Weatherly began to prefer craft beer and ended up learning how to make it at home.
“Eventually, I went a little crazy with it, and it became an every-weekend hobby,” he said.
After about a year of home brewing, Weatherly’s friends and family convinced him to open his own brewery in Cibolo, Texas, where he lives.
During its first year in business, 5 Stones Artisan Brewery won the inaugural Startup Brewery Challenge at Brewbound in San Diego with its Aloha Piña beer and medaled in the Great American Beer Festival competition.
However, Weatherly was not able to promote the accomplishment as much as he would have liked to because the brewery’s location was so small. It could not handle any more people at its events.
“We would basically have to shut down the entire industrial complex to be able to house everybody, and we got to a point that we just couldn’t do it anymore,” Weatherly said.
Weatherly had bigger plans, though.
In 2016, he found 5 Stones Artisan Brewery’s current property in New Braunfels and spent a year getting it ready for the public.
Now that the venue is much larger, 5 Stones Artisan Brewery allows people to come together at multiple events throughout the year, and because he gets requests for weddings and private parties so often, Weatherly is contemplating building a second venue on the current property.
“We want to be an inviting place where you can come and enjoy yourself and relax and share life with one another,” Weatherly said.
As of October 2019, the brewery hosts a special Hymns and Hops event every other month where people come together to sing old hymns in fellowship with one another.
The beer, Weatherly said, is secondary during these events. The idea is to get people to come together and sing.
“It was probably the most moving thing I’ve ever been to in my life,” Weatherly said. “It gives people an avenue to express their faith in an unconventional way.”
5 Stones Artisan Brewery
11335 FM 1863, New Braunfels
210-627-4402
www.5stonesbrewery.com
Hours: Wed.-Thurs. noon-6 p.m., Fri.-Sat. noon- 9 p.m., closed Sun.-Tues.
