Our journey began in 2013 at The Lion’s Fountain Pub in Florence, Italy where a fleeting glance while walking out the door developed into much more. Eight months later we were both moving from opposite ends of the world to Washington State, a state steeped in passion for good craft beer.  Inevitably, our love for beer flourished. 

Sam grew up outside of Atlanta, Georgia.  Rebellious and fostering a love for beer during his teenage years (usually consisting of Natural Ice and, if lucky, Coors Light), he went to college at a place that provided very little time for such casual and "distracting" endeavors: West Point. Graduation culminated in a commission as a Lieutenant in the U.S. Army followed by six years of traveling and deploying around the world. 

Sara was born and raised outside of Chicago. She didn’t spend much time outside of Illinois growing up, and her first trip abroad at 22 years old to Italy would change that, after meeting Sam. Sara graduated from Loyola University in Chicago and pursued a career in Marketing. She worked in hospitality a majority of her life and fell in love with bartending while in college. 

In our mid 20’s we realized fairly quickly that the "9 to 5" conventional career path was not for us. Two summers ago we decided to quit our jobs and bartend at beer bars until we had enough money for a trip around the globe.

July 2017 we moved all of our possessions into a storage unit and consolidated our necessities into our backpacks. We began with a road trip around the United States backpacking the Rocky Mountains and Sierras for nearly three months. It was a challenging yet rewarding summer, witnessing first-hand the beauty of the American West. 

In October 2017 we left the USA and headed to Mexico as our first stop. We spent a year meeting with brewery owners and head brewers throughout Colombia, Argentina, Peru, and Chile and then headed to Europe where we spent a month in Belgium, and the remaining four months traveling through Germany, Eastern Europe, Scandinavia and the UK. We arrived back to the USA in late September 2018.

By October 2020 we opened the doors to our brewery, Elsewhere Brewing Co. Since opening the brewery, we have sought to share our experiences by developing trips to various locations around the world focused on the beer, wine, spirits, and food of the region. Elsewhere Adventure Club embodies this ethos and through this organization we plan to begin traveling in 2023. The first trip will be to Argentine Patagonia, led by a good friend, fellow explorer, and professional chef based out of San Carlos de Bariloche. Having “tested” this trip in February 2020, I can say that it will be nothing short of an adventure.