Tag: Memphis Made Brewing Company

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Beers for Beasts to Benefit Australian Bushfire Recovery

CREDIT: Brandon Dill

Earlier this winter, bushfires devastated much of Australia’s mainland, killing one-third of New South Wales’ koalas and burning 14.6 million acres of land.

“We have a bushfire season pretty much every year,” says Damien Klingberg, an expat of South Australia who now lives in Memphis. “But this is the worst there’s ever been — on record, anyway. And there are fires affecting all areas in all six of the mainland states.”

Klingberg moved to the States in 1994 and has since made a life here in Memphis working as a beertender at Memphis Made Brewing Co. When he heard of the fires in Australia and the devastation that came along with them, including damage to his family’s entire cherry orchard, he and his fellow Australian mate Nick Van De Velde decided they needed to contribute to the relief efforts by organizing a benefit concert at Memphis Made.

Brandon Dill

Memphis Made Brewing Co.

“Nick pulled me aside and said, ‘Hey, we’ve got to do this,’ and I said, ‘You’re right, we do,'” says Klingberg. “And it kind of started from there. We approached the fantastic management and ownership of Memphis Made and said, ‘Hey, this is what we want to do. Can we do it?’ And they have been super supportive.”

For a suggested $5 donation toward relief funds, guests will enjoy the music of two of Klingberg’s bands, Piper Down and Solar Powered Love, as well as other local acts Jeff Hulett, The Switchblade Kid, and DJ Zach Ives. Memphis Made will also donate $1 from each beer sale to organizations picked out by Klingberg and Van De Velde: WIRES Australian Wildlife Rescue, Wildlife Victoria, Wildlife Rescue Queensland, SA Bushfire Appeal, and Wildlife Recovery Fund.

Beers for Beasts, Memphis Made Brewing Co., 768 S. Cooper, Saturday, February 15th, suggested $5 donation.

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Food & Wine Food & Drink

Now open: LBOE and Memphis Made Taproom

CREDIT: Justin Fox Burks

At Last Burger on Earth (LBOE), you can’t order dessert. The reason is simple: They don’t have any. And if you want a vegetable — fugheddaboudit. There’s a lonely looking salad at the bottom of the menu, a spinach-and-tomato affair that might as well be called “The Afterthought.”

But let’s be honest. You didn’t come here to eat a vegetable.

What LBOE has is burgers. Ten of them. They aren’t healthy, and apart from the Classic ($7.95), you can’t really pick them up with your hands. But if you can come to grips with using a knife and fork, then you’ll find out why LBOE is worth a trip. These burgers — they’re fiendishly tasty.

Justin Fox Burks

Take their signature, the LBOE (pronounced “elbow,” $9.95). Just the ingredient list is enough to inspire a mild heart attack in your faithful food columnist: Havarti cheese, roasted garlic cream cheese, hardwood-smoked bacon, green chilies, and corn chips.

Um, excuse me? Green chilies? Corn chips? But take the plunge, dear reader, and soon you’ll be asking yourself why you haven’t been putting chips on your burgers all along. The chips lend a salty crunch to the meat, one that is beautifully balanced by the citrusy acidity of the peppers. Try all you want: you won’t take home any leftovers.

“The name is like a last meal kind of thing,” says co-founder Tyler Adams. “Like if you’re gonna have your last burger, we hope you do it here.”

Of course, toppings are important, but they’re no good without quality meat. For that reason, LBOE sources all its ground beef at Charlie’s Meat Market on Summer, which grinds its meat fresh five days a week. From there, they add a top-secret mix of seasonings (I thought I detected smoked paprika) and cook the burgers on a flat-top griddle.

“The reason is they get to simmer in their own juices,” says Adams, “so it makes the burgers juicier.”

He ain’t just whistling Dixie.

There are a few conservative choices on the menu. Think bacon, cheese, pickles. But I recommend an adventure. Try the Walking in Memphis (kielbasa, pulled pork) or the Lava Me (sriracha cream cheese, Nikki’s Hot Ass Chips). And remember the words of Machiavelli: “Never was anything great achieved without danger.”

