Eridanus Brewing – region’s only Tea & Tap House

Seeing small breweries pop up in little Appalachian towns thrills me to no end. I’d been hearing about Eridanus Brewing since late last year and was excited to read that it opened in January. Situated inside Russell, Kentucky’s former railroad depot, the little one barrel-brewery is now churning out tasty specialties designed to appeal to locals and visitors alike.

An energetic couple, Kristen and Justin Matthews founded, own, and operate the quaint little brewery and taproom, which is helping lead a resurgence in downtown Russell. The city fell on hard times when the local steel mill closed in 2019, but now Eradinus Brewing (pronounced Err-rid-in-us) is bringing new life and excitement to the old downtown.

An inclusive brewing philosophy

“My philosophy is brew things people like,” says Justin Matthews, who leads the brewing program at Eridanus. “I know what I like. But it’s not about me anymore. An artist paints a painting so people can look at it. A chef cooks a meal so people can enjoy it. I feel the same way when I make beer. I want to make beer that I can watch other people enjoy.”

When asked what type of beer they would need to brew to appeal to the local Russell citizens’ palate, Kristen’s immediate response is, “What’s the lightest beer you have?” (describing the question so frequently asked during the taproom’s first couple of months). In response to that question, the brewery offers its Chessie Blonde, a clean, light tasting beer, and the locals have taken to it.

“In our first 12 hours being open we sold out three kegs [of Chessie Blonde],” she said.

Among other lighter beer styles, the taproom will make a Brown Ale, Cream Ale, and Wheat Beer. Seems like they have the lighter end of the market pretty well covered.

“There’s a craft beer community here, but there’s a larger one that don’t know they’re craft beer fans yet,” Justin likes to say. “All it takes is that one introduction to craft beer and then you start trying different things.”

While he’ll continue to be heavy on the lighter styles for a while, you’ll also find other popular styles, such as IPAs and stouts. Down the road he hopes to get into kettle sours and also hopes to brew a Kentucky Common, which is a uniquely Kentucky historical beer style.

It all started with Mr. Beer

Beginning 12 years ago with a Mr. Beer kit, Justin first took on homebrewing with malt extract, and then graduated to all-grain before trying his hand at commercial brewing. “From the first batch, I loved it,” Justin says. “It takes me to a happy place.”

In his homebrewing days, Justin was pretty much self taught. He says he loved the craft but never got involved in a local homebrew club or any formal brewing educational activity back when he was first learning. Just trial and error mostly.

Then about two and a half years ago, as he began seriously thinking of opening a brewery, Justin became more focused on learning what he could from other accomplished craftspeople in the trade. Justin says he has learned a great deal from folks at Cushwa Brewing in Maryland, Adroit Theory in Virginia, Sophisticated Hound Brewing in West Virginia, and from Kentucky brewers Old Louisville Brewery and Dreaming Creek Brewery. The Kentucky Guild of Brewers has also been extremely helpful, he says.

And while it may seem a bit backward at first, it makes great sense that Justin recently enrolled in a fermentation science certificate program at Madisonville Community College. He says the college classes are helping him better understand the more technical and scientific side of brewing. He also expects that attending classes will help him meet other brewers who will be good connections down the road. As proof of that concept, one of his classmates is a brewer at Broken Throne Brewing with whom he has already done his first collaboration brew (a 2XIPA).

From Southern West Virginia to Eastern Kentucky

Justin grew up in the southern West Virginia city of Bluefield and is a graduate of Marshall University. He attended high school with Shane Goodman, now manager of Sophisticated Hound Brewing in Princeton, WV, and maintained a friendship ever since. Justin got to Eastern Kentucky when he met and married Kristen.

Trying to open a small brewery is a complicated process that can vex any business partnership, and brewery founders Kristen and Justin certainly ran into their share of hurdles. Getting their brewery open took much longer than they originally hoped. Repurposing an historic structure, remodeling, updating electrical and plumbing, putting in floor drains and things like that can eat up a lot of time and money fast. But they hung in, kept their spirits up, and now they’ve accomplished something many others have talked about but never got off the ground.

