- Aaron Bush, who co-owns a brewery in Benson with his family, was diagnosed with slow-progression ALS in September 2024
- He is now focused on passing down his brewing knowledge to his family – teaching his oldest son how to brew beers
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
OMAHA, Neb. (KMTV) – Aaron Bush can tell you every ingredient in his family-owned brewery, the B5 Brewing Company in Benson. I first met Aaron when I was in the neighborhood last month for a different story about the economic impact of the College World Series in Central Omaha. We didn't end up talking about the CWS because Aaron told me he had a story he wanted to share – his own.
'This is where I like to be'
What started as a hobby at the Bush family home became a full-time job for Aaron – and eventually, it became a family business with his wife, Kate, and their three children, Josh, Julia and Jack.
The Bush family opened the B5 Brewing Company on Maple between 61st and 62nd in April 2024.
"This is, I guess, what I call my Mecca. I've said that before. This is where I like to be," Aaron told me on Wednesday afternoon at a round table in the front of the brewery.
He compared making beer to making lasagna. Both have a couple of base ingredients, but allow for customization and creativity.
"Change your meat, you add your mushrooms, you add your peppers, put some onion in there, still lasagna – just a different recipe of lasagna. That's what beer is. It's just different layers of stuff," Aaron told me.
In the basement storage rooms, the brewery has bags of grains and hops – two of the main ingredients for beer. Aaron and Josh showed me around on Friday morning as they were brewing a beer.
All five of the Bushes work full-time jobs in addition to their roles at B5.
"We like to say this is our hobby job, but it takes more time than our full time jobs," Aaron told me.
When I talked to Aaron on Wednesday afternoon, he was sitting next to Kate.
"It's pretty amazing to say that your kids are your best friends, other than your wife," he told me.
Everything was going to plan – until Aaron visited a doctor about a lingering pain in his arm in the months after B5 opened.
'That's gonna be my doomsday'
"We thought it was carpal tunnel," Kate told me.
The diagnosis was far more serious.
"September 9th of 2024 – it's my new birthday. I was diagnosed with slow-progression ALS," Aaron told me.
ALS – amyotrophic lateral sclerosis – is also known as Lou Gehrig's disease because of the famous baseball player who was diagnosed with it. It affects the nervous system and there is no cure. According to the CDC, nearly 35,000 Americans have ALS.
After getting the diagnosis, Aaron asked his family whether the brewery – which had only opened months earlier – should stay open.
"All three kids said we're staying open. There's no question, there's no denying that we're staying open," he told me.
Aaron told me he thinks about what the disease will eventually take from him.
"I think that's gonna be my doomsday., the day I can't pour a beer," he said.
"It kind of defines who he is. The guy behind the bar pouring the beer," Kate told me.
"It's who I am. I'm the beer guy. I'm the beer nerd," Aaron told me. "I'm the dad that pours beer. I'm the husband that pours beer."
'You can't ask for a better teacher'
Now, Aaron is focused on teaching the trade to his family. He is teaching Josh how to brew different beers, as I saw on Friday morning.
On Thursday night, Aaron and Josh sat at a table next to the bar in the brewery. They were looking at a computer and talking about what they would brew the next morning.
By Friday morning, the recipe was set. The brewery was filled with the scents of grain and hops and the sounds of machines moving the grain into the tank and mixing water around.
"You can't ask for a better teacher than your dad," Josh told me as he was preparing the grain in the brewery's basement.
Aaron was upstairs, preparing the tanks. The learning, he told me, goes both ways.
"He teaches me as much as I teach him," Aaron told me.
Even in the face of his diagnosis, Aaron told me he has perspective – and his family has love.
"To see your kids thrive and to see your kids grow, man, I've lived my life. My life is good," he told me.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
