About Ministry

OUR MISSION

We are humbled to base our operations in the former St. Michael’s Church and proud to be revitalizing a historic community gathering place. Our team brings together experienced industry professionals resulting in beer, food, and ambiance that will elevate your senses.

Another part of our mission is to give back to the people around us. To make this happen we are focused on three core values:

Education, Community, and Philanthropy

EDUCATION

We believe hope lives in learning and education. By providing this to under-served communities, we seek to enable opportunities that may not otherwise exist. Specifically, founding members Ernst Valery and David Wendell are working to create a summer course hosted within the Ministry of Brewing QC lab that teaches lab skills to high school seniors from the City of Baltimore to help prepare them for future jobs in research or industry where molecular biology skills are needed and valued.

COMMUNITY

Our location in the former St. Michael’s church has a storied history as a hub of community gathering and engagement. Many Baltimore residents remember attending church services, christenings, and marriages at St. Michael’s, and we intend to respect this past by maintaining the essence of a local family gathering place for the adjacent communities (Washington Hill, Upper Fells, and Butcher’s Hill) as well as the greater Baltimore-area through regular public and private events like meetings, weddings, holiday parties, and fundraisers.

PHILANTHROPY

Giving back to the community is a core, shared belief among the Ministry ‘s four founding members. We plan to bring this beyond a feel-good message through education and fundraising. Our brewery’s initial philanthropic efforts will focus on Baltimore’s public school system, working in conjunction with individual elementary schools to understand the most pressing needs of their students and teachers. We will also welcome other fundraising work and invite you to reach out to us discuss your efforts at contact@ministryofbrewing.com.

The Team

Ernst Valery

Co-Founder

A Baltimore resident and nationwide developer (SAA | EVI), Ernst specializes in transforming the distressed into the vibrant. His focus on improvement is felt at the Ministry from restoring a vacant church to the vision of it becoming an inclusive place for Baltimore residents to learn, meet, and unwind. He is also behind the development of a summer educational program for Baltimore students with his life-long friend and Ministry co-founder David Wendell.

Mike Powell

Co-Founder

Mike brings with him the leadership experience and operational expertise that help keeps the Ministry running smoothly. A seasoned veteran of the food industry as a former Panera Bread exec and, more recently, co-founder of Karrikin Spirits, we regard him as a mentor and confidant. Share a few beers with him and he could be yours too!

Jeff Hunt

Co-Founder

An engineer in a previous life, Jeff has over 10 years of experience as a brewmaster. He moved from homebrewer to professional when he co-founded MadTree Brewing in Cincinnati, OH. He added distilling to his repertoire in 2017 when he co-founded Karrikin Spirits Co. in Cincinnati. He brings his love of flavors, creativity, and industry expertise to Baltimore’s brewery scene with the Ministry of Brewing.

Dave Macala

Head Brewer

Our head brewer, Dave Macala, is a man of many talents: brewer, carpenter, purveyor of bad one-liners. He built much that you may enjoy at our brewery from reclaimed tables to exceptional beers. Dave can help provide beverage advice and movie trivia answers, wake word is “Dave”.

David Wendell

Co-Founder and Brewer

David is a former member of the Upper Fells community, a brewer and scientist. He runs an Environmental Engineering research lab that specializes in water quality and synthetic biology and holds several patents related to his research discoveries. Ask him about our beers, brewery science or the education program he and Ernst are developing from our lab.

Jon Holley

General Manager

A Maryland native and current Canton resident, Jon knows the Baltimore brewery scene very well. Jon brings with him his wealth of knowledge – both from behind and in front of the bar – and his years of management experience to the Ministry. He is our go-to guy for anything brewery (or pug) related.