Take a stroll around the new Memphis Made Tap Room, and you might suspect that the place wasn’t built for beer. Well, you’d be right. The cavernous space — big enough to house a couple of movie theaters — was formerly a drive-in freezer for the now-defunct Keathley Pie Company, piled high with hundreds of thousands of single-serve pecan pies.

These days, the space is home to the sudsy ambitions of Memphis Made Brewing Co., whose tap room opened to the public on Friday, November 21st. And you know what? For a former drive-in freezer, they’ve made it pretty homey, complete with expanded bathrooms, custom metal furniture, and a gracious wood bar by craftsman Galen Woods.

“It’s like the Death Star in Return of the Jedi,” muses Memphis Made co-founder Andy Ashby. “We’re not quite completed yet, but we’re getting there.”

Memphis Made is known for its Lucid Kolsch ($6): a crisp, golden ale that is produced year-round. But in colder weather, it’s their seasonal offerings that really shine. Case in point: Fireside Ninja ($6). An American amber ale, it is deliciously malty, with notes of caramel and chocolate — just the thing to warm up with on a chilly fall night.

“I envision a ninja in a silk smoking jacket,” says co-founder Drew Barton, “lounging on a bearskin rug with a glass of cognac — in front of a roaring fire.

“We were definitely drinking when we came up with that,” he adds.

At first, the tap room will be open just one night per week: Fridays from 4 to 9 p.m. Ashby and Barton say they will expand as business allows. Food will be provided by Hot Mess Burritos food truck, as well as Aldo’s Pizza Pies, which will open a new location across the street in early 2015.

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Food & Wine Food & Drink

How to Drink a Beer

CREDIT: Justin Fox Burks

Memphis Made Brewing Company has been in operation about 10 months and has introduced 16 styles of beer to the Memphis market. Two new IPAs are being introduced this month, including Guitar Attack in bottles and a Golden Ale especially for Gonerfest aptly named GBR. Their popular Lucid Kolsch is slated to be their first year-round offering.

When it comes to advising one on how to drink a beer, Memphis Made co-owner Andy Ashby puts it plainly: Hold glass, tilt, don’t choke. Brewmaster Drew Barton takes the question a bit more seriously. His first bit of advice? Don’t smoke. “It distracts from the flavors,” he says, adding, “Also, it’s so bad for you.”

Ashby, who has now put out his one cigarette of the day, says that temperature is also important for serving different styles of beer. “Ales, and we just brew ales, generally speaking, can go warmer than lagers,” he says. “The English drink their beer cool not cold. The mass majority of Americans like to drink their lighter lagers really cold.” Ashby notes that while a PBR will not improve in taste 30 minutes after being opened, a stout or a porter may very well taste better and have more flavor after it warms.

Barton says there’s a reason to drink cheap beer cold — to mute the flavors. Ashby agrees saying that really, really cold beer stuns the taste buds, which are the gatekeepers.

Barton says 40 to 45 degrees is a good temperature depending on the beer. “Some brewers put suggestions on the bottle for temperatures and style of glass, but they aren’t hard and fast. You don’t have to drink Chimay out of a Chimay glass,” he says.

Both Ashby and Barton liken the temperature issue to wine. In general, red wine is better at room temperature and white is better chilled — although Barton reserves the right to put ice cubes in his red.

Ashby also advises using a clean glass. Barton agrees, “A dirty glass can cause an off flavor. Any film will cause nucleation sites. Bubbles form and while the head retention may be better, it will decarbonate quicker,” he says. Ashby, translating, says, “If bubbles stick to the side of your glass, it isn’t clean.”

Speaking of head, Ashby says a pinky’s worth is a good measure. “How much head depends on style. The Brits like no head, or less than one centimeter. Belgium styles may have two inches.”

Barton adds, “Belgians argue that you should pour straight and foam it up.” Ashby offers his advice on a proper pour: “Hold it at a 45 degree angle. Get the tap close to the lip of the far side of the glass and make sure it is fully open. Fill it two-thirds or three-fourths of the way and then level out the glass to finish filling.”

