The Wooly Pig Farm Brewery is on the hook for $292,000, half of which was to have been covered by a federal grant, and it is bracing for higher costs because of Trump’s proposed tariffs.
At the Wooly Pig Farm Brewery in Ohio;s Coshocton County, everything is built around sustainability.
The idea is not simply about protecting the environment, but also maximizing the potential of the brewery and farm.
Heat produced by the brew kettles is fanned into the bar to provide warmth to patrons. The spent grain from the brewhouse is fed to pigs. Tubes weave their way beneath the bar, collecting the excess beer that drips from the tap after a pour.
That beer is also fed to the pigs – typically in moderation, although there were times when the pigs were accidentally “overserved.” No harm was caused to the Mangalica pigs, but they did enjoy lengthy afternoon naps on those days.
Jael Malenke, 45, and Kevin Ely, 48, are the owners and operators of Wooly Pig Farm Brewery between the 2,600-resident village of West Lafayette and Fresno, population 140 – not counting the pigs, which really are quite fuzzy compared to other breeds.
In 2023, the married couple decided to take part in the Rural Energy for America Program by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, better known as REAP, with the goal of increasing the sustainability of their farm. The program has helped support dozens of projects across Ohio in recent years, and in July 2024, REAP awarded grants for another 20 projects totaling more than a $1 million investment in the state.
REAP, like many other federally funded programs, has been affected by Trump’s federal spending freeze. That freeze, announced on Jan. 27 and blocked by a federal judge on Jan. 28, has left many businesses in rural America facing financial limbo, including the Wooly Pig Farm Brewery.
“The thing that really bothers me is the unfairness of it,” Ely said. “This is unfair. It’s wrong. And it’s not just wrong to me or to us. It’s wrong to a lot of people, it’s just wrong, and that’s what makes me angry.”
Other Trump-induced dilemmas
And the Wooly Pig Farm Brewery’s financial struggles could be compounded by rising costs due to the Trump administration’s proposed tariffs. Ely and Malenke believe that tariffs could cause the cost of many things involved in their business – from merchandise to the cost of the carbon dioxide they use in bottling beer – to rise.
The rural energy program focuses on helping small, rural businesses and farms across the country become more energy efficient or renewable. Funding for the program came from the Inflation Reduction Act. It allows the government to invest in more sustainable forms of energy, and it allows for small businesses to cut down on their energy costs. Creating a more sustainable energy system for these operations allows them to invest the money back into their business and community.
To Malenke and Ely, it sounded like the perfect deal. They saw REAP as a way to make their business even more sustainable and cut down on their roughly $20,000 annual energy bill. They applied in 2023 and were accepted in 2024. They landed on a 100-kilowatt solar array, created and installed by Paradise Energy Solutions, with a two-way meter to measure the electricity they use when the sun isn’t shining and the excess electricity they generate and sell back to the electric company.
In all, the project cost roughly $292,000, half of which was supposed to be funded by the REAP grant. Another 10% of the cost was supposed to be recovered through the Energy Community Tax Credit Bonus – a tax credit for projects in “energy communities,” or areas impacted by the loss of the coal industry.
It's not just about the money
With the solar panels, Wooly Pig Farm Brewery will be creating energy and selling it to electricity providers. Not only are they allowing their brewery to run on clean energy, but about half of the electricity they produce is being poured into the community and will be enough to power roughly 14 houses per year.
“Sustainability is a very important component of how we operate our brewery and our business,” said Ely, a Utah native. Ely earned a degree in biochemistry with a concentration in brewery science from University of California Davis and has been working to perfect his craft since then.
Ely and Malenke lived together in Salt Lake City, where Malenke earned her doctorate in biology at the University of Utah and Ely worked for a brewery. After several years, they decided to move back to Malenke’s hometown of Fresno, about 45 miles east of Newark, to raise their young children. The family was hoping to venture back into the relaxed, rural lifestyle that central Ohio provides.
In 2014, the couple bought the farm from the Norman family. The purchase was the first time the farm had traded hands since just after the Revolutionary War, when the federal government gave Ohio land as payment to soldiers who fought in the war. The original 100 acres has now shrunk to 89 because of the addition of the nearby four-lane Rt. 36. However, many of the land’s original buildings still stand, including the classic red barn with an inscription of 1899 on the bottom stone.
The idea for the style of the Wooly Pig Farm Brewery came to Ely while he was on a work trip to northern Bavaria in 2011 or 2012. While biking along a trail from brewhouse to brewhouse, Ely discovered a herd of pigs with exceptionally wooly profiles. He loved them and the farmhouse style breweries that sent their spent grain directly from the brewhouse to the feedlot. The brew houses were meant for families to visit together after church or before Sunday dinner. It was a place for everyone to enjoy. That model is what Ely and Malenke wanted to create in Coshocton County.
