10/04/2026
🍺 THEY SPENT YEARS PLANNING A BREWERY… THEN OPENED DURING A PANDEMIC
Now THAT’S a brewery story.
Rockcreek Brewing Co. in Mission, Kansas started with a group of longtime coworkers, a bunch of homebrewing sessions and conversations about what they might do when their corporate careers were winding down.
Then they actually did it.
đź“Ť MISSION, KANSAS
Sara Charlson, her husband Mark Schonhoff, Craig Reed, Chris Murrish and their longtime Cerner colleagues had spent more than 20 years working together.
They’d get together for happy hours.
They’d homebrew.
They’d visit breweries.
And eventually the conversation became:
“Why don’t we just open our own brewery?”
The group spent roughly three years searching for the right location before finding an old Run Rite Automotive & Machine Shop building at 5880 Beverly Avenue in Mission.
Then came about 18 months of renovation.
An old auto-mechanic garage became a bright, open neighborhood taproom with a large patio, garage doors connecting inside and outside, and brewing equipment visible from the taproom.
Then came May 2020.
Yeah.
They opened a brewery in the middle of COVID.
Rockcreek initially could only sell cans to-go. They opened, closed to regroup, then reopened the taproom in June as they figured out how to operate during the pandemic.
And somehow, they built the neighborhood brewery they’d originally envisioned.
Rockcreek’s head brewer, Trent Wiegers, brings a pretty serious brewing background to the operation.
He studied brewing science in Tennessee, worked as a lead brewer at Core Brewing & Distilling in Arkansas, and has a Cicerone certification. He’s also personally a big l***r guy, even though Rockcreek’s lineup covers a hell of a lot of ground.
And that’s one of the things we like about this place.
You aren’t walking into a brewery that’s only making one style.
Rockcreek has brewed Belgian blondes, Kölsch, Märzen, porters, stouts, sours, American IPAs, hazy IPAs, pale ales, cream ales and plenty of experimental stuff.
Their flagship Beverly Ave Belgian Blonde is a 5.5% Belgian blonde brewed with Abbey yeast and Tettnang hops.
Vegas Daze is their flagship hazy IPA, loaded with Citra, Columbus, Mosaic and Vic Secret hops.
And if you’re a l***r person?
Keep an eye out.
Trent has openly said he’s obsessed with la**rs.
But here’s where Rockcreek gets really interesting.
The brewery’s biggest contribution to Mission might not be b**r.
It might be giving the b**r money back to the community.
Rockcreek operates a tipping-donation program.
Instead of keeping customer tips as traditional employee tips, the brewery collects them and donates them to local charities.
They wanted the money to stay as local as possible.
Kansas Special Olympics.
Rushton Elementary.
Prairie Village Alzheimer’s.
Tyler’s House KC.
Sunflower House.
Mission’s Holiday Family Adoption Program.
And plenty of others.
By early 2025, Rockcreek reported donating $171,702.20 to local causes since opening.
That’s not a marketing gimmick.
That’s a sh*tload of b**r tips turned into community money.
They even donated more than $7,500 during the 2024 holiday season alone.
And there’s another little piece of the story we love.
The name Rockcreek isn’t random.
The owners borrowed it from Rock Creek Parkway, where Cerner’s headquarters were located.
Their old corporate life literally became part of the brewery’s identity.
Their old careers.
Their homebrewing.
Their friendships.
Their neighborhood.
Their community.
All of it ended up in one brewery.
And their motto says it all:
Work Hard. Play Hard. DrinKC.
Rockcreek Brewing Co.
A brewery that started with coworkers drinking b**r together…
And turned into a neighborhood brewery that gives b**r money back to the community.
That’s a pretty damn good way to spend the next chapter.
🍺
