Shawn Moen was a practicing lawyer and Garrett Pederson, an environmental engineer. They are both farm boys, families rooted in agriculture farming 9 miles apart from each other in SW Saskatchewan. A home brewing kit turned out to be life-changing for Shawn and Garrett when they started brewing beer and is now the very successful and award-winning craft brewery, 9 Mile Legacy Brewing.
Shawn and Garrett thought long and hard about leaving successful careers to put all their time and energy into their business and knew there were lost opportunities by not staying. There have been many times when they thought about throwing in the cards. But they have what Garrett describes is “…like a marriage, a strong partnership rooted in love and respect.” It works because they learned to how work together and sorted out who was good at what.
Their life transitions have been mired in uncertainty, hope, and hard work. Their resilience is hard-baked into their DNA.