Inside Eridanus Brewery and Tea House with a flight sampler of Eridanus Craft Beers

Eridanus Brewery in downtown Russell Kentucky is the realization of the dream of Justin and Kristen Matthews, who blend their excitement into every batch of specialty beer and fine teas. “I’ve been brewing at home for about twelve years now, and Kristen has been brewing her teas for about 8 years now,” Justin Matthews said. “This idea has been years in the making, but we finally decided to take the plunge and start a brewery and tea house.”

“We went back and forth looking at a lot of locations before we ended up in the City of Russell at the old train depot,” he said. Matthews said the road to where the pair ended was something of a saga, with a yearlong process of things such as getting approval from the state transportation cabinet (since the trains still run the tracks near the location), the Kentucky Heritage Association (since the building is historical), and of course the City of Russell itself. “When you are dealing with a historical building, it’s a process,” he said. “But everyone was all in and very supportive, but the levels you have to go through to turn a train depot into a brewery and tea house was a little more than we anticipated.”

“All in all, it’s went well, but we did have some fun with plumbing,” he added with a laugh. “When we did the Grand Opening, one of the City Council members said something to the effect that it was admirable that we didn’t stop when we hit some of these roadblocks. It was definitely a saga getting there.”

But before the pair were on the road to, and eventually, overcoming those roadblocks, a series of circumstances led to the final push to take the plunge. “A lot of people ask about what made us take the plunge,” Kristen Matthews said. “They say well, you had a dream, but what actually made you go for it?” she said. “We always preface this by saying that it might not be for everyone when we tell the story,” Justin said. “But it is a very cool story, and the payoff is worth it.”

“It’s always been my dream to start a brewery and it’s always been Kristen’s dream to start a tea house,” he said. “She had made a business plan when she was in college for a books store and tea house and coffee house, so our dreams kind of blended together.” And what gelled the combined plans was a seemingly unrelated dream of Justin’s to see the Los Angeles Dodgers spring training. “It was on my bucket list, and for my 40th birthday (right before COVID hit), Kristen planned a trip for us to go to Arizona. We were going to the spring training and hit some breweries,” he said. “Because that is a must when we go on vacation. And one of the things she wanted to do was go to Sedona.”

Kristen Matthews is also a practicing yoga teacher (yoga is also offered at Eridanus) and wanted to see the energy vortexes and explore the aura of Sedona. “So on a day there wasn’t training, we drove to the Grand Canyon and spent a few hours there then drove to Sedona and had lunch.” The pair walked around, he said, and visited what he described as a crystal store. “Justin calls it a “woo woo” store,” Kristen laughed. “I used to call it that,” he corrected her. The reason for his change of heart, he said, was part of the story.

Justin said that the shop owner was very nice and told her they were from Kentucky. But as he looked around, she came up to him and said that she needed to talk to him although she didn’t want to startle him. “I don’t want to scare you, but I need to tell you something,” she said. “You are in the process of planning something, and it’s going to be huge, and it’s going to change your life,” she continued. “But what you need to do is don’t let anyone talk you out of it. But more importantly, don’t talk yourself out of it. She apologized and said she wasn’t wanting to freak me out, but I began to think this was supposed to happen,” Justin said. “How often do you go states away . . .”