Ashby and Barton are in the process of finishing a taproom and patio and hope to have them open in the next month or so.

Justin Fox Burks

High Cotton

High Cotton Brewing Company’s taproom (598 Monroe) is open Thursdays (4-8ish), Fridays (4-10ish) and Saturdays (2-10ish) and features seven to eight beers, including the ESB, Biere de Garde, CT Czar IPA, Hefeweizen, Scottish Ale, Pilsner, and Milk Stout. They also have 160 taps around town.

Owner Brice Timmons is the go-to guy for anyone who wants to feel really good about drinking beer. “Drink beer with family and friends. Beer is about community and friendship,” he says. “It’s quite literally the origin of civilization.”

Beat that, wine!

Timmons says that monolithic hunters and gatherers had a more varied diet than farmers and had more time for leisure and socialization. “Anthropologists spent decades trying to figure out why anyone would choose farming. It was to grow grain to make beer,” he says. “The point being that humans have developed a civilization in which beer and community are inextricably linked. We do ourselves a service when we gather in clean, well-lit places to drink beer and spend time with friends and family.”

His second piece of advice on how to drink a beer is to drink without judgment. “There is no benefit to snobbery. If someone wants a Bud Light from a bottle, that is their business. Likewise, if someone wants a Belgium sour ale in a flared tulip glass at 55 degrees so they can take tasting notes, so be it.”

Personally, Timmons likes to drink beer from a Burgundy wine glass because it focuses the aroma but still has heft. “I like to spend time thinking about the aroma and how it goes from nose to palate to finish seamlessly. When it smells like fresh biscuits, tastes like malty bread, and finishes with the sweetness of toast, it’s a beautiful thing,” he says.

Timmons says that craft beer’s greatest advantage as a beverage is that it’s accessible to everyone. “Even the best beers are affordable, maybe not every day, but … making such an accessible beverage inaccessible through snobbery or pretense doesn’t do a service to anybody.”

On October 4th, High Cotton will be tapping a special release Oktoberfest lager as part of their block-wide Oktoberfest celebration from noon to 7 p.m. General admission is $40 (VIPs $100 per person or $150 per couple). There will be all the beer you can get to the front of the line for, a whole pig roast, a buffet including locally made bratwurst, traditional fermented delights like sauerkraut and dill pickles, folk music, traditional music, and family-friendly activities.

Justin Fox Burks

Wiseacre

Wiseacre Brewing Company offers two year-round beers in cans — Ananda IPA and Tiny Bomb American Pilsner — and features those as well as a host of other beers in its taproom (2783 Broad), which is open Thursdays (4-8 p.m.), Fridays, (4-10 p.m.) and Saturdays (1-8 p.m.).

Co-founder Kellan Bartosch believes drinking beer should be less scary to newcomers and more light-hearted for “connoisseurs.” He says, “Folks often come to the taproom and lay out their fears before ordering. ‘I don’t like dark beers’ or ‘My husband likes the mega hoppy stuff, but, yuck, I think it’s gross — do you have wine?'”

Bartosch says it would be easy to condescend to these new patrons with beer vernacular and BJCP-style (Beer Judge Certification Program) guidelines vs. modern American brewing techniques, but he and his brother, the brewmaster, Davin, would like everybody to know that there are relatable flavors and textures in beer from the rest of the gustatory world. “Like coffee? Stouts have roasted flavors. Enjoy bananas? Hefeweizen yeast produces banana-like ester compounds,” he notes. “Tiny Bomb is a clean, crisp lager that’s similar in style to many macro-produced beers but has a ton more flavor — so much so Southern Living said it was the best beer in the state!”

All this is to say that the Bartosch brothers think people should drink beer with an open mind and know that there is bound to be something recognizable in beer that he or she might enjoy. “Much like other subcultures with way too much seriousness, it shouldn’t be forgotten that this is beer and not rocket science. In our internet culture so many have taken it upon themselves to become critics of whatever the topic is, arguing on message boards or writing derogatory messages on social media. Simply pointing a finger and being a critic is easy; being an appreciator is more difficult and inclusive in the long run,” he says.

