Shared Brewing

Shared Brewing is one of those lucky beer ventures in this competitive craft beer industry that gets to serve its specialized drink with a lot of help and support from a big brother of a brewery – The Side Project. Creator of innovative brews named Content Moderator, Snowy Window, Sulla Terra, Bibble Babble, and Junk Shop, the microbrewery doesn’t have a physical establishment of its own but shares the resources and equipment of its partner brewery, Side Project.

Learn More About Side Project’s Shared Venture

There are 35 drinks that have been designed so far under the Shared label exclusively. The focus has been on porters, pale ales, and stouts, with an occasional pilsner, barrel-aged barley wine, or saison thrown into the mix. These brews are the creative brainchildren of Tommy Manning and Brian Ivers, both of whom are currently associated with The Side Project but also manage the Shared label. Manning has prior brewing experience at the Perennial Artisan Ales, and Ivers had previously worked for Goose Island Brewery.

While talking about their performance in 2016 and thanking their staff members, the people of The Side Project talk about how Shared came into existence. Each member in their brewery brings a unique talent to the table, and Side Project’s owners – Karen and Cory King – brainstorm with them about how their forthcoming year would shape up and what ideas each one had in mind. It was in such a discussion that the idea of Ivers and Manning running their own label in association with The Side Project came up. After much discussion and deliberation, the Kings decided to help Shared’s creators with their dreams until they have a better understanding of the industry and are able to branch out as an individual entity.

Currently, all of Shared’s drinks are only available at both of the Side Project’s branches in Maplewood, Missouri. Although the Side Project plays an important role in the creation of the Shared’s brews, they have made it explicitly clear that the drinks and the ideas behind them are the properties of their creators only. When they are able to go solo, the Side Project will not retain any kind of rights on them. This means that Manning and Ivers have a well-established experimental ground in which they can continue to brew their drinks and bring attention to both their own and their partners’ businesses.

Just like they do with their own beers, Side Project collectively rotates the drinks menu of all that’s on their tap list, as well as the brews from Shared. Each brewery’s specialization is different, so customers who visit the Side Project’s (TSP) taproom can enjoy a variety of flavors on different days of the week. While TSP Cellar is open from Tuesday to Saturday every week, TSP’s brewery is also open to the public for tasting and purchase during the weekends. So if you find hits for both TSP and Shared in Maplewood, don’t get confused, as both entities share the same addresses as well.

Shared in the News

Ivers, who is also Karen King’s brother, along with the Kings, had helped with the establishment of TSP in 2016, and Shared came into existence in 2017. While TSP Cellar has been honored with the Best Brewer Tap Room of Missouri five times now, the brews under Shared’s label have contributed to the surge of TSP’s ranking in other prestigious lists by a considerable margin. In 2018, TSP was listed as the ninth best brewer in the world, but jumped to the second spot in 2019. Out of the three brews that were singled out for their unique flavors and blending, one was Shared’s barrel-aged Coconut Vibes. To earn this recognition among brews from 33,000 other breweries in the world, Shared has undoubtedly proved that it has great potential of sailing under its own steam soon if they wished to do so.

One point of difference between Shared and TSP is that, in addition to beers, the former also serves specially blended and aged wines and whiskies. Another difference is that, while TSP has a good mix of beers aged for a long and short duration of time, Shared focuses mainly on drinks that don’t require a lengthy fermentation period.

When asked about Shared, Cory talks about the immense talent pool they have, brimming with ideas about a number of drinks. In order to keep the creative spirit of each one alive, they opted to allow Ivers and Manning to start this new, collaborative label. The team spends a considerable amount of time researching, tasting, and experimenting with their ideas before they actually get to the brewing. It is likely that a well-settled establishment like TSP would focus more on their tested and proven drinks and brewing methods, while fully supporting in-depth experimentation at Shared.

Reviews for Shared Drinks

Review sites such as Untappd and BeerAdvocate have a long list of Shared brews that have been highly rated, with Coffee Shop Vibes and Pomelo Breeze topping the list. Some of the other prominently featured drinks under the Shared label are Ambiente, Brooklyn Vibes, Morning Vibes, and Snowy Window.

Customers who have enjoyed drinking Shared’s drinks have also talked about the casual and friendly atmosphere at both TSP locations, which made the experience all the more enjoyable. While the brewery is a tad smaller than the Cellar, there is a small section for people wanting to drink straight from the tap. The Cellar has both indoor and outdoor seating and is also pet and children friendly to a large extent. Some customers are also thrilled to be a part of a venture that gives away a part of its proceeds to non-profit organizations on certain days. Judging from the photos posted by people in their reviews on Google and Facebook, it’s clear that Shared’s special drinks have been a big hit so far and are definitely a worthy reason for the Kings’ continued support.

To learn more about the delicious drinks offered at Shared Brewing, you can visit their official website or visit them at 7458 Manchester Ave, Maplewood Missouri 63143.