Little Yeoman comes to town

From hog farm to brewery ... an unlikely transition for most, but Steve Markley, who has operated a commercial microbrewery on his property on Highway 181 South near Willow Springs for almost six years, has come a long way since he began brewing beer as a hobby in the 60s. His onetime hobby can now be purchased for $2.50 to $3 a bottle at The Bar Next Door, Galloway Station and Harlow's.

Markley and his wife, Jane, own the Little Yeoman microbrewery and offer the beer in 10 different styles, including Pale Ale, India Pale Ale, Porter and Raspberry Cream Ale. JaMor Distributing in Mountain View, which began doing business just a few weeks ago and is owned by Cliff Jacobs and Vern Morgan, distributes the microbrew to the Springfield area.

"I was in the hog business for 15 years, and the large corporate farms ran us out of business, pretty much. I'd been brewing for years, taking my beer around to parties and friends' houses, and they said that microbrews are popular, and why didn't I do that?" Markley said.

Perhaps the smallest commercial microbrewery in Missouri, Little Yeoman has one employee to assist the Markleys, who take pride in creating the beer by hand and bottling and labeling it themselves.

Jacobs and Morgan, who have careers with the city of Springfield and Alliance Blue Cross/Blue Shield, respectively, have been friends of Markley and fans of his beer for years. They began their distributorship specifically to bring Little Yeoman to Springfield.

"I've been buying (Markley's) beer ever since he's been open and bringing it to friends, then Steve asked me if I wanted to be a beer distributor," Morgan said. "This is not our business, but we found out what it takes to get a license and did it."

Jacobs said he and Morgan have not only been distributing Little Yeoman, but serving as its marketing and advertising agency, as well.

"It's not a beer that we'll try to get in every bar and store in town, but there are a number of people who have come to the Ozarks from the East Coast and Chicago who are used to drinking microbrews and like their flavor as compared to domestic beers," Jacobs said. "We'll probably be marketing through the places that those people frequent, which will be the upscale, eclectic and college bars. We think downtown will be a good venue, as well as other select locations."

Dianna Gardner, owner of Galloway Station, has requested that Markley develop a microbrew for Galloway Station, to be called Galloway Trail Ale, which will be named after the walking trail that runs behind the bar in the former town of Galloway in southeast Springfield.

"We're working out the details of how some of the proceeds from the sale of Galloway Trail Ale could benefit the Galloway Trail project," Jacobs said.

Gardner said Little Yeoman has been received very well by the clientele at Galloway Station in the three weeks it's been available there, even though her customers weren't necessarily a microbrew-drinking crowd before trying Little Yeoman.

"We think it's a good product, and we want people to try it. It's great beer, and our customers love it; we've had to reorder twice," Gardner said. "They seem to be a lot more taken with this than they have with other microbrews we've offered in the past," she added.

Jacobs and Morgan said they plan to concentrate on marketing Little Yeoman and possibly getting it into a packaged liquor store soon. They plan to stay small, but they will move the distributorship's office out of their Mountain View cabin to a facility in Springfield.

"Our product is quality, and it's small. It's always going to be small, and we're looking to work with small establishments and people we like. If we're going to do it, it's going to be fun," Morgan said.