The efficient little one-barrel brewing system and their seven fermentors can make beer competitive in quality with bigger systems, however, brewing on a small production system does have its drawbacks. When the beer gets popular, as they’ve seen with some of their current brews, you’ve got your work cut out for you. Having to brew lots and lots of small batches keeps Justin and his assistant brewer Chris Matney very busy—especially considering that both have outside, full-time jobs while they get the brewery’s business established. Currently, they’re making mostly fast turnaround brews to build up their stock. Justin figures by late May he will be able to have all his taps full of house-made beer. In the meantime, Eridanus will always have extra taps filled with beers from other Kentucky breweries.

City recruits Eridanus brewery

Just how they decided to open Eridanus in downtown Russell is a case study in the twists and turns of business development. While the Matthews live in Greenup County where the town of Russell (population 3,500) is located, they had hoped to build their brewery out in a rural area of the county nearer Kristen’s family’s other hospitality & tourism industry businesses. The problem though: that unincorporated area of Greenup County is dry. After an unsuccessful effort to get the law changed, they had to look elsewhere. Others folks around the county caught wind of their brewery development interests, and it wasn’t long before they heard from Samuel Simpson, the mayor of Russell. As an independent city, Russell was wet, so putting a brewery there was legal.

The mayor, along with some downtown building owners, had been discussing a plan to redevelop the central business district which was plagued with empty storefronts. They smartly decided that having a brewery there would be the perfect cornerstone to build around. The town, which owned the train station and had been using it for storage, saw an opportunity to put the little depot to a higher and more productive use. The mayor offered the Matthews an attractive deal if they would put their brewery there. After becoming intrigued with the possibilities during a tour of the property, Kristen and Justin took the city up on its offer. The Matthews and town leaders came to an agreement and brewery buildout soon began.

The old train station is a great place for them, Kristen says. “We wanted an historic property with a lot of character,” And that’s what they got.

True to the the city leaders’ vision—the announcement of the brewery’s recruitment supercharged their downtown redevelopment plans. Since the brewery’s announcement, 12 new businesses have opened downtown. Things are certainly looking up for Russell, and the brewery is just getting started.

Tea & Taps — a wider vision of brewing

While this publication’s focus is on beer, Kristen Matthews is a brewer of a different kind—a tea brewer. As an herbal tea crafter, she not only procures herbal ingredients from top organic suppliers, she also grows as many of her own herbs as she can. She prepares and blends her ingredients to develop a unique series of flavorful and therapeutic teas. She sells brewed tea in the taproom by the pot/cup and offers packaged teas to take home for brewing.

You’ll find at least eight styles of herbal tea at Eridanus, including things like Chocolate Mint and Hibiscus teas. For a little insight into ingredients, the Chocolate Mint Tea is flavored with leaves from a type of chocolate mint that Kristen grows, and then combines it with cocao nibs and the naturally-sweet honey bush leaves.

Kristen’s tea brewing leads to the business tag line: Tea & Tap House. Combining beer, herbal teas, coffee, wine, and more made a lot of sense as their business signature Kristen says. “We want to have a hand crafted beverage for everyone.”

Their interest in providing a nice variety of craft beverages, including non-alcoholic ones, is in line with a growing national trend that boosts small brewery taprooms as family-friendly meeting places for their communities. Neighborhood brewery taprooms are the fastest growing sector of the brewery business.

Kristen grew up in neighboring Boyd County, KY, and got her start in the hospitality industry through her family’s businesses. After obtaining a college degree in business administration, she worked for a time in marketing, which helped prepare her for running her own establishment. Starting this business close to her mother’s Greenup County businesses also allows her family’s food business background to contribute to the mix. The Dragonfly food truck parked permanently next to the brewery is owned by her mother. Oh, and one last thing. Kristen also teaches the yoga classes you may see held on the brewery lawn.

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Eridanus Brewing is usually open Wednesday through Saturday. Check their Facebook page for up-to-date business hours. Located about a half hour west of downtown Huntington, it is only the second brewery to open in the Huntington-Ashland-Ironton metropolitan area. In addition to the Flycatcher food truck, Eridanus offers a late-night small bite menu.

501 Ferry Street,
Russell, Kentucky 41169
606-388-2326

Eridanus Brewing is named for the Eridanus constellation in the southern sky, and Eridanus is also a river in Greek mythology.

Brewery facts