Core Brewing Company may be headquartered in Springdale, but the company is undoubtedly a Fort Smith business. The qualities that have made its owner, Jesse Core, a successful businessman are the same ones that have defined Fort Smith – tenacity, resiliency, grit and empathy.
Just six years old, the company has experienced meteoric growth since its inception in 2010, becoming one of the largest breweries in the state and expanding into regional markets across the southern United States.
But Core may have never gotten into brewing had it not been for a professor at the University of Arkansas – Fort Smith, which was still Westark Community College when Core attended in 1992.
As a freshman, he was frequently tardy or absent from his classes, until his microbiology professor pulled him aside one day to admonish him for repeatedly skipping class. As an incentive to increase his attendance, he explained to Core how he could apply the lessons from the class towards something that was becoming increasingly more important to Core: beer.