Photo courtesy of Matthew Yerby.
Matthew Yerby, owner of Fly Line Coffee Co., roasts coffee beans out of his garage.
Matt Yerby has been fly fishing since middle school.
“If I could quit work and fish all day, I would,” Yerby said. “Don’t tell my wife that.”
He wanted to open his own fishing service but he’s “not established enough for that,” Yerby said. Instead, he’s opening a coffee company.
Yerby fell in love with coffee when he was in college and has been a connoisseur since then, he said.
“I think that’s when everyone develops a love for coffee, when they’re in college,” Yerby said. “I took it a step further. When we travel to different cities and states, we’ll look for breweries for my wife and coffee shops for me.”
Yerby decided to combine both of his passions into the Trussville-based Fly Line Coffee Company in August and has been hard at work to grow the business, he said.
“I said to myself, ‘I’ve got to combine the two, I can’t just leave fly fishing out,’” Yerby said. “I think it’s a catchy name. I feel like everybody that fishes, they get up early and we love our coffee. I thought, ‘Why don’t I combine the two and make it a brand that has a catchy name?’ That way I can target the fishing and fly fish community and my love for coffee.”
Yerby roasts his own micro-batch coffee in his garage, he said, one bag at a time.
When someone orders a coffee roast via the website, Facebook or Instagram, he roasts the coffee that night and lets it rest for more flavor before it reaches the customer three days later, he said.
“I usually have a 48-hour turnaround time, so I let it rest and let it develop its flavor before it gets to you,” Yerby said. “It usually takes around three days, so that’s super-fresh coffee compared to what you may get in the store.”
He said he doesn’t want to compete with local coffee companies in the area, he just wants to make good coffee and “let people know, ‘Hey, there’s more to coffee than just waking up and opening a $7 cup of coffee in Publix.’”
Yerby took a hiatus from fly fishing when he was in college but started again when he went on a trip to Colorado with his wife, he said.
He and his wife visit Colorado every year, and he finally decided to bring his fly fishing rod.
“I really got serious about it again this year when we went out to Colorado,” Yerby said. “It’s always been a dream of mine to go out there and fly fish.”
Yerby has been working on Fly Line’s website as well as roasting his own coffee every day after he comes home from his job as a teacher.
“I started working on the website back in early August,” Yerby said. “It took me close to three weeks to get it done because I still teach. When I came home in the afternoons, I’d work on the website for two or three hours. I’d roast too, but when I wasn’t roasting, I was working on the website.”
He said he is currently working on getting the word out about his new business by giving out free samples to people in the community as well as trying to participate in local festivals.
Yerby said he hopes to one day have so much business that he's having trouble keeping up with orders as well as having his own coffee shop.
“I would love to have an opportunity to grow my online business but make a presence in the community first,” Yerby said. “In six months, I would like to have a name in Trussville and Birmingham, with Fly Line Coffee being known. In two years, I’d like to maybe have my own coffee shop where I can still roast my own coffee.”
For more information, visit flylinecoffee.com.