However, he does also believe there is a time for analysis, excessive sniffing, and such. “Aroma, appearance, flavor, mouthfeel, and history all play an important part in understanding what you’re drinking. Beer ingredients, what flavors/textures they create, and the role they play in different styles can teach us that it’s silly to complain about a Marzen not being hoppy because that’s like getting mad at a burger for not being Thai curry,” he says.

Bartosch continues, “Balance is a touch achievement on the brewery side and learning to appreciate that can be zen-like. Similarly, making something clean and delicate is more challenging than making something extreme. Understanding that every style of beer can be enjoyable the same way we peruse genres of music or food based on our moods is much wiser than only drinking IPAs.”

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Cover Feature News

Beer Me!

CREDIT: Justin Fox Burks

In 2012, the hundred or so additions to Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary included “game changer,” a newly introduced element or factor that changes an existing situation or activity in a significant way, and “craft beer,” specialty beer produced in limited quantities.

As craft beer puts the squeeze on Big Brewing’s market share each year, “game changer” is an apt description for this revival of local, small-batch brewing.

Within the next year, Memphis will have three new craft breweries. And though this isn’t the first time craft beer has made a play for Memphians’ hearts, this time around big differences in the market climate promise an easier road for these upstart microbreweries. Not only are changes to state and local laws making life easier for craft brewers — the Beer Tax Reform Act of 2013 sponsored by state senator Brian Kelsey of Germantown certainly lifts some of the disproportionate tax burden from craft brewers — but also beer drinkers are more savvy.

Craft brewing entered the Memphis scene in the mid-1990s, when the first Boscos brewery and some other, less successful brewpubs opened around town. Chuck Skypeck of Boscos and Ghost River Brewing recalls a brewery in the old Greyhound station on Union Avenue, a chain brewpub on Winchester called Hops, and the Breckenridge Brewery above what is now the Majestic Grille, which still houses all the old brewing equipment. Aside from Boscos, none of these brewpubs lasted more than a few years.

In the mid-’90s, homebrewing hobbyists and beer nerds, whom Skypeck refers to as “old guys with beards,” were determined to create an alternative to the big brewing industry: Anheuser-Busch and MillerCoors. The enterprising ones among them opened brewpubs, assuming the quality product would drive demand and a market for craft beers would build up around them.

“I called it the Field of Dreams scenario,” says Brad McQuhae of Newlands Systems, a brewing equipment manufacturer in Abbotsford, British Columbia, that furnished Ghost River’s brewery. “These guys had a great idea of making wonderful styles of beer, but they weren’t marketers and they thought their beer was going to sell itself. In some cases, it worked, and, in most cases, it didn’t.”

Skypeck believes their craft beers were an unfamiliar product, and many beer drinkers, particularly young beer drinkers, weren’t buying.

“The people who liked craft beer then were old guys with beards. The younger consumer was drawn to Smirnoff Ice and flavored malt beverages and froufrou cocktails,” Skypeck says. “I told people that craft beer has to attract the 21-to-25-year-old, or it’s not going to go anywhere. The sea change that’s made craft beer grow now is that the younger consumer is now on board.”

Indeed, the demand for craft beer has been steadily growing, so much so that a second wave of craft breweries has been rolling in to meet that demand. According to the Brewers Association, in 2011, 37 breweries closed, but 250 new ones opened; in 2012, there were 43 brewery closings but 409 brewery openings, bringing the total number of breweries to an all-time high of 2,347.

“Distributors wouldn’t carry craft beer years ago,” McQuhae says. “Nowadays, we have clients starting up. They’ll have three distributors approach them and say, ‘Whatever you can make, we’ll take 100 percent.’ So you have a guy getting into business with three distributors knocking on his door and saying, ‘I’ll take all of whatever you brew.'”

With this new wave of craft breweries, beer drinkers young and old are driving the market with a seemingly insatiable appetite for craft beer.

“There are about 10 or 12 breweries that really connected with younger consumers and helped expand craft beer’s market share in those younger consumers,” Skypeck says. “And once your idea of the world of beer includes craft beer, it’s always going to include craft beer. Now, every new beer consumer when they turn 21 is a craft beer drinker.”

