{"id":1922,"date":"2019-03-11T13:22:56","date_gmt":"2019-03-11T13:22:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/?p=1922"},"modified":"2025-02-07T12:50:48","modified_gmt":"2025-02-07T17:50:48","slug":"cleaning-up-in-the-brewing-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/2019\/03\/11\/cleaning-up-in-the-brewing-business\/","title":{"rendered":"Cleaning Up In The Brewing Business"},"content":{"rendered":"<style>.kadence-column1922_ab2c90-f5 > .kt-inside-inner-col{padding-right:var(--global-kb-spacing-lg, 3rem);padding-bottom:var(--global-kb-spacing-lg, 3rem);padding-left:var(--global-kb-spacing-lg, 3rem);}.kadence-column1922_ab2c90-f5 > .kt-inside-inner-col,.kadence-column1922_ab2c90-f5 > .kt-inside-inner-col:before{border-top-left-radius:0px;border-top-right-radius:0px;border-bottom-right-radius:0px;border-bottom-left-radius:0px;}.kadence-column1922_ab2c90-f5 > .kt-inside-inner-col{column-gap:var(--global-kb-gap-sm, 1rem);}.kadence-column1922_ab2c90-f5 > .kt-inside-inner-col{flex-direction:column;}.kadence-column1922_ab2c90-f5 > .kt-inside-inner-col > .aligncenter{width:100%;}.kadence-column1922_ab2c90-f5 > .kt-inside-inner-col:before{opacity:0.3;}.kadence-column1922_ab2c90-f5{position:relative;}@media all and (max-width: 1024px){.kadence-column1922_ab2c90-f5 > .kt-inside-inner-col{flex-direction:column;justify-content:center;}}@media all and (max-width: 991px){.kadence-column1922_ab2c90-f5 > .kt-inside-inner-col{flex-direction:column;justify-content:center;}}<\/style>\n<div class=\"wp-block-kadence-column kadence-column1922_ab2c90-f5 dynamic-main-col\"><div class=\"kt-inside-inner-col\"><style>.wp-block-kadence-advancedheading.kt-adv-heading1922_6ad9ca-34, .wp-block-kadence-advancedheading.kt-adv-heading1922_6ad9ca-34[data-kb-block=\"kb-adv-heading1922_6ad9ca-34\"]{font-size:1.5rem;line-height:30px;font-weight:500;font-style:italic;font-family:proxima-nova;color:#808080;}.wp-block-kadence-advancedheading.kt-adv-heading1922_6ad9ca-34 mark.kt-highlight, .wp-block-kadence-advancedheading.kt-adv-heading1922_6ad9ca-34[data-kb-block=\"kb-adv-heading1922_6ad9ca-34\"] mark.kt-highlight{font-style:normal;color:#f76a0c;-webkit-box-decoration-break:clone;box-decoration-break:clone;padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;}.wp-block-kadence-advancedheading.kt-adv-heading1922_6ad9ca-34 img.kb-inline-image, .wp-block-kadence-advancedheading.kt-adv-heading1922_6ad9ca-34[data-kb-block=\"kb-adv-heading1922_6ad9ca-34\"] img.kb-inline-image{width:150px;vertical-align:baseline;}<\/style>\n<p class=\"kt-adv-heading1922_6ad9ca-34 wp-block-kadence-advancedheading\" data-kb-block=\"kb-adv-heading1922_6ad9ca-34\">Look out, Anheuser-Busch. This WilmU alumnus is hopping.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Story by Bob Yearick<br><\/em><em>Photos by Susan L. Gregg<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignleft is-resized wp-image-1924\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"700\" height=\"446\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.test.wilmu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/10_feature_cleaningupNeilS_body.jpg\" alt=\"man smiling with broom\" class=\"wp-image-1924\" style=\"width:350px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/10_feature_cleaningupNeilS_body.jpg 700w, https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/10_feature_cleaningupNeilS_body-250x159.jpg 250w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>Neil Shea<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>In the first two decades of the 21st century, craft beer has evolved from a trendy cottage industry to a phenomenon that has carved out a significant niche in the beer brewing market. There were eight craft brewers in 1980, 537 in 1994, and more than 6,000 by 2018. And that\u2019s not counting the innumerable breweries that are in the planning stage. Every home brewer seems to dream of having his own 10-barrel fermenter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Which, on reflection, is amazing, because these small, specialty brewers must take on long-established behemoths like Anheuser-Busch, Miller and Coors, who have had decades to gain loyal customers. As a result, many craft beer start-ups result in rather quick failure. It is not a business for the faint-hearted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So who better to try his hand at it than an ex-Marine whose mettle was tested in the hell hole known as Afghanistan?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Say hello to Neil Shea, Wilmington University graduate and proud owner and founder of Bellefonte Brewing Co., located in a small industrial site on Old Capitol Trail, south of Wilmington.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Shea took a bit of a roundabout route on his journey to the craft beer business. To start with, he says, \u201cI love beer, but I really wasn\u2019t a craft beer drinker.\u201d Secondly, when he started Bellefonte Brewing, the 29-year-old Delaware native already owned a thriving business \u2014 The Dirt Squad, a residential and commercial cleaning company he bought the day he graduated from WilmU, in January 2015.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While Shea seemed an unlikely candidate to run a craft brewery, he had even less knowledge of the cleaning business. But he is a willing and indefatigable worker. And he was convinced the business held potential. Also, he felt confident in heading up his own enterprise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m a numbers guy,\u201d Shea says, \u201cand if you know how to manage finances and people, you can make a business work. And I thought this was a very viable business.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To learn the ins and outs of cleaning houses, he would drive to a shopping center near Newark, Delaware, and meet The Dirt Squad night crew of three or four women, then go out with them to clean \u201cabout 30 homes.\u201d And this was after a day at his full-time job at a risk-management firm. (Not surprisingly, his two sports at Wilmington\u2019s Salesianum School were cross-country and wrestling, both of which require serious stamina.