Justin Marx has dreamt of having his own brewery since he was 21 years old; now he owns and operates the recently-opened Bowling Green Beer Works brewery.

“I wanted to start a neighborhood brewery,” said Marx.

He described his business as a nano-brewery, meaning he brews less than three barrels of beer at a time. One barrel is equal to 31 gallons.

Marx said he had old family friends who were home brewers. However, the Oregon native said his inspiration came from the Pacific Northwest where many nano-breweries are located.

Bowling Green Beer Works opened Sept. 11 on North Grove Street. This brewery will act as a tasting room for those 21 years and older.

Bowling Green Beer Works has six styles of beer: Apple Graff, Blonde, Seasonal, IPA, Pale Ale and Stout, which is Marx’s favorite to make.

Stout beer is a beer that is dark and has roasted malts within it.

The process of brewing, Marx said, begins with grain and adjuncts. He doesn’t use adjuncts like rice or corn; he only uses barley.

“A lot of cheap commercial beer uses rice and corn. That’s one of the primary separators between craft beer and commercial industrial, every day beer,” he said.

Marx says that brewing is a process that takes a lot of work.

“It’s basically like making a tea with the grains. Once you make the tea … where the carbohydrates turn into different fermented sugars, that’s called the mash,” he explained.

“Once you make this big tea, you have what you call beer wort,” Marx said.

The wort is boiled and flavored with different hops. The process takes Marx six hours. Cooling and fermenting the beer takes “two to three weeks.”

“It’s kind of magical,” he said. “There’s a lot of craft and science behind it.”

Students living in Bowling Green are open to the idea of new venues that serve beer.

“I’m always open to the idea of a new pub,” University student Ian Robinson said. “Because that means a new pub is potentially better than my favorite old pub.”