River Trails Bierwerks Offers Craft Beer and Community in Kearney

River Trails Bierwerks opened in Kearney, Missouri, with a collection of playfully named beers such as Black Sails, Cold Plunge, and Mutant Assault. Walking into the brewery is like taking a relaxing breath. There is a wall spanning mural, a gazebo over the bar, wide open garage doors (weather permitting), a patio surrounded by a pallet fence, food trucks and live music (depending on the day).

Their goal is to build a community around craft beer. To do this, they will continue investing in equipment and expand their offerings. As one patron shares on social media, “This is the best place to chill by yourself or catch up with friends. Such a low key vibe with great music, sports, or board games. Something for everyone!”

Q&A with Co-Owner Jodi Protsman

Why a Brewery and How Did it Happen?

Opening the doors to River Trails Bierwerks has been a pipe dream for my husband and me for years. Jacob and I are brewery people. He has also been a homebrewer for almost 20 years, right in our tiny kitchen.
We love walking into a place, and it just feels good—like home: comfortable, friendly, fun, relaxed, and of course cold, good beer! We had several places back home (in Fort Worth, Texas) that we would frequent and jokingly lay out plans if it was our brewery. We spent many years considering the ‘what ifs’ and possibilities.
About two years ago (gosh, time has gone by quickly), we were visiting Jacob’s uncle and aunt here—our partners in crime Tracy and Lisa Protsman—and talking about brewing on a larger scale started to become more real and attainable. It seemed like the perfect time to take a leap and pursue our dream. A now-or-never situation. As crazy as it sounded to uproot our entire life in Texas to start over here and open a small business, we were 100% in. It was exciting and terrifying. We couldn’t have done it without the incredible support and partnership of Tracy and Lisa and their family friend John Cripps. They saw the potential in Jacob and his brewing skills and went all in with us to bring this dream into reality. River Trails Bierwerks is the outcome of the five of us combining our talents in a new way and sharing them with the community.

Why Kearney?

There is no other place like ours in Kearney! We are the first micro-brewery in the city. From the beginning, the City of Kearney has been supportive and open to our small business plans. That doesn’t happen in every community and definitely not in the big city.

We wanted to open a tap room for the city where people could gather, have fun, relax, and stay a while (with a beer in hand, of course). We want to be a part of the community and grow with everyone here!

As much as I love Fort Worth, we were over the city life. If you have ever visited Dallas/ Fort Worth, then you know that 10 minutes in traffic drains a year off your life and sanity. Jacob and I were ready for a quieter, slower pace at this stage in our life (that makes me sound really old). Kearney is a great town to just slow down and enjoy what’s around you.

I grew up in a small East Texas town. I didn’t realize it at the time—because I was a moody teenager with nothing to do—but it was beautiful in so many ways that I took for granted. Kearney is very similar to the town where I grew up and met Jacob. I feel less homesick here. Bonus: we have our family right down the road in Holt.

What’s Next?

Our goal is to grow, expand, and reach more people. We want to get our name out there and build a community to share our beers with. We want everyone to love this as much as we do. We already have plans in mind that will hopefully make our tap room an even better experience for first-time customers or our regulars.

Personally, I want our tap room to be such a successful gathering place that we are forced to get bigger equipment to keep up with inventory, which leads to expanding our space to make it even better for beer lovers.