Jon Northup approached Mike Price in the spring of 2010 with a simple business plan and a dream to start a small brewery. Over the next year, they found a small, inexpensive location in the middle of the small town of Ephrata, Pennsylvania and worked through all the red tape and logistics of forming the first one barrel nano-brewery in Lancaster County. The plan was to brew on weekends and be open for sales on Saturdays only. February 2, 2011 was the opening day and was met with a great response from the craft beer community. Hegemony was on tap and sold out in a few hours. It quickly became clear that this business was not going to be a part time job.

By April Jon was full time brewing and managing the day-to-day aspects of running the business. It also became clear that brewing one barrel at a time was not cost effective. In September the men designed and built a three barrel brewhouse using a redwood clad grundy with the top removed for a mash tun. The kettle was fabricated by a local Mennonite metal shop. The business started to turn a modest profit soon after the purchase of larger plastic fermenters. They were filling growlers and servicing bars with kegs from this location until the business grew enough to move to a larger facility, expand production capability, and open a taproom.