And they’ve succeeded: In mid-February, patrons arrived before the bar even opened.
“This always happens,” Malenke said with a smirk.
Despite all the struggles, the beer keeps flowing
The natural wood and large windows in the brewery create a comfortable feeling that is hard to resist for people who are fond of rural America. Groups of friends, young and old, continued to gather throughout the afternoon of Feb. 21, taking up tables and barstools until there was only standing room. Pizzas and beer flowed through the bar.
Patrons of the bar may not be as cheery when they learn that the brewery could be forced to raise the price of its beer due to the federal funding freeze.
“I would never have financed this project. … I would not do this, even if I believe in solar, for whatever reasons,” Ely said when discussing the freeze of REAP funds.
When the election came and went in November, the Wooly Pig Farm Brewery team worried about what a new administration could mean for the grant money. They reached out to Paradise Energy Solutions to take action on the completion of their solar array. Time, however, was not on their side.
On Feb. 12, they received an email from Paradise Energy Solutions informing them that their funds had been frozen – meaning they are likely on the hook for the entire cost of the $292,000 solar array.
“It feels terrible,” Malenke said. “We are lucky because we actually are here with our family, and we have resources. … The brewery is a strong business. It is. It will make money, and it will continue to thrive despite this issue.”
Malenke’s positive outlook on her business seems to be all the couple can do. The government in Washington has essentially put the future of Malenke and Ely’s business on hold.
Ely, who installed all of the plumbing for the brewery, prides himself on conquering challenges and projects, and said this is just another challenge for them to overcome. But recent changes to the family’s budget may not allow for that any more.
“All future projects are on hold because we don’t have any money,” Ely said with a nervous chuckle.
What else can they do?
For now, Wooly Pig Farm Brewery cannot do much more than continue business as usual, reach out to elected officials and wait on the money they were promised.
While Melenke and Ely have been attempting to reach out to elected officials of Ohio, they have only had some luck with U.S. Rep. Troy Balderson, R-Zanesville. His office staff has been helpful in hearing the Wooly Pig Farm Brewery’s story. Ely said it feels like they are making a lot of headway in a lot of different directions in his office, while he said Ohio Senators Bernie Moreno and Jon Husted, both Republicans, couldn’t be reached.
The Reporting Project contacted Balderson’s office and a staff member was unable to immediately answer questions related to the status of Wooly Pig Farm Brewery’s funding.
Despite all the challenges facing Wooly Pig Farm Brewery, family gathered on Feb. 24 to see the switch flipped to officially turn on the solar array. The crowd included two workers from Frontier Power Company, Zane Gardner, a project manager from Paradise Energy Solutions; Aaron Malenke (Jael’s brother); Todd and Patti Malenke (Jael’s parents); Jael Malenke and Kevin Ely.
Everyone slowly gathered together before the installation of the two-way meter and the flipping of the switch.
“I was just curious, was y’all able to get the government grant?” asked Robin Totten of Frontier Power Company.
“So, the state theoretically has that money right now, but it’s also theoretically been frozen – there’s been no directive, like there is no accountability anywhere,” Ely responded to him.
The Wooly Pig Farm Brewery has gleaned more hope from the recent unfreezing of other USDA grants, confirmed by a news release on Feb. 20.
However, in that news release, Washington officials say that, “This is the first tranche of released funding, and additional announcements are forthcoming as USDA continues to review IRA funding to ensure that we honor our sacred obligation to American taxpayers – and to ensure that programs are focused on supporting farmers and ranchers, not DEIA programs or far-left climate programs.”
It is unknown if REAP could be considered a “far-left climate” program.
Time to power up!
The family went to witness the installation of the two-way meter and then the activation on the solar array.
Kevin Ely stood proudly in front of the switch. His hand gripped the red handle as he asked the group, “All right? Should we do it?”
The whole group counted out loud in German together – a tribute to the brewery’s Bavarian roots.
“Eins, zwei, drei!” they shouted and began to cheer as Ely flipped the switch.
Typically, the solar array would have to be active and functional for 30 days before the USDA would send the funding. Now, it could be far longer for Ely and Malenke.
For now, the Wooly Pig Farm Brewery will exist in a sort of financial purgatory. Their money will hopefully come. However, no one can seem to provide them a clear answer of when – or if.
“You can’t move on,” Ely said. “You can’t move forward. Being like, ‘Oh, it’ll be unfrozen in a few months.’”
All the couple can do now is hope for the support of their community and family. All while holding out that their money is unfrozen and able to provide financial relief.
Andrew Theophilus writes for TheReportingProject.org, the nonprofit news organization of Denison University’s Journalism program, which is supported by generous donations from readers. Sign up for The Reporting Project newsletter here.
