Today we’d like to introduce you to Stacia Familo-Hopek and Rob Hopek.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Stacia and Rob. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I earned a Ph.D. in Industrial/Organizational Psychology in the late nineties and began working in consulting and then within large corporations like UPS, NCR and First Data to build strategies for hiring and developing the talent within the organization. I worked with executives on things like developing a succession planning strategy, developing leadership skills in the management ranks and hiring profiles for sales and operations roles which tended to be critical positions within the organization. After focusing on these talent management processes and programs for two decades, I decided that I needed a new challenge and that I needed to leave the corporate environments that I had been working in for so long. My husband and I began discussing opening a brewpub to parlay his business background and brewing talents alongside my talent development background. When it became evident that the law in GA was going to change in 2017 to allow a brewery to sell direct to a beer lover vs having to sell them a tour with “free” tastings, we began to seriously plan to build a taproom-focused brewery. We first started looking at rental properties, but ultimately decided to purchase a property that we could build on instead of investing in improving someone else’s property. Going the route of purchasing and building vs renting is a big risk. I’ve worked a long time in corporate roles with a steady income and healthcare options and have saved what I could along the way. Deciding to build a new business from the ground up, in an industry that I’ve never worked in before on our own has been challenging, exciting and at times nerve-wracking. We began working with an architect and engineers to draft plans for the brewery and taproom and included plans for a kitchen. We feel that it’s important that people drink responsibly and have the ability to have things to eat while drinking, and fortunately the 2017 law change also allowed a brewery to have a kitchen, which allowed us to go the brewery route, rather than that of a brewpub. There are lots of legal nuances between what constitutes a brewery vs a brewpub in GA now, and Rob is more than happy to explain to anyone that is interested. Our focus is on small-plate, shareable items with a lot of flavors that complement and pair well with our beers. We took responsibility for many aspects of the build ourselves and the design reflects our love for the beauty of nature (we used many varieties of natural wood in our taproom, bathrooms and event room), in keeping with how the Druids were said to have lived (they, themselves, didn’t leave a written record). In addition, we implemented a number of environmentally-conscious initiatives (discussed later).
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Like any start-up we have experienced our ups and downs, some during construction and others since we’ve opened. At the beginning of construction, my husband and brewmaster had Achilles surgery. This meant that his mobility was limited for quite a while and his access to the construction site was limited. During construction, the rainy winter we had in late 2018/early 2019 delayed our ability to pour a driveway on the side of the building. This meant that we couldn’t move the brewing equipment into the building for 10 weeks, which increased cost and delayed opening. Once we were able to set the brewing equipment, we still experienced periodic electrical and mechanical issues. Putting a brewery together is complex and there are a lot of moving parts that have to operate well together. Sometimes you can anticipate potential issues and create contingency plans for them and sometimes you can’t. All that you can do is persevere.
We’d love to hear more about your business.
The Lost Druid is one of the few female-owned breweries in Georgia. In Gaelic, “Druid” means ‘knower of thy oak’, which as it turns out, is very well-suited for our wood-aging program. The Lost Druid is an ‘own-premise’ brewery. This means that almost all of our sales occur in the taproom itself. We manufacture a variety of beers in many styles and at this time, we don’t brew any flagship beers – we like to introduce something new when a beer empties so that our customers have the opportunity to explore and try something different when they come in. That’s not to say we won’t be re-brewing popular beers that may even eventually become part of a regular rotation. In addition, we serve up flavorful dishes from our kitchen that range from shareable snacks to hand-held items to salad or flatbreads. We offer dinner Tuesday-Sunday, also offering lunch Wednesday-Friday plus brunch on Sundays from 10-2. Many of the ingredients in our dishes incorporate our beers or spent grain from the brewing process. In addition, our chef focuses on ensuring the flavors in our dishes complement or accent the beers we have on tap. We also have a private event room available upstairs for meetings, parties or celebrations. I’m most proud of our ability to take our vision and implement it, particularly in keeping with how the Druids lived. We started with land that was covered in kudzu and built a beautiful space for our staff and guests to enjoy. Our space is inviting and is family and pet-friendly. In keeping with a respect for nature and the environment in general, we recently installed solar power, all of our lighting uses LED bulbs and we give our spent grain from the brewing process to a local farmer to feed his livestock rather than add it to a landfill.
What were you like growing up?
I grew up as the youngest of six siblings. As a child, I was quiet and introverted. I liked to read and frequented the local library and climb trees. I also enjoyed learning how to use tools and how to complete home improvement projects. My favorite gifts were tools or books as I grew up. I excelled in band, playing multiple instruments, and academics (graduating high school as the salutatorian).Rob was quite the opposite; outgoing, adventurous and always up to taking risks. Rob was very active in both organized sports such as baseball and football, as well as non-traditional sports like cliff-scaling, BMX racing and even fast-paced racquetball. He excelled in science and mathematics, always craving more knowledge, which originally led him down a path for chemical engineering, but his hobby of computers won out and a shift to technology soon became his career, and shortly thereafter, his new hobby became homebrewing.
Contact Info:
- Address: 2866 Washington Street, Avondale Estates, GA 30002
- Website: www.thelostdruid.com
- Phone: 404.998.5679
- Email: info@thelostdruid.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/thelostdruid/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thelostdruid/
Image Credit:
Raftermen
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