Eric Marshall is a tall, open guy. With years of experience working at breweries in America and Europe before he came home to start his own, he stands relaxed over a bar in the front show room of the brewery when I enter. He is Tulsa’s brewmaster.

Eric’s business, Marshall Brewing Company, is the first home-town commercial brewery since World War II. Opened in 2008 after a long road of construction and licensing (it’s not cheap, nor is it easy to brew in Oklahoma), Marshall’s factory is located in an impressive building off 6th Street. Pictured behind Eric are five loud and noisy fermentation tanks, giving us a nice reminder that the Marshall beer we order at bars like McNellie’s (and over one hundred others) is not only local, but fresh. That means your beer gut is at least a local, fresh beer gut and not some mass-produced beer gut.

True Tulsa is a weekly project that highlights the people and places that make our city great.