Episode 068 - Hop Butcher For The World

Episode 068: Hop Butcher For The World - Jeremiah Zimmer

Saying these two know and love hops is a bit of an understatement.

As they state on their website, “For starters, we love hops and we use them A LOT. The multitude of occasions to use hops within the brewing process is boundless and we explore and experiment relentlessly, forever in the name of incredible flavors and worldly aromatics.” It must be working based on their growth in the Chicagoland area and beyond, with select distribution into 16 states.

Jeremiah and Jude - Hop Butcher for the World

JEREMIAH ZIMMER

Co-founder

Jeremiah Zimmer (right) with Co-Founder Jude La Rose (left)

Jeremiah Zimmer: Father. Husband. Sports Marketer. Brewmaster. Wisconsinite turned Chicagoan. Badger Alum. White Sox fan. Viva la Green Bay Packers.

Before joining the world of craft beer, Jeremiah Zimmer spent 13 years in various marketing and sports marketing roles in the Chicago area. From arena football to the NFL and the Chicago Baseball Museum to a national sporting goods retailer, Jeremiah ‘s love of sports, and particularly baseball and his South Siders, the White Sox’s. In 2015, Jeremiah and business partner Jude La Rose, Launched Hop Butcher for the World as an Alternating Proprietorship.

An Evolution

What started out as an alternating proprietorship has evolved into a large-scale brewing operation with a production brewery responsible for brewing much of the volume of their beers in southwest suburban Bedford Park they purchased in 2021. In that same year they purchased a separate taproom and store, the former Half Acre taproom space, that they opened in November of 2022 after some remodeling.

Third Time Joining Us

Jeremiah first joined us on September 6, 2016 for a podcast about Alternating Proprietorships (Episode #13) and again on October 17, 2017 as part of our series “Beer & Baseball.” A 3-part series that looked at what is involved in developing a relationship with a local professional sports team. In Episode #35 Jeremaih explains how they were able to get their black IPA, Good Ryes Wear Black, into the Midwest Craft Beer kiosk at the home of the Chicago White Sox’s, U.S. Cellular Field (since renamed Guaranteed Rate Field – but to the locals it will always be Comiskey Park). In this, his third appearance on the Podcast, Jeremiah shares with us the growth that lead them to move from a Alternating Proprietorship to purchasing a production facility and taproom with a retail store in 2021.