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey, where there are monoliths in the movie inspired Monolithic Brewing's name!

Everything was in full motion moving forward, then Covid hit. Nothing about launching a business ever included the fact there would be a pandemic going on. What to do now?

The plans were to keep moving forward. There was work to be done in the taproom and getting the brewery setup. In September of 2020, the brewing equipment arrived. The initial setup of the stacked equipment had a couple of challenges that were quickly resolved. Now it was time to start brewing!

October would be the month to have a few soft openings and it was on Halloween weekend that Monolithic Brewing officially opened its doors! A long time in the making just came to fruition. How would the newest brewery in Omaha do?

The launch had lots of rave reviews and Omaha was buzzing about the newest brewery. The beer menu had a nice selection, and it was growing. There was even a craft seltzer as an option for those patrons who enjoyed hard seltzers.

Now five months later, Shane said they just finished brewing their 44th batch of beer!

*This beauty is an Irish Red called Fool For You*

The hard work hasn’t stopped after the launch. You will see Derek, Todd, and Shane in the taproom making sure that you have the best craft beer experience possible!

These guys are busy cooking, serving, and answering any questions that you have. The rest of the staff has been awesome also! I had stopped in on their second Fish Fry Friday and it is extremely popular! Great beer choices to pair with the fish.

My experiences have been top-notch! I have enjoyed several of the beers including:

Broken Hearts - Hazy IPA
Brooklyn Baby - DIPA
Sir Bock-A-lot - Bock
Fool For You - Irish Red

Back to the name … For me, Monolithic represents a brewery that is huge in flavorful craft beers and service. The sign in northwest Omaha is like a monolith grabbing your attention to see what is inside!

I highly recommend stopping in for the beer and food. Make sure to talk with Derek, Todd, and Shane to get to know this wonderful community taproom.

If you get the chance, ask Shane about some of the names of the beers and how he came up with them. It will be like music to your ears!

Cheers!

Nothing Less Than Monumental