Timbukbru Expanding 'Middle of Nowhere' Brewery

There’s something brewing at the corner of Washington Avenue and River Street in Iowa Falls. Or rather, there will be next year.  Teresa and Willie Lancaster, co-owners of Timbukbrü brewery in Clarion, have purchased the vacant former Ultimate Expressions hair salon in Iowa Falls, where they’ll brew beer and operate a taproom as a second Timbukbrü location. But calling it a brewery and taproom doesn’t do the business justice. It’s much more than that. Timbukbrü began as just another wild idea among a group of friends who were passionate about challenging themselves to create and innovate. The group of six – who met working at Hagie Manufacturing in Clarion – turned a vacant into a hangout for themselves. There, they let their creative juices flow, nurturing wild ideas. One – to build two rat rod cars and drive them from Clarion to Las Vegas and back again on one tank of gas – was achieved in 2016. Another – to learn to wakeboard at a school in Florida – was checked off another time. Then one day, they invited group member Adam Schuchmann to scale up his home beer brewing operation by moving into the building. And that led to talk of turning the operation into a brewery. “That conversation led to this ‘Why can’t we?’” Teresa Lancaster said. “None of us really knew what we were doing. But we knew he could brew some beer. All it is is a recipe, right? Just like goulash. You can make goulash for the whole congregation. All you have to do is scale it up.” But if they were going to do it, it was going to be bigger than the beer. “We wanted people who walked through that door, no matter what their story was, no matter who they were, to feel like we built it for them,” Teresa said of the brewery. And they wanted it to be more than a bar. “We wanted to create a place where teachers could hang out,” Teresa said. “We do not view ourselves as a quote unquote bar. Yes, we serve alcohol, but there’s just a different vibe. It’s family friendly. We’ve had everything from infants to however old in there.” Teresa and Willie Lancaster have purchased Buy Now the building at 819 Washington Ave. (on the southeast corner of the Washington Avenue/River Street intersection) and intend to turn it into the second location of Timbukbrü brewery, of which they are co-owners. The couple plan to open for business sometime next year, after building renovations are complete.  Location was important too. The friends wanted to show the world that you don’t have to move to a big city to build something amazing. “A lot of people walk in and say ‘I can’t believe this is in Clarion. It’s like something that should be in a big city.’ Why? Because all the cool kids go to the big city?” Teresa said. “There’s creativity beyond belief right here in this town. We wanted to show people you can create in your own town right where you’re at.” Timbukbrü opened in Clarion on Friday, July 13, 2018. Soon after, talk turned to expansion. The natural progression – the path pursued by most breweries – is distribution. As a brewery gains followers, it increases the amount of beer it brews and connects with a distributor to get it into grocery and liquor stores. But the friends wondered how they could possibly bottle all that is Timbukbrü. “If you go right now to HyVee you can see a big selection of Iowa breweries,” she said. “If Timbukbrü was there, you might get the can, open it up, taste it, you may like it. But you do not get experience in a can.” Teresa and Willie – the two Timbukbrü co-owners who’ve turned the brewery into a full-time job – decided they would grow the brand and seek a new revenue stream with a second location. So they started looking for that new location. At the same time, Iowa Falls was looking for a brewery. The town had participated in a county-wide Creative Placemaking planning process with McClure Engineering in 2017 and 2018. The final plan suggested a brewery in Iowa Falls. “Though grocery store shelves are becoming more crowded, there is still room in Iowa to produce more beer, and the trend is toward hyper-local,” the plan stated. “Currently, there are no breweries within 10 miles of Iowa Falls.” Timbukbrü brewery open in Clarion in July Buy Now 2018. Now, two of its six owners are preparing to open a second location in Iowa Falls. Teresa and Willie Lancaster said the new location will have its own unique look, but it will help them build the Timbukbrü brand.  When Iowa Falls Area Development Corporation Executive Director Mark Buschkamp started in his position last year, a brewery was near the top of his list of things to do. He partnered with a committee of volunteers, and local resident and Iowa Falls Chamber/Main Street Board member Adam Nederhoff to identify possible breweries. They learned that Timbukbrü was in the market for a second location. Months of work by the Lancasters, Buschkamp, Nederhoff, Iowa Falls City Manager Jody Anderson and Jason Jedele of Homestead Realty culminated last week in the Lancasters’ purchase of a building, and the start of work on a new Timbukbrü. Teresa and Willie are going to remain mum about the details of what they plan to do to the building. But rest easy, locals, history will be a big part of it. As a child growing up in Nevada, Teresa made regular visits to Iowa Falls to visit cousins. It was a special place. “What I loved and remembered about Iowa Falls are things like the swimming pool that used to be here, the roller skating rink that used to be here, Estes Park. Do you know how many times I went to that popcorn stand?” she said. “There are all these things about Iowa Falls that when I think about this town or when I’m here, I get so excited.” Another memory is the Pop Shoppe, which was located in the building she now owns. The store sold a line of flavored sodas and housed a small arcade. “In the ’80s that was it,” she said. “You could go there with a pocket full of quarters and stay there all day. The Pop Shoppe, to me, was one of the top 10 best things as a kid.” Teresa plans to incorporate that history into the brewery through art displays and – she hopes – photographs of Iowa Falls as it looked in the late 1970s and 1980s. She’s put out a request for anyone willing to share photographs or relics of those years in Iowa Falls with her for display in the Timbukbrü brewery open in Clarion in July Buy Now 2018. Now, two of its six owners are preparing to open a second location in Iowa Falls. Teresa and Willie Lancaster said the new location will have its own unique look, but it will help them build the Timbukbrü brand.  Beyond that, the rest of the Lancasters’ plans for the space are vague. They’ll be brewing beer – the new location will have a 3 1/2 barrel system, as opposed to Clarion’s 7 barrels. And they won’t serve food, but Timbukbrü invites customers to order food in from local restaurants, or even bring food from home. “Instead of eating lasagna at your house, put some foil over it, bring it down and eat it there,” she said. You’ll have to wait to see the other details. But it’ll almost certainly exceed your expectations. “You might drive by and say ‘There’s no way that they’re going to make that building into anything. Why would they choose that building? There’s no parking,’” Teresa said. “We’re really good about showing them why that’s the perfect location. Timbukbrü’s tag line is the most innovative beers in the most unexpected locations. “Nobody would have expected that little tiny building tucked away on the corner,” she said. “In everybody’s mind they should just tear it down. I like buildings that people think should be torn down. I like to infuse life back into something.”