www.NevadaBrewersGuild.org - Joseph James Brewing

The Lisowski family has been in the beer business since the end of prohibition. Starting with grandpa's love of the beer making process, each generation has been involved in various operations of the business including importing, distributing and even owning a chain of liquor stores.

Eventually, as a Nevada distributor specialized in craft beers, we decided to start working on our own product. Seeing a demand for specific craft beer products, we wanted to start a brewery with the goals of making a great Root beer, a Russian Imperial Stout, a Belgium Wit, and a "gluten free" beer. People with Celiac’s disease have an intolerance to gluten, wheat, and barley. With this in mind, and a great deal of time and effort from several local brewers, we have developed this specialty product that has a tasty craft beer flavor!

As a family owned brewery, we needed to come up with a name and logo that would please everyone. 7 year old Joseph enjoyed drinking many mugs of root beer and always insisted “this is Joe’s Root Beer”. The name stuck and is one of our favorite products, “Joe’s Root Beer”. In honor of his enthusiasm, we named the brewery after him. The fox logo that appears on our website and beer labels is a part of our family crest, honoring a long line of beer lovers.

We have two brewing systems! The first is a 25 BBL Bohemian Brewing system with steam heated copper vessels and combination mash/lauter tun that is step-infusion capable. Under the lauter tun is the hot liquor tank that holds water at variable temperatures. The brew kettle can boil 25 BBL's safely.

The 7 BBL Stromberg Tanks International Brewing system has stainless steel vessels that are direct fire heated. It too has a combination mash/lauter tun that is step-infusion capable. Under the lauter tun is a hot liquor tank that will hold water at high temperatures through an immersion heater. The brew kettle can boil 7 BBL's safely. Used exclusively for our root and sorghum beer.

Four 20 BBL fermenters line the walls at JJBC. These are all glycol cooled to control the temperature of our fermenting/aging beers. JJBC has already invested in 3 brand new Stromberg tanks. One of these tanks can hold up to 42 BBL's of fermenting beer. The other two tanks hold 22 BBL's of finished beer. These "bright" tanks are used for carbonating our products before they go into their various finished packages.

Packaging can be done one of two ways at JJBC. A 4 head Meheen bottling system allows us to bottle about 40-50 cases of beer an hour. It is semi-automatic and we have to rally the workers to help when bottling day comes. We also have keg cleaning and filling capabilities.

Brewmaster: Jonathan D. Christiansen - Growing up outside of Milwaukee in New Berlin, WI., Jon began home-brewing when he was 19 years old and soon realized he wanted to make it his career. While attending Waukesha County Technical College for Marketing he spent 4 months abroad in Antwerp, Belgium. Working for the De Koninck Brewery, the brewmasters there taught him the timeless art of Belgium brewing.

After receiving a Marketing Degree from WCTC, Jon attended the Siebel Institute of Brewing Technology/World Brewing Academy in Chicago, IL and Munich, Germany. While studying abroad in the Doemens Academy in Munich, he brewed pilot batches of German style beer. After graduating and upon returning to the USA, he worked as the assistant brewer at Water Street Brewery in Delafield, WI.

Two years passed, and the offer from Joseph James Brewing Company arrived. Now a Nevada resident, his hobby, passion and dedication earned Jon his dream job. He's attended many great beer festival’s in the USA and Europe such as the Great Taste of the Midwest in Madison and the Copenhagen Beer Festival in Denmark. Expect very delicious craft beers from Jonathan and the Joseph James Brewery.

Located in a medium sized industrial workspace with a high ceiling, the heart and joy of our production facility is the 25 BBL Bohemian Brewing system with steam heated copper vessels. Across from this is our 7 BBL Stromberg Brewing system which has stainless steel vessels. The resmainder of the large open space resembles a typical brewery "clean room" environment.

Adjacent to the brewing tanks are the fermenters and the glycol cooling system. The majority of the of the room from here to the loading dock door has floor to ceiling shelves which hold pallets of bottles and all the materials and supplies we use on a daily basis.

The sinks, bottling system, labeling machine and a variety of rolling tables and carts surround the large walk-in cooler. This holds a wide selection of specialty beers we use for inspiration and comparison. We have plans to soon add a tasting area for our brewery tour guests. Last but not least, there are a few small offices where the rest of the work is done.

We participate in as many local events as time permits - such as the Montelago Brewers Festival, Barley's Brewfest, the Lee's Beer Experience and of course, all NBG events!