Twenty years into the business, Skypeck is the godfather of craft brewing in Memphis. He opened Boscos, the first brewpub in the state, in 1992 in the Saddle Creek shopping center in Germantown. While other brewpubs popped up around Memphis and shuttered within a few years, Skypeck expanded to Little Rock and Nashville and then opened Ghost River Brewing Company in 2007. Since then, Ghost River has expanded three times and is already working on a fourth expansion.

Skypeck attributes his success to two things: Memphis water (“which is really good and awesome for making beer,” he says) and his focus on the local market.

“There have been some other people who have come and gone, and very interestingly, most of those people who came and went weren’t locals,” Skypeck says. “We’re more of a local brand than a craft brand. We turn our beer over so quick, there are times we would keg a beer Friday morning, the distributor would pick it up Friday afternoon, and it would go straight down to Beale Street. You’d be having beer on Beale Street that was kegged at the brewery that morning.”

The immediacy of Boscos and Ghost River is central to Skypeck’s vision. Though pressed at every turn to expand beyond the Mid-South market, Skypeck has resisted, choosing instead to fill the ever-expanding local market. Supplying that market is plenty of work, he says, noting that Ghost River still hasn’t been able to fully meet demand because demand is so high and their brewing capacity is limited by space (hence the upcoming fourth expansion).

“Honestly, I’ve always contended this since the day we opened Boscos: Beer is a fresh, local food product,” Skypeck says. “It isn’t meant to ship around the country, much less around the world. After the 1950s and the development of the Interstate Highway System, we just got used to everything being national brands, but, before that, beer was always something fresh and local.”

(This mid-century shift likely precipitated the downfall of Memphis’ Tennessee Brewing Company, a behemoth former brewery that was once one of the largest breweries in the South. It now looms over Tennessee Street downtown, unused and in near-hopeless disrepair. Established in 1877, the brewery survived Prohibition but closed in 1954 after national brands like Budweiser swept in with national advertising campaigns, which caused local brands like Goldcrest 51 to lose favor.)

A burgeoning enthusiasm for all things local has included a demand for local beer, for an alternative to the mass-produced. With this demand for local beer has come the revival of the neighborhood brewery across the country, including in Southern cities like Birmingham and Asheville.

“There are lots of examples of craft breweries being urban pioneers and becoming an anchor for neighborhoods, especially if they have restaurants or taprooms associated with them. They help activate the streets and become gathering spots for the neighborhood,” says Tommy Pacello of the Mayor’s Innovation Delivery Team. “Like how Boscos was a pioneer in Overton Square.”

The three new breweries set to open in Memphis within the next year also follow this trend.

“All three of them have these common patterns,” Pacello says. “They’ve chosen core city neighborhoods, the key being neighborhoods. They’re not choosing to be buried in an industrial park. It’s a key part of revitalization. Is it a silver bullet? Probably not. But it’s definitely a key part.”

As for how Skypeck, who has enjoyed two decades free of local craft beer competition, will adjust to the addition of three new breweries, he remains sanguine.

“The fact that we’ve existed without a lot of other breweries is unique in the world of craft brewing,” he says. “Portland supports about a hundred. On a very basic level, they aren’t going to cut into our sales. The market’s growing so fast. It’s been demonstrated over and over in other markets in the United States that a rising tide floats all boats.”

High Cotton Brewing Company

The story of High Cotton Brewing Company begins like a joke: A lawyer, a pilot, an engineer, and a home brewer walk into a home-brew shop. From there, Brice Timmons, Ross Avery, Ryan Staggs, and Mike Lee began the whirlwind process of starting a brewery.

“As any home brewer does, we had this grand illusion, a pipe dream, that we would own a brewery,” Avery says.

“Only, Ross Avery’s way of dealing with a pipe dream is a little different from most people’s,” Timmons shoots back. “Ross already owned all the equipment.”

