Bob Gwilt, originally from Pennsylvania, left as soon as he could. He enlisted in the Air Force in 1961 as a Civil Engineer. He met his wife Priscilla in Abilene and they were married soon after. They spent 3 years at Dyess AFB. Rob was born at the Dyess hospital a year later in 1964.
Rumors reached Bob in 1965 that General Motors was building a new plant in Ohio, So the Gwilts migrated back north in August 1965 and found that all the positions were already filled. The Gwilts moved back to Pennsylvania and Bob went to work at Westinghouse for 3 years while waiting for an opening at the GM plant. In the meantime Priscilla gave birth to their 2nd child, Shelly Rae. Bob finally went to work for GM as an inspector in 1968 after attending night school for drafting. After working at GM for 17 years the Gwilts moved back to Texas due to an illness in the family. They finally settled in Clyde and opened their first video store. It was rough going for a while, since everybody and their brother wanted to open a video store in Clyde at the time. Being first in town, Bob was determined to not let anyone put him put of business, and successfully outlasted four competitors. In 1990, the Gwilts purchased another video store in Abilene, which is now being successfully run by Rob. Bob began brewing in 1996 when his son-in-law gave him a brew kit for Christmas. Bob's first four batches were less than perfect; as a matter of fact, they were pretty bad. But as always, this only made Bob more determined to get it right. Bob read the Complete Joy of Homebrewing and consequently began to pay attention to details. Suddenly he was making good beer. He then won second place in Austin for his Cactus Jack Red at the Brewhaha competition. This was his fifth batch of beer. Soon he was tired of going to Austin or Dallas to get his supplies. He then decided to open Abilene's first brew store in November of 1996. He moved the store to its present location at 426 Butternut in June of 1997. Since the Brewhaha, he has participated many contests and placed in almost all he has entered. Bob's other interests are listening to good music, watching movies, gardening and driving his sports car.

I moved back to Abilene after serving my time in the Army as a medic. While serving my 6 1/2 years I was tasked out to the United Nations in Pan Mun Jom, Korea. I became friends with a Colonel in the Swiss Army and he introduced me to some real beer. Shortly after coming back to the States I met my future wife Hilary who was in the medical field as well. Our unit was then alerted to go to Desert Shield/Storm. Hilary and I started dating each other around that time. After the war I moved back and helped my dad with his video store in Clyde, TX. Shortly after that, Hilary moved here and we acquired Video Expo on S. Leggett and 7th. (Shameless plug). After a year or so I was tired of paying so much money for good commercial beer (my wife was pretty tired of it, too), so she bought me a Mr. Beer kit. After a couple of bad batches I decided to do a little research on the internet. I was surprised how much information there was, considering the internet was young at the time. I also realized at that time that there is a good reason to read the instructions on the beer kit. I saw that there was a revolution going on in the United States beer market: we Americans are reaching back to our roots and drinking the beer of our forefathers. I then looked at Abilene and thought we needed a brewpub and I started looking at what we needed to get started. I researched the two Brew schools here in the States and decided on The Siebel Institute of Technology. U.C. Davis accepts the GI Bill but I liked what Siebel had to offer. Siebel has been around a long time even before Prohibition, teaching brewers how to brew commercially. I completed the 59th Short course in Brewing Technology and Microbrewery and Brewpub Operations. Right now I am enjoying life with my wife, daughter and the newest member of our family, Garrett John, who was born on Easter Sunday. My hobbies are constantly looking for that perfect brew recipe, disc golf, watching movies, trying to keep up with my 6-year-old daughter Kelsey, and 3 year old son Garrett.