Stroud reflects on Jarfly's legacy after announcement of brewery's closure

Mar. 15—There was a time when a craft brewery in Somerset might have seemed as strange a notion as a blizzard on the surface of the sun.

Jarfly Brewing Co. changed that, helping transform the downtown Somerset landscape in the process.

Now, after soaring like the creature the business is named after, Jarfly might likewise go the way of the cicada in disappearing — perhaps indefinitely, perhaps permanently.

Daniel Stroud, who founded Jarfly Brewing Co. in 2016 along with Del Stephens, spoke to the Commonwealth Journal this week following an announcement made on Facebook that the craft beer microbrewery would be closing at month's end.

"Really, Jarfly was about bringing people together and changing minds," Stroud said. "More than anything, I hope that we drew more people together than we drew lines apart."

The message posted Monday stated that effective as of this coming March 30, "Jarfly will cease operation at 103 West Mt Vernon Street, the space we have called home for the past eight years."

It continued, "It's been an absolute joy watching our small brewery transform and grow alongside such a passionate and engaging community of beer lovers, artists, and friends. Our hearts, though heavy today, are filled with warmth and gratitude looking back at the countless memories and experiences we've had, and the tremendous honor of sharing them with you."

Stroud joked to the Commonwealth Journal that the post "broke the internet" locally, as it was repeatedly shared and commented on, most of those being lamentations about the development and fond thoughts about the business' local legacy.

In its time, Jarfly Brewing Co. has had an economic impact of over a million dollars on the community — "real dollars that are actually affecting our real community," he said. Even outside of Jarfly's walls, business has buzzed; Jarfly products — made right there in-house in the West Mt. Vernon building that once housed Goldenberg Furniture — have shown up in other establishments, with distribution all over Kentucky and "a lot of great fanfare," as Stroud put it.

"We've had several very loyal establishments far outside of Somerset that have carried our beer for years," said Stroud.

So why is the business closing — at least for now? Stroud offered the Commonwealth Journal a response on which he and Stephens had collaborated to address the situation.

"Jarfly has always been about fostering a creative space for individuals to explore their talents and interests while at the same time being a catalyst for community growth," said Stroud. "Jarfly definitely accomplished that mission. As part of that evolution, our personal talents and interests have grown as well.

"... However, as we look toward the future, we're also filled with a sense of excitement and anticipation for what lies ahead," he continued. "While it's bittersweet to say goodbye to this chapter, we believe it's time for something new. We're eager to channel the same passion and dedication into fresh endeavors knowing that the lessons learned and the connections forged will continue to guide us on this journey. We're grateful for the support we've received and look forward to embracing the opportunities that await."

Stroud added that in order for Jarfly to "thrive and expand further," it became evident that substantial investments would be necessary.

"After careful consideration, we've chosen to delay pursuing these investments for the time being," said Stroud.

So does that mean that, like the cicada itself, Jarfly will reappear again one day in Somerset after a period of absence? Stroud is hopeful.

"Right now, we're kind of folding things in. We have assets that have value," he said. "We also have a past history of profit that shows the business value. We've been evaluated by professional accountant organizations. And we have been in discussions with some potential buyers."

Would Stroud and the original Jarfly team still be involved in that case? "Those are some of the options, yeah," said Stroud.

"Right now, our concentration is to shift back into a cocoon, to find a little bit of stillness and internal growth," he said, latching on to the metaphor attached to the business' winged mascot, "while we kind of wait for the time to be right to expand to our next form."

He added, "We started with dreams and a home brew kit, pots and pans. ... The idea of transformation, we've been able to bend and flex and float and fly wherever we've needed to be able to make the dream able to work."

One factor in Jarfly's current status — and potentially its future — is how Stroud's own priorities have changed in life in recent years. He noted that the situation is not that his passion for Jarfly isn't present anymore, but his lifestyle and perspectives are in a different place than they were at the start of things.

"I used to howl at the moon until the sun came up every night and lick my wounds the next day," said Stroud. "... As growth changes and my idea of what home is changes, I value a lot of things that I didn't used to value. On the inverse, there are a lot of things that I used to value that I don't bat an eye at now."

