Our Story

Meadowlark’s creation came about like any other American dream, it was just that, a dream. Our founder, Travis, an avid craft beer “researcher,” moved home to Sidney, Montana in 2010 to help with the other family business Sidney Red-E-Mix, which is when the real encouragement from his parents came into play. Sidney, a small town in Eastern Montana was ready for some locally made beer. As with the rest of the country, Sidneyites, Sidneyers, the people of Sidney, were becoming more aware of and thirsty for craft beer. Travis and family saw this new “thirst” very inline with their new goals and dreams, and so the journey began.

Travis & Emily Peterson

Founder

Travis Peterson, a local of Sidney, Montana, loves beer.

Food and beer have always gone together, and Travis had a dream of helping people experience the beauty of food and beer pairings. Neither food nor beer has to be complicated or contrived. It’s all about the experience and opening your mind to all the possibilities beer can create.

Driving his wife crazy at every brewery, in every single town they lived in, stopped in, thought about stopping in… you know that drill. All the “what ifs” and “we shoulds” went on for years until dreams of what was always to be named “Meadowlark” came to fruition.

Travis graduated from Gonzaga University as a civil engineer and pursued a career working on bridge projects in both California and Washington following graduation. He has four children, a loving wife, and feels pretty darn lucky.

Head Brewer

Tim Schnars II - You may believe that you, a craft beer LOVER, thinks highly of a well-made, diverse beer. Then, you’d meet Tim and realize you are mere “acquaintances” with craft beer, in comparison. Not that it’s a competition. But you’d lose. Sorry.

His passion for what he calls “the most diverse and sophisticated beverage on the planet” is to him, a spiritual matter. He thrives on the simplicity of beer’s ingredients and that anything is possible with these ingredients that he so respects. It’s his life metaphor, really. After all, Tim often can be found speaking of beer as a historical icon and a main driving force behind the rise of the culture of civilizations worldwide. Beer, in Tim’s world (which we are happy to live in), represents hope and possibility.

We are lucky to have this hard-working, beer-a thirsty man working with us and traveling from his childhood home of Erie, PA. Tim is the previous Assistant Brewer for the Erie Brewing Co., with additional collaborations with The Brewerie at Union Station as well as Lavery Brewing. Prior to his brewing career, he pursued a career in computer animation with post-secondary certification in Advertising and Design.