Eight years ago, Avery went to an auction and purchased all the brewing equipment from a former brewery. But without an actual brewery to put the equipment in, Avery’s auction purchase sat in storage. When the four finally got together, meeting through Mike Lee and his home-brew supply shop, Mid-South Malts, the fact that the equipment was on hand expedited the opening process. They purchased the space at 598 Monroe in June 2012, started construction in August 2012, and now brewing is under way. It’s impressive, especially considering all four of them have day jobs.

“It was the right mix of people at the right time,” Timmons says. “Memphis was really ready for it. Mike has been brewing here for 35 years. Ross has been at it for 20 and had all the equipment. And having a lawyer and an engineer handy was not unhelpful.”

Having a lawyer also helped when it came to changing a few laws in the process of opening the brewery.

In July 2012, Timmons, an attorney, worked with city councilman Jim Strickland and Josh Whitehead from the Office of Planning and Development to remove the city alcohol code’s food requirements for brewpubs and allow microbreweries to have taprooms on site for on-premises consumption of pints. Before the code change, brewery owners had to offer meals, including a meat and vegetable prepared on the premises, in order to open a tasting room.

High Cotton Brewing, set to begin full-scale operations this spring, plans on eventually having a tasting room in the front of its warehouse space on Monroe. Directly down the street from Sun Studio and AutoZone Park, High Cotton’s tasting room will feature 10 to 12 beers, including seasonal and experimental varieties, large open windows, and the reclaimed bar from the erstwhile Butcher Shop downtown. But for now, the group is focused on getting kegs out the door — and into local restaurants like Jim’s Place, Hog & Hominy, Central BBQ, Ciao Bella, and Bayou Bar & Grill.

Wiseacre Brewing Company

From Davin Bartosch’s brewing degrees to Kellan Bartosch’s custom sneakers with “wiseacre” on the heels, this band of brewing brothers behind Wiseacre Brewing Company has craft beer covered from head to toe.

“We went about this in the most comprehensive way possible,” Davin says. “I over-engineer everything. When Kellan said, ‘Let’s open a brewery,’ I said, ‘Okay, let’s make sure we know how to do this better than anyone who’s ever opened a brewery before.'”

Graduates of White Station High School, the Bartosch brothers are best friends, beer lovers, and, yes, wiseacres. Kellan, 32, spent five years working on the business side of brewing, first as a distributor in Nashville and then as sales rep for Sierra Nevada. Davin, 33, has been homebrewing since he was 19, before going to brewing school in Chicago and Germany and then working for Rock Bottom Brewing in Chicago. Finally, after 10 years of planning, the two have returned to their hometown to start Wiseacre Brewing Company.

“Having a brewery is about more than having great beer,” Kellan says. “You can have awesome beer, but if you don’t have someone who knows how to move it, how to approach people with it, how to tell the story of your beer, then it’s not going to go anywhere.”

The Bartosch brothers purchased warehouse space at 2783 Broad Avenue, where they hope to have their brewery open by this fall. Like High Cotton, they are building a taproom into their brewery plans, a place for patrons to try whatever Davin has brewing. And, like Ghost River, they’re focusing on the local market.

“People want to know who made what they’re eating and what they’re drinking,” Kellan says. “Right now, people are grasping for what they can get locally. It has to do with people wanting to see their dollars go to people locally. But even the huge conglomerates are cranking out stuff that looks like craft beer, that looks like someone took care of it, when, in reality, it’s mass-produced.”

Wiseacre won’t be cranking out the same beers over and over again. Though the model has been successful for Ghost River (80 percent of Ghost River’s production is in its Ghost River Golden Ale), Davin’s brewing repertoire will be more fluid.

“We’re going to make everything. We don’t ever want to lose the experimental side of making beer,” Kellan says. “For Davin, as a brewer, it’s about inspiration, and if something comes to mind and he wants to make it, we don’t want to be handcuffed by any kind of calendar we’ve created for ourselves.”

And though they are self-professed beer nerds, the Bartosch boys aren’t looking to bring craft beer snobbery to town.

“Craft beer is so cool. I think some people are turned off by that,” Kellan says. “We don’t ever want this to be pretentious. We don’t want to condescend to people for what they enjoy drinking.”

Memphis Made Brewing Company

The Memphis Made Brewing Company T-