Jake Voelker speaks in rapid bursts reminiscent of machine-gun fire. It’s not everyday that someone like Jake — an Erie-area entrepreneur building businesses throughout the region — can talk with as much enthusiasm and knowledge about war as he can about beer. But Voelker is not your average entrepreneur. A 34-year-old Army veteran, Voelker is the brains behind Voodoo Brewery — a growing craft beer franchise with six regional locations in postindustrial towns throughout Western Pennsylvania.

Voelker attributes some of his business’s success to his own military service — and his experience in one of the Middle East’s most notoriously dangerous and remote combat outposts.  

Eyes darting, Voelker’s staccato turns to a steady patter when he talks about his experiences.

His mania while recalling his time in the Middle East is understandable considering where the Army veteran spent much of his deployment: In the Kunar Province and Korengal Valley of Afghanistan. His assignments included helping to construct combat outpost Restrepo. 

Anyone with a glancing interest in the war in Afghanistan has heard of Restrepo. The small base tucked in the Korengal Valley is the subject, as well as title, of the award-winning documentary by conflict journalists Sebastian Junger and Tim Hetherington.

“Restrepo” is a deep dive into the difficulties of fighting in a remote corner of Afghanistan where the enemy is practically on top of the troops, albeit often invisible, and the nearest ally is never close enough.

Voelker and his men were tasked with the actual construction of Restrepo back in 2007, building perimeter walls and barracks under the most hostile of conditions.

“I drew that card and it was fucking crazy,” he says of his deployment, recounting the five or six times a day he and his men took incoming fire from the mountains surrounding them on all sides. Soon after he arrived, he even told himself: “This is where I’m going to die.”

But operating under life-threatening conditions day in and day out honed Voelker’s dark sense of humor, a coping mechanism common among combat veterans.

“I always tried to have humor in my unit,” he says. “If one of us is going to die, we might as well be able to laugh about it.”

Those dark days also fed his appreciation for good food and drink, both of which were nowhere to be found on the front line of the Afghan war.

After his time in Afghanistan and a second deployment to Iraq in 2009, Voelker returned to the states to start his civilian life.

He got an MBA at the University of Pittsburgh, married his long-time sweetheart, then went to work for UPMC, using the engineering skills he collected in Afghanistan as a construction manager for the fast-growing network of hospitals and medical centers.

By 2010, he was called to brewing. His first venture was running a bus tour of local breweries in Western Pennsylvania. Then he co-founded the coffee business Steel Valley Roasters.

Around that time, Voelker also became a partner in the fledgling eatery and bar known as Voodoo Brewery, which boasts six locations in Pennsylvania.

The Homestead outpost of Voodoo is the crown jewel. A turn-of-the-century firehouse, police station, and community center in its previous incarnation, the beer hall where the firetrucks once parked is tattooed with graffiti art and paintings depicting the region’s industrial past, giving the place a demented funhouse feel.