A Fine Brew

Shortly after finishing law school in 2011 and settling back into his hometown of Henderson, Kentucky, Austin Vowels began brewing beer in his basement. “Before I knew it,” says Vowels, a plaintiff’s personal injury attorney at Vowels Law, “I loved more than just drinking the beer. I loved the process of making beer.” It took some time, he says, but at the end, “I had a decent pale ale that was relatively cheap and a labor of love.”

After several more years of home brewing, Vowels attended a CLE on starting a microbrewery at the 2017 Kentucky Bar Association Annual Convention. “Of course, I went and posted about it on social media,” he recalls. “By the weekend after, I had already been contacted and scheduled a meeting with several other thirsty Hendersonians to discuss bringing commercial beer-brewing back to Henderson for the first time since Prohibition. Now, we are proud owners of Henderson Brewing Co. As the lawyer in the group and decisively less qualified brewer, I mostly do the legal compliance and occasional quality control.”

Vowels and his wife, Sarah Crick, stop by the brewery frequently, often hosting Thursday night trivia contests. “The place is a business, but in reality, it’s much more,” he says. “It is a community of people who enjoy one another’s company and fine craft beers.”