Family micro-brewery racking up fans in Central Kentucky, Red River Gorge area

Kentucky craft beer enthusiasts now have an embarrassment of riches when it comes to local offerings. In large cities and small towns, breweries are continually popping up across the Bluegrass and are sustained by the patrons of their product.

The small, central Kentucky town of Mt. Sterling also has a brewery of its own. You just may have to look a little harder to find it.

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Sterling Microbrew Inc. is quite literally a back alley brewery whose current location puts the “micro” in “microbrew.” Located at the blink-and-you’ll-miss-it downtown location of 17 North Wilson Street, it is about the size of a large one-car garage and looks like an old office building (technically, it was ... with previous occupants including internet providers like Windstream and Spectrum.)

However, this unassuming location is producing beer of consistent quality and increasing variety that is winning over beer drinkers in and around the Mt. Sterling area.

A brewery with roots in horse racing

Sterling Microbrew Inc. is a family business whose roots are found in hops and horses. Almost three decades ago, husband Robert Davies (from Essex County, N.J.), met his wife Alberta Davies (residing across the Hudson River in New York City – Jackson Heights, Queens, more specifically) through their connections in the equine industry.

“He had horses in training with a trainer in my barn and I was assistant trainer with a different trainer,” Alberta recalls. “He would come see his horses all the time on the weekend.”

Robert went from seeing horses to seeing Alberta. The couple soon married and decided move to and work in the Horse Capital of the World in Lexington. They would later have a daughter, Sofia Amburgey, who picked up her parents passion for all things equine as she attended school and later enrolled in the University of Kentucky.

Father-daughter brewing operation

While Robert’s involvement in the equine industry supported his family, he also had a hobby of brewing his own beer. While he initially tried it to save a little money, he started to get good at it, producing his first quality lager after about 10 years of trying and even getting his daughter in on the act.

“As an effort to spend time with my dad on the weekends when I was in high school doing my own thing, we started doing it together,” Sofia said.

“It was like a father-daughter bonding thing,” Alberta added.

Robert branched out and started to develop other beers like ales, stouts and different types of IPAs. Between the frequent compliments from friends and his increasing repertoire, Robert began to figure out the intangible ingredient that makes or breaks craft brewing.

“It was consistency. You want the second batch to be as good as the first batch and the third batch to be equal. The taste can’t vary,” Robert said. “I think something that is difficult in craft brewing is consistency because there are so many variables.”

After Alberta and Robert moved to Owingsville to be closer to their only daughter in nearby Paris, the family began taking Robert’s nearly four-decade hobby and turning it into a prospective business. With Sofia’s financial backing and Robert’s knowledge and spare time in retirement, the two scouted Mt. Sterling for downtown locations and decided to set up shop in a vacant office space they found on Facebook owned by Gateway Regional Arts Center.

The GRAC leased the space to them, the family took their brewing equipment out of various storage units, Alberta whipped together the space’s intimate taproom and Sterling Microbrew Inc. was established in 2021 with a ribbon cutting ceremony with guests including Mt. Sterling mayor and supportive customer Al Botts.

“That got, like, Susie talking to Bob and Bob talking to Jim. Word spreads in a small town regardless, and so it spread really quick,” Sofia said.

“But there are still some people that say they don’t know there is a brewery in Mt. Sterling,” Alberta added.

What Sterling Microbrew has on tap

Because of the family’s East European descent (they have German, Hungarian and Ukrainian roots), Sterling Microbrew Inc.’s best sellers include German-style beers like its Kolsch and its Munich Helles Lager. It brews seasonal offerings like porter and Ukrainian imperial stout for colder months but with a lot of prodding from Sofia, Robert reluctantly ventured out into collaborating with her to produce a variety of sours ranging from blood orange to passion fruit guava.

“We brewed the first one and it sold. Sold like wildfire,” Sofia said.

The family said it is in need of a bigger brewing system to meet demand both from its tap room and its self-distribution license. Their beers are now in local and regional businesses on tap or in cans at Mt. Sterling restaurants like Tomatoes and Flames and Los Rodeos, and at restaurants near the Red River Gorge like Miguel’s Pizza or 145 Steakout. They are also winning people over selling at local and regional festivals throughout the year and they just acquired their first beer truck.

Despite not having a location with the typical size or aesthetic of a craft brewery and being in an area where, as Robert jokingly stated, “It’s Miller Time,” Sterling Microbrew Inc. is an unlikely success story that likely won’t stay “micro” for much longer. Its long-term goal is to turn its current space into a full-fledged brewery and move its tap room to a larger separate space somewhere near downtown Mt. Sterling when the right location becomes available.

Thanks to the support of the Mt. Sterling community and positive word-of-mouth, this refreshing hobby-turned-family-business is just getting started.

“Everything we have ever done has been a risk and this one here, is, like, the coolest,” Alberta said, “because you can actually see something these two work at come to life and people really like it.”

“It’s nice to connect with the community. It’s nice to connect with people that come in here,” Sofia added. “Being a little bit slower paced and connecting and building relationships, I think that’s what it’s more about. It’s connecting over beer and building relationships with people.”

Sterling Microbrew

Where: 17 N. Wilson St. in Mt. Sterling, KY

Hours: 4-10 p.m. Wednesday & Thursday, 4-11 p.m. Friday & Saturday, closed Sunday-Tuesday

Contact: 859-432-8764 or facebook.com/sterlingmicrobrew

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