About Us
The O’Fallon Brewery’s primary owners are founders Fran and Tony Caradonna. Tony was born and raised in St. Louis and graduated from St. Mary’s High School in 1975. He played baseball at Forest Park Community College and Eastern Oregon State before graduating from the University of South Carolina in 1980 with a degree in Journalism.
Tony has been involved in the retailing, distribution and/or brewing of beer for over 25 years and first worked in the business as a tour guide at Anheuser-Busch’s brewery in St. Louis. He and a buddy owned and operated The Filling Station Lounge in south St. Louis in the early 80s. He hired on as a driver for Griesedieck Imports, worked his way into a sales position and spent most of the late 80s selling beer throughout the area.
Fran Caradonna was born and raised in Evanston, Illinois and attended high school and college in South Carolina. She, too, graduated from USC with a Journalism degree in 1980 and worked for several years after college in public radio and television in Tallahassee, Florida, Dekalb, Illinois and St. Louis. She joined Wilson Sculley Associates, a St. Louis-based direct marketing company, in 1980 and later became Vice President of Account Services.
The Caradonnas were married in 1983 and have lived in the St. Louis area ever since. From 1984 to 1986 they developed, ran and ultimately sold their first venture, The Cottonwood Pub located in Glen Carbon, Illinois.
Tony launched Signature Beer Company and introduced craft beers to the St. Louis market in 1990. Fran joined him full time in 1993. Signature Beer distributed over 40 microbrews including the Pete’s Wicked line and Schlafly Beers of the St. Louis Brewery. In 1998 the Caradonnas sold their distribution rights to Major Brands and began the development of what is now the O’Fallon Brewery.
In January, 2000 Fran and Tony ordered their brewing equipment and moved into the building. They sold their first keg on May 6, 2000. The Caradonnas did all the brewing and selling for the first two years, brewing only one style (O’Fallon Gold), selling only kegs and delivering only in St. Charles County.
The couple and their two sons currently reside in O’Fallon, Missouri.
Head Brewer Brian Owens grew up in O’Fallon and graduated from Fort Zumwalt North High School in 1996. He attended Truman State University and graduated from the University of Missouri - St. Louis with a degree in marketing. Since then he has studied chemistry and microbiology and has earned his Certificate of Brewing and Packaging from the University of California -Davis.
Brian, like most good brewers, has a broad background and lots of interesting job experience. Among other things, he’s been a grave digger, worked in construction and helped run a liquor store. He and his dad began making home brew together some years back, and Brian has successfully turned that hobby into a career.
Brian joined O’Fallon Brewery in January, 2002 as the Caradonnas’ first employee. One of his first tasks was to set up a bottling operation so the brewery could offer 6-packs to retail customers in addition to kegs. Since then Brian has overseen several expansions, numerous repair and maintenance projects and the hiring and training of a top notch brewing and packaging production team.
Brian and his wife, Angela, live in Wentzville with their two young children.
Dawn Obrecht is another one of the Caradonnas’ first hires. She grew up in Oregon, Spain and California before moving to O’Fallon in the late 80s.Dawn came on board in 2002 to help run the office and, since then, has done just about everything else there is to do at the brewery.
In her current role as production manager, Dawn manages inventory, maintains all brewing records and hires, trains and supervises the packaging staff. Dawn and her husband, Jeff, live in O’Fallon with their teenaged son and daughter.
Dave Johnson
Dave Johnson was an early friend of the brewery and was known to show up from time to time just to see what was going on. Dave grew up in St. Louis and graduated from Lindbergh High School and South County Tech in 1980.
Dave had been a homebrewer for many years when he got his first professional gig at the O’Fallon Brewery in 2006. Since then he’s overseen the brewing operations at several local brew pubs. Dave is active with the local (St. Charles County) home brew club, the Garage Brewers, and in his spare time does guitar and vocals for his own garage band.
Dave and his wife Patty live in O’Fallon with their daughter.
Stu grew up in Troy and graduated from the University of Missouri in 2006 with a degree in agricultural economics. His first stint at the brewery was as a summer intern while he was still in college.
After graduation Stu was hired as a brewer and worked for several months until leaving to go to Siebel Institute in Chicago (and Munich!) to study the art and science of making beer. Upon his return to the area, Stu was hired back as a sales/ delivery rep and worked with retailers throughout the St. Louis area. Stu re-joined the brewery’s production staff in January as a brewer.
Stu lives in Moscow Mills with his new bride, Kristin.
Angela grew up in O’Fallon and graduated from Fort Zumwalt North High School in 2004. She joined the O’Fallon Brewery as front office manager in February, 2008. She has worked in various capacities at Express Scripts and World Wide Technology and continues her studies in office administration at St. Charles Community College.
Angela and her husband Sean are newlyweds and live in Lake St. Louis.
