Threefoot Brewing combines passion for beer with community spirit

Published 4:25 pm Wednesday, February 18, 2026

Threefoot Brewing Owner John Purdy and Brewer Jonathan Crabtree didn’t see their lives leading toward operating a thriving microbrewery in downtown Meridian. They come from different backgrounds and have vastly different experiences, but their passion for beer and a shared community spirit have brought them together.

Purdy, an architect by trade, started his career in Atlanta believing growing up in the Queen City was the last of Meridian he would see. Settling in the city with his family, he said he was ready to leave Meridian and Mississippi in the past.

“The world and life has a funny way of dragging you back to things to where you say, ‘never, never say ever,’” he said.

An opportunity to work with an architect in Meridian presented itself, and it was too good to pass up, Purdy said. As time wore on, however, the work became dragging and got to the point where he began looking for a way out of the field.

“I’ll say now I’m very proud that I stuck with it, but I thought brewing would be my next career and my passion, so it was a way out of architecture for me, at least at the time,” he said.

Threefoot Brewing started on paper with contract brewing beginning in 2017. From there, a second contract was added and the business continued to grow.

Four years later, in 2021, the brewery opened its doors to the public and has become a thriving spot for dinner and drinks in the downtown area. Throughout the same time, Purdy said his family grew by two children, and he opened an independent architecture business with a longtime friend and fellow architect Mark Davis.

“About a year and a half into being open, my brewer came to me and said he was moving,” he said. “So this was pretty devastating to me because I knew that I couldn’t be the brewer like I’d always hoped I’d be because I had the architecture practice. I kind of gave up on what I should do. I went throughout this really long search, and one day I just decided to put something out on social media.”

That post led to Purdy connecting with Crabtree, a Vicksburg native and former south Mississippi pastor, who was living in the United Kingdom at the time.

“I never drank a beer until I moved to seminary,” Crabtree said.

While in Kentucky working on his Master of Divinity degree, Crabtree said he had his first beer at Brew Burger in downtown Lexington, Kentucky. Whether it was the alcohol or the beer itself, he said the drink instantly connected with him.

“I couldn’t imagine such a beverage could be crafted, and that’s kind of where it began for me, and I was just really interested in how you could do this and how you made it and suddenly discovered home brewing,” he said.

While he continued home brewing, Crabtree said any dreams of becoming a brewer at a commercial level were bottled up and put away while he focused on his ministry. Eventually, he said, he ended up as pastor at a church in south Mississippi when the COVID-19 pandemic hit.

While working on his Doctorate in Ministry, Crabtree said he enjoyed digging through the text of a verse, the research and working to determine the precise meaning. It was that enjoyment that led him to pursue a doctorate, and one of his mentors suggested he should apply to schools in England.

“And I had never considered that, but when it fell upon my ears, it felt right. It felt like yes, that was the next right step,” he said. “In the middle of COVID, in the middle of chaos, let’s pack up our entire family, sell our house, sell our couch and let’s get back on the Mayflower and head back across to old England.”

The time in Bristol was some of the best years, Crabtree said, but as the end of his doctoral research neared he struggled to find a teaching job, which was the next step in the chain. He and his family decided to move back to Enterprise, Mississippi, where his wife’s family lives. It was then he saw Purdy’s post on social media looking for a brewer and decided to send him a message.

Despite having no commercial brewing experience, Crabtree hit the ground running and learned from Purdy and others in the industry about the business. Since coming to the community, he said he has become deeply invested in Meridian and its success and has no plans to leave any time soon.