One changed perspective relates to the negative effects of alcohol itself, something that gives him more pause than perhaps it used to.

"A lot of my friends have gone into recovery and are living in multiple forms of sobriety," he said. "That's something that I see enhance other people's lives in ways that, having a business that only produces alcohol, there's a little bit of a conflict. It doesn't necessary mesh as well."

Along those lines, Stroud had been conjuring ways to offer more non-alcoholic options at Jarfly to better serve those trying to stay sober. He noted that if Jarfly continues with him as part of it, it might involve ways that focus on "more than just beer."

Indeed for Stroud, Jarfly's place as a community hub for live performances of various kinds, a place to hang original art on the walls, a place for people to gather for events not found elsewhere in Somerset has been among the most rewarding aspects of the experience.

"Music and art have kind of been the main things; it's the creative spark that's inside all of us and just finding ways to get people together and share that creative spark together," he said. "That doesn't have to strictly have alcohol sales. There are more important things to bring people together than just that."

Somerset went "wet" in 2012, allowing the sale of alcoholic beverages for the first time in over 90 years. While it was expected that restaurants might start serving adult beverages and even bars would pop up, Stroud and Stephens decided to brew their own products and build something that became a nightlife staple in a community that would soon grow its downtown into something busier than it had been since the migration of businesses to U.S. 27 decades earlier. New downtown restaurants, watering holes — even the Virginia Theater restoration. All followed in the wake of Jarfly opening the first lasting, successful business of that kind within only a few footsteps of the Fountain Square. (Tap on Main, while also successful, requires a longer hike up Harvey's Hill to reach it from the center of Somerset.)

When Jarfly started as "the new kids on the block," Stroud had a dream to do something different. Create a place for beer, for music, for art — and for transparency. While other bars had tinted windows that hid what was going on inside and who was there, perhaps a remnant from a time when people in Pulaski had to drink more discreetly, Stroud made craft beer right in the window facing the Pulaski County Sheriff's Office, clear and open so everyone could see what was going on inside.

But Jarfly went from being the "new kids" to "the oldest bar in town" and helped a community that had been dry since the end of Prohibition in the United States learn how to appreciate the act of coming together to enjoy fellowing over a cold brew.

"It was pretty cool," said Stroud. "My family moved here in 1994 when I was 10 years old. For the large majority of my youth, I watched Somerset and this entire area be a dry area. Moving from Louisville, that was a pretty big shock, even for me as a kid. ... That was the norm all the way up until I was 21. Even then, it was just Burnside and just some restaurants. It was almost like watching an adolescent community get their driver's permit. It's like people were learning how to drink in public for the first time. By the time Jarfly came in, that adolescence had really turned into a character-driven community."

For Stroud, then, the most rewarding part of the Jarfly story has been the challenge involved — and overcoming the obstacles that were in front of him and Stephens in their mission of bringing Jarfly Brewing Co. to life. And while it was their ideas and their efforts that made Jarfly what it was in the beginning, the fact that, as Stroud observes, others picked up the dream and made it their own gives added hope that, after it's time in the proverbial cocoon, Jarfly may fly high again.

"If we want to call it 'art,' for a piece of art to really have impact and meaning, there has to be some challenge to it," he said. "If everyone knows exactly what they're going to expect before they experience it, then there's no curiosity, there's no challenge, there's no new experience, there's no growth.

"Yet that's what the market consistently demands, is the exact same pre-rendered experience. And so it was a giant leap of faith to go against that philosophy, and even in times when it was terrifying to do so, never stop challenging what could be," he added. "What I'm most proud of is seeing that happen outside of myself. Taking the Jarfly philosophy and employing a new staff that's able to grab those things and generate them for themselves.

"A lot of the best things that have come out of Jarfly in the past year, I've had nothing to do with," he continued. "It's been our staff, and the patrons too. I say it every year or every day, Jarfly is only as good as the people that fill it. ... To be able to take a few steps away and watch that magic still operating, that's what I'm most proud of."