True Story: Vape store by day, microbrewery by night

Birmingham — more specifically, Crestwood — is about to get its first taste in a long time of a microbrewery.

Craig Shaw, the creator and owner of True Story Brewing Company, said he always wanted to start a brewery, and starting small is a way a lot of brewers in the U.S. go about it so that they can test the waters. 

A microbrewery, unlike the other breweries in town, is a limited-production and independently-owned brewery that focuses on specialty beers and primarily sells its products locally.

“There used to be a lot more [microbreweries] before Prohibition,” he said, and he thinks they can function perfectly for tight communities such as Crestwood. “I really believe breweries can change neighborhoods.”

Shaw is also the owner of Boxcar Vape in the Crestwood Village Shopping Center and is in the process of constructing and expanding the back area of the store to include a brewing area, more lounging space, bathrooms and a back patio. 

While the vape store will remain open, the microbrewery will probably open at around 4:30 p.m. each day and stay open later into the night.

In addition, Boxcar Vape employee and soon-to-be assistant brewer Chris Vickers said they’ll be doing some reorganizing to the current store layout.

“I think it’s going to be great,” Vickers said, whose main job is working behind the counter and helping customers find what they need. “All of our vaping customers are going on about it and saying, ‘Awesome, a place to drink and vape. Hurry up!’”

Shaw agreed, saying he’s already heard a lot of support for the idea from the Crestwood community. He said his customers are excited.

“It’s going to [be] vape store by day, brewery by night,” Shaw said, but clarified that people can still come in and buy from Boxcar Vape later in the evening.

Years back, Shaw was part of the start of a different Birmingham brewing company, but said that venture didn’t work out the way he thought it would. He was brewmaster there for four years but left when, he said, he didn’t believe in the mission anymore. He later did some home brewing when he lived in Alaska for a few years. In total, he has seven years of professional brewing experience.

When he left the first brewery he worked at, he was a 10 percent owner of Boxcar Vape but decided to go all in and buy the whole store. Shaw said he had the eventual goal to open a small brewery of some kind in it from the beginning.  

The first few months of getting the vape store back on its feet was tough, Shaw said, and that’s a big part of the “True Story” name. At the same time, he said, a lot was going wrong in his life, including a break-up, a broken car and no full-time job for a bit. He said he had to be brave to leave the first brewery, but eventually everything started to turn around. Now, he is married, has a 15-month-old baby and is a lot happier about where he is career-wise in his life.

The name True Story Brewing is also an ode to when “you belly up at the bar with your friends and sort of exaggerate” to tell a better story, Shaw said. It signifies good times are being had and wild stories are being told.

The logo for the brewery, Shaw said, will be an image with crossed fingers, representing both a symbol for good luck as well as when people cross their fingers behind their back when they’re telling an exaggerated or bogus story — all in good fun.

At the first brewery he worked at, he learned to weld, so that skill has played a major role in getting the equipment for True Story Brewing ready. For the past two years, he’s been collecting scrap metal and discarded equipment from a local scrap yard and transforming and refurbishing all the brewery essentials, like a kegerator, fermenter, a tap tower and other necessities. Shaw also built the shelving and the bar himself. 

“I did it all as cheaply as possible without skimping on quality,” he said. 

When True Story Brewing opens, Shaw will make the beer in a 25-gallon brew house and double-batch to produce 50 gallons at a time.

“We’re going to start off small,” he said, “and offer three different beers.”

One will be a light beer, so either a saison or a hefeweizen, he said. The second will be a dark beer, so either a porter or a stout, and the third will be a hoppy beer, so an IPA or a double IPA. 

“I’m excited to play around with the flavors and have fun,” he said. Having a microbrewery versus a whole brewery, he added, will allow him to spend more money on ingredients, he said, and create specialty small-batch brews.

Check their Facebook page @truestorybrewing for an opening day announcement.