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It wasn\u2019t long before Shea\u2019s ever active mind saw the potential for additional services: power washing, gutter cleaning, window cleaning. So he expanded into those areas. Next, he bought out two competitors. Now he has about 20 employees and they clean \u201ca couple of hundred houses\u201d plus office buildings and individual offices. He says his clients are now approximately 60 percent residential and 40 percent commercial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While working on purchasing The Dirt Squad, Shea already had his eye on the burgeoning craft beer market. But he quickly discovered that creating a brewery (literally from the ground up, as it turned out) would not be the relative walk in the park that purchasing an existing business had been.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Shea and two partners formalized their business plan in early 2015, and by November, after looking at several locations, they signed a lease for the Old Capitol Trail property. \u201cIt was just a gravel pit at the time,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>All the partners had full-time jobs, so their spare time was devoted almost entirely to building a brewery on that gravel pit. They recruited family and friends to help and ultimately had to resort to that break-the-glass emergency move of the social media world: crowdfunding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Still, it was touch-and-go right down to the wire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe were running out of money before we even opened the doors,\u201d says Shea. \u201cWe needed to start recovering our investment.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignleft wp-image-1925 size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"186\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.test.wilmu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/10_feature_cleaningupNeilS2_body-300x186-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1925\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/10_feature_cleaningupNeilS2_body-300x186-1.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/10_feature_cleaningupNeilS2_body-300x186-1-250x155.jpg 250w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Neil Shea<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Finally, Bellefonte Brewing debuted in May of 2016. The owners heaved a collective sigh of relief, and patrons soon started crowding the bar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Since the opening, the company has upgraded its equipment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWhen we opened we were using a 1.5-barrel system that was not the most efficient,\u201d says Shea. \u201cThe brewers brewed twice a day, nearly 16 to 18 hours, to make enough beer to meet the demand. Now our system is four barrels and we have six- and 10-barrel fermenters that allow us to have a surplus, which got us into distribution. Our next step is canning the beer, which we expect to do by the end of this year [2018]. That will take tens of thousands of dollars.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>By last winter, the brewery was turning out 600 barrels of beer a year, or roughly 1,200 kegs. And Bellefonte products were in bars and restaurants up and down the state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It could have all been different for Neil Shea. After graduating from Salesianum, he seemed destined for a career in the military. \u201cI always had a fascination with the military,\u201d he says. Much of his zeal was inspired by his father\u2019s service in the Navy and a couple of grade-school visits to the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Following graduation from high school, he spent one year at The Citadel, the military academy in Charleston, South Carolina. Then he joined the Marine Corps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After basic training in Camp Lejeune, in Jacksonville, North Carolina, there were several postings in the states before the 22-year-old lance corporal was deployed to Afghanistan in 2011. His 10 months in that war-torn country in South Central Asia proved to be a cauldron that forged his view of the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>First, he was introduced to the seven-day workweek. \u201cYou stop thinking about the weekend as a God-given right,\u201d says Shea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Next, he learned to do more with less. \u201cThere were a lot of shortcomings,\u201d he says. \u201cWe dealt with really junky equipment, and we were there during the government shutdown, so our pay was delayed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He also learned about trust. \u201cIt\u2019s not like any war we\u2019ve ever been in,\u201d he says. \u201cSomebody is working with you one day and they\u2019re trying to kill you the next day.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt changed my perspective on a lot of things,\u201d he sums up. \u201cIt was a wakeup call for me. At that age, people are full of themselves, but the world will continue without them. I learned patience, and that I\u2019m a very small part of the world.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Not surprisingly, Shea recommends military service for all young people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>His time in the Marines seemed to quench his thirst for military service and, more important, helped prepare him for success in civilian life. To enhance his skills, he decided to get a college degree. WilmU\u2019s flexible scheduling and affordability got his attention, so he took advantage of the G.I. Bill and enrolled in the Organizational Management program at the University almost as soon as he was discharged.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At the time, he was working at the risk management firm, so he went to classes at night. This demanding schedule, coupled with the credits the University granted him for some online courses he took during his Marine days, enabled him to graduate in just one-and-a-half years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In class, Shea displayed a zeal that indicated he meant to put his new-found knowledge to practical use.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cHe really participated in class, asking a lot of detailed questions,\u201d says Michael McGay, an adjunct professor who remembers Shea from his Economics (105) class. \u201cI\u2019m not surprised that he would be running a successful business.