Our Story
Owned and Operated by Husband and Wife Team, Andy and Amanda Conrad. Our passion for craft beer was born over 15 years ago while developing early recipes as home brewers in college. This passion and love was then scaled to new heights during an adventure out West while working as traveling physical therapists for 3 years. Our visits to many different breweries enabled us to taste a wide variety of beers, see different brewing techniques, and enjoy the atmosphere of each unique brewery. It was during this time that the initial planning for Sandy Springs Brewing Company began, and those experiences have greatly influenced our vision for what is now being built. We also had an amazing opportunity to volunteer at Santa Fe Brewing Co's production facility in New Mexico, where we gained insight into the commercial side of the industry. We feel strongly about the history of Minerva and are very excited to be located in the old "Filling Station" with hopes to bring more tourism and business to the heart of downtown Minerva.
The name Sandy Springs originated from our 19th century farm, which is located along Sandy Springs Rd. in Minerva, Oh. The Sandy Spring was a natural spring that fed into the old farmhouse where we currently reside. Our daughter is the 6th generation to live here. There are fond memories of visiting my great grandmother as a child and dipping an old tin cup into the large barrel of water where the spring entered the house. Original plans for the brewery were for it to be located in the farm's old red T-barn that also dated back the 1800's. In fact, we had an inspection in 2013 to determine its structural integrity with positive recommendations that the barn would stand for another 75 years. Sadly, 4 days later after this inspection, it was struck by lightening and burned to the ground. Fortunately, we were able to salvage several of the old and now fire scarred barn beams and floor joists. This wood will be featured throughout our new taproom in downtown Minerva. The tree in our logo symbolizes the old oak tree that stands by itself towering in the center of our farm. We often refer to it as the "Tree of life". It represents the heritage and history of the farm and now 6 generations of family who have come to call it home. Although it was terribly sad to see the old barn burn, we are incredibly excited for our new location of Sandy Springs Brewing Company at the center of downtown Minerva and look forward to being a big part of the growing community. We feature American and European style ales and lagers with an atmosphere that promotes a community and family-centered place to meet, spend great times, and create awesome memories. We look forward to seeing you in our taproom to enjoy with us our local hand-crafted beer.
Barrick Farm - Maple Syrup
The history behind our staple "Happy Sappy" Beer
Our family started making maple syrup back in the 1800's on our farm. We have original signatures and dates that hang in our sugar camp where our ancestors burned their names and year in the wood siding of the old sugar camp as they made syrup over 100 year ago. My father and Uncle re-started the tradition again back in 1994 . We have been producing maple syrup ever since. When we started homebrewing back in 2007, we wondered what would happen if we brewed a beer with no water and using only maple sap from our farms trees. This recipe has been one of our favorites from the very beginning. Each year it typically ends up around 12% ABV (alcohol content). This explains the happiness in the name. We still brew this exact recipe and our friends and family wait all year for the "Happy Sappy" tasting each spring. 2018 will be the first year when brewing "Happy Sappy" on a larger scale nearly 10 times as much as we can produce now. We can't wait to share this beer with you as it has brought many great times to our family and friends over the years.