Meet Chris Jorgensen of Norse Brewing Company

Today we’d like to introduce you to Chris Jorgensen.

Hi Chris, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
About 5 years ago, my great friend Brad Wynn came over one Saturday to hang out and grill in the backyard; he brought a couple of six-pack of one of my favorite beers from the brewery he ran at that time. Around 5 o’clock, we threw some ribeyes on the grill, cooked up some onions and mushrooms, ate a meal meant for Vikings, and finished the last beer. I opened a bottle of Basil Hayden; by 10 o’clock, our wives had joined with some wine, and by midnight, we opened a second bottle of Basil and solved most of the world’s problems. Brad asks what I would do when it is time to retire, and I had always thought I would consult, take the skills I have gained from the corporate world and help small businesses. Brad goes, “why don’t you just buy me a brewery, and that can be your retirement?”. On that note, it was time to go to bed. The following day as we woke up, Jenni (my wife) asked, “did we agree to buy a brewery?” We talked a little about it and decided, Why not? We looked at 11 breweries across the triangle area; all were built on a distribution model, which we did not want as we would be competing for grocery shelf space; we wanted to create a community experience like a British pub or a German Biergarten, these other breweries would be too costly to turn into a retail business, so we ended up buying a former Italian restaurant in our home town and converted it into Norse Brewing Company. The Norse mythology part comes from my upbringing in Denmark. Being born and raised there, we were taught the history and mythology of the Vikings in public schools’ history and religion classes.

In 2019 Norse brewing company was founded with the belief that we all need a great place in our community to gather with friends, family, and loved ones. Our rune stone states:

“We are a Modern Viking Community of All Peoples – A brotherhood and sisterhood of people who are all different both on the outside and the inside, but when we come together, we are the same, joining our differences in strength and celebration to each do our part to make the Great Feasts truly great and together drink from the horn of plenty.”

The community has truly embraced us, and our Norse family has grown tremendously since we opened; we have become the place we envisioned for our guests and staff.

We all face challenges, but looking back, would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
We opened our doors on the 19th of December 2019, which was crazy! We had a line down the street waiting for us to unlock the doors, and it was full speed up until COVID shut everything down 11 weeks later. That was rough! We had gained a great staff, started to form our culture, and our Guests were happy. During the shutdown, we did what we could with the federal aid to help our staff; we emptied our fridges for our team to take home, and we used our food provider to get hard to get products to our staff, friends, and families. Brad was the only one in the brewery, and he could fill up all our tanks in anticipation of a re-opening which came 9 weeks later.

Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
We are a Nordic-themed brewpub focusing on northern European beer styles partnered with a Scandinavian/southern style food menu bringing together a uniquely flavored offering not found anywhere else in the triangle area along with full liquor and wine bar. With a seating capacity of 350, we have both inside and outside event space and 3000 sqft of rear area for concerts and markets. We are truly a place for all people.

Is there a quality that you most attribute to your success?
Our Staff and Guests. The culture my wife Jenni and her twin sister Jeannie have built at Norse is amazing and would not have been possible without our Staff and Guests. They are the reason we have our Norse Family.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.norsebrewingco.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/norsebrewingcompany
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/norsebrewingcompany
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/norsebrewingco