\u201d<br>Shea returns the compliment, saying that McGay brought a lot of real-world experience from his banking background to the classroom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>McGay says he has been a customer at Bellefonte Brewing \u201cmultiple times,\u201d and his busy former student found time to serve him. \u201cNeil is very personable, very customer-service focused, and it\u2019s great to see him doing so well,\u201d says McGay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Then he adds: \u201cThey need to expand. I\u2019m hoping they do it in the Pike Creek area, which is where I live.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Shea has maintained his ties to the University. He has been accepted into the MBA program, but at this writing had not yet started those studies, and he donated five kegs of Bellefonte brew to the Green and White Scholarship Ball, held in December.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Meanwhile, he and his seven partners are pouring their profits back into the brewery. They added a canning line right after Christmas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ll use the cash flow from that for a second location, which we expect to be ready this summer,\u201d Shea says. \u201cSince we opened we\u2019ve made a ton of improvements to the tap room, the bar experience and our culture. We get out to a lot of events, make custom beers and sell some trendy merchandise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cOur philosophy has been to grow within our means. Instead of bank loans, we have utilized investors that have business backgrounds, and we\u2019ve been able to operate profitably with no debt since day one.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Shea touts the Bellefonte brand as \u201ccraft beer for the non-craft beer drinker.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cCraft beer has a reputation for being snooty,\u201d he says. \u201cBut our crowd is eclectic; it\u2019s blue-collar, white-collar, no-collar. We\u2019ve converted a lot of them from Miller and Coors.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He says his brewery can \u201cmake whatever flavor we want,\u201d and its current offerings include sours, goses (a brew that originated in Goslar, Germany), and the trending gluten-reduced beers. \u201cWe have a big group of customers who are gluten-free,\u201d Shea says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Local bands often play in the tap room, and sometimes there\u2019s a food truck in the parking lot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Bellefonte Brewing also is an active member of the community, holding frequent charitable and political fundraisers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe keep reinventing the business,\u201d he says. \u201cBesides another location, we expect to continue to grow to larger systems and increased distribution.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Oh, and Shea recently broadened his portfolio of businesses by adding a photo booth rental business and a real estate rental firm. \u201cI don\u2019t get out much,\u201d he deadpans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And he hasn\u2019t forgotten his formative years in the Marine Corps. One of Bellefonte\u2019s products is \u201cChesty\u2019s Ghost,\u201d named in honor of famed Marine Gen. Lewis \u201cChesty\u201d Puller, who served with distinction in World War II and Korea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Stop in at Bellefonte and try a bottle. As the sign behind the bar says, \u201cSave Water. Drink Beer.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Look out, Anheuser-Busch. This WilmU alumnus is hopping. Story by Bob YearickPhotos by Susan L. Gregg In the first two decades of the 21st century,&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":1924,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[145,135],"tags":[642,638],"class_list":["post-1922","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni-news","category-magazine","tag-bellefonte-brewing-co","tag-magazine-spring-2019"],"acf":[],"taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":145,"label":"ALUMNI NEWS"},{"value":135,"label":"MAGAZINE"}],"post_tag":[{"value":642,"label":"Bellefonte Brewing Co"},{"value":638,"label":"Magazine Spring 2019"}]},"featured_image_src_large":["https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/10_feature_cleaningupNeilS_body.jpg",700,446,false],"author_info":{"display_name":"Rachel Marchione","author_link":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/author\/rachel\/"},"comment_info":0,"category_info":[{"term_id":145,"name":"ALUMNI NEWS","slug":"alumni-news","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":702,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":113,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":145,"category_count":113,"category_description":"","cat_name":"ALUMNI NEWS","category_nicename":"alumni-news","category_parent":0},{"term_id":135,"name":"MAGAZINE","slug":"magazine","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":692,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":431,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":135,"category_count":431,"category_description":"","cat_name":"MAGAZINE","category_nicename":"magazine","category_parent":0}],"tag_info":[{"term_id":642,"name":"Bellefonte Brewing Co","slug":"bellefonte-brewing-co","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":1199,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":1,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":638,"name":"Magazine Spring 2019","slug":"magazine-spring-2019","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":1195,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":20,"filter":"raw"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1922","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1922"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1922\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15195,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1922\/revisions\/15195"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1924"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1922"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1922"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1922"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}