Story Beat #1: Infusion Brewery

Practice makes perfect. This phrase, although considered a common cliché, proved to serve Infusion Brewery with the inspiration that led to being a thriving business in the heart of the Benson community.

With aspirations to master any new skill, patience is a crucial ingredient. Seventeen years prior to the reality of Infusion Brewery expanding its client base outside of Benson by opening more locations, brewery owner Aaron Bush learned this the hard way.

“I received a home beer brewing kit as a gift and thought it would be a fun experiment. I thought if I just followed the directions, look up some YouTube videos—I was set; I would never have to buy store bought beer again,” laughed Bush.

Looking back at the results, Bush had every reason to humbly laugh at himself.

“Oh God, did the batch suck. It was skunky and just…atrocious. I pitched the bottles on the front porch to be taken away the next day, but the sentimental part of me wanted to save a few since it was my first attempt,” Bush says.

Sentimentality would soon serve Bush, proving that patience is more than just a virtue when brewing beer: it is nearly everything.

“I have no idea what possessed me to want to try the same skunky, awful beer that my wife had been urging me to get off our front porch for well over a month,” Bush explains.

“I couldn’t believe it and was extremely relieved when I found that the beer was not the same—it was actually good. The same beer, after a month- had totally redeemed itself. Immediately that first batch of beer reformed, which was a sign of God I hope,” said Bush. “Just be patient.

If the virtue of patience is the first ingredient for acquiring a new skill that can soon turn in to a thriving business, a trusted mentor is the second. Bush found a kinship in Crescent Moon owner Bill Baburek, sharing a mutual life-long dream of owning a brewery and refining the craft.

Having worked at multiple, cut-and-dry jobs before meeting Baburek, Bush saw his sudsy dream glisten, becoming more of a reality.   Upon accepting the position as Infusion’s head-brewer, Bush knew of the potential brewing alongside with the beer. It did not take long for Infusion Brewery to become a new staple of the growing Benson community.

The brewery’s location off  61^st and Maple streets was once home to Olsen’s Meat Market, which served the Benson community for the past 60 years. Given the vitality of new and growing businesses sprouting up within the same area, this seemed like the perfect place to make a shared dream in to a reality.

“Bob [Baburek] and I were just happy to have both of our dreams come to fruition at a place who experienced success and stability in the community for six decades. We wanted a place where it wouldn’t just be a landing spot for the time being, but a place that we could see withstanding for the next 60 years,” explained Bush.

The initial floor plans proved to be no easy task. With half of the main floor left, while simultaneously acknowledging their main goal to engage with local customers and provide a welcoming, friendly atmosphere within the heart of Benson, they both soon learned that patience and building relationships had to be just as much as a virtue in their business strategy as it was in their brewery craft.

Bush and Baburek may have gotten more than they bargained for, recently opening a second location for Infusion Brewery off of 61^st and 118^th streets. Both believe that their personable business model that focuses on building community and relationships with customers can make any business and community thrive.

“We’re hoping that this same warmth and welcoming vibe that made our first location a home away from home follows us to our newest location and we just keep on going from there,” Bush says.

 

If you’d like to learn more about Infusion Brewing Company, you can find their official website under the Links page for this blog site (quick cheat link: http://infusionbrewing.com/).

For their official Facebook page and upcoming events at both of their locations, visit https://www.facebook.com/InfusionBrewing?rf=394464617267081.

 

 

 

 

 

President Trump holds a press conference with Finnish President Niinistö and unify over multiple issues.

President Donald Trump met and fielded questions with Finnish President Niinistö at a press conference in Washington DC on Monday. Key topics ranging from hurricane recovery plans for Texas and Louisiana to unified responses to Finland’s recent terrorist attack were discussed.

When asked about the plans set in motion for hurricane relief, President Trump reminded the audience of the 8,500 federal workers working tirelessly in the Texas reconstruction effort. President Trump added that “protecting the lives of our people is my highest priority”, noting plans to revisit Texas and possibly Louisiana on Saturday. Trump continued to say, “we will get through this, we will come out from this, and we will be stronger than ever before”.

President Trump commended Finnish President Niinistö on Finland’s secured state of cyber security, noting the country as a leading expert and crucial component in unified support against ISIS threats.

Once the press conference opened for questioning, concerns about correspondence with Russia and recent threats of Russian planes without transponders became a focal point. President Trump addressed these concerns, stating, “we have great friends there, great relationships; we are severely protective.”

Finnish President Niinistö took the press conference a different direction when asked about climate change, specifically in regards to the threat of black carbon and it’s looming negative effects on the Arctic, disrupting Baltic Sea trade. Niinistö stated, “if we lose the artic we lose the globe- that is reality.”

Trump met requests for clarification on the reasoning behind the pardon of Texas sheriff Jon Arpaio with citing multiple instances of past presidential pardons. Trump added, ““I thought he was treated unbelievably unfairly.”

In response to concerns regarding building a wall along the Mexican border, President Trump maintained his solid stance, proclaiming, “one way or the other Mexico will pay for the wall. The wall is needed for the standpoint of security; the wall is needed for the standpoint of stopping a drug scourge.”

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Blog Post #1- Reflection on Guest Speaker, Josie Losa

              While listening to our guest speaker, Josie Losa, a journalist for The Gateway, I was drawn to her enthusiasm and passion for connecting to the people on a human level and basing her stories around this. She spoke of her “a-HA” moment while writing obituaries for the Omaha World Herald. She was asked to do an obit on a 3-year-old who’s family asked for Lego set donations to honor the memory of their son. Losa stated to the class, “never did I think that I would ever be so connected to another being that I had never met”.

           This reminded me of my family’s own connection to the loss of my brother and how we were able to involve the community in donating their time and funds to raise money for fine arts scholarships for area high school seniors to honor my brother’s name. Not only did the reporter covering our event have to get the facts right on the when, where, and why- but they approached us at a human level which ultimately made us more comfortable sharing my brother’s story with them and knowing it was in good hands. I mention this because Josie Losa points out how important it is to become comfortable talking with multiple people from multiple walks of life to not only get the story, but feel the connection of that story to the person who “owns” it. When writing media news and telling a story through that- you, the writer, have to care about the subject of the story and the people who encompass it if you have a chance to have your audiences connect to it as well.

               Josie Losa also spoke about facing some adversity at the Omaha World Herald regarding her approach to relying heavily on social media and online technologies. She explained to us that these tools shouldn’t be seen as something as takes relevance away from stories, but rather something that has the vast potential to add to it. She spoke about the importance of “working smarter”, using Twitter, Facebook, and other social media outlets as easy tickets in to what was happening in the community and how to easily bring people together to get to the heart of a story and discuss the possibilities about where it can lead. 

               I definitely enjoyed her time speaking to our class, as it was energizing to see someone so fulfilled by what they do and excited to impart their experiences and knowledge unto new recruits in the field. She is a woman who you can tell honestly loves what she does for a living, which is beyond admirable. Her ending comments on being ‘digital natives’ versus ‘digital immigrants’ gave insight on how technology is always shifting and expanding in many facets of our lives and news is no exception. By being aware of this, we can be that much more aware and successful at reaching our story subjects on a personal level, even if their experience in the world of technology or the world at large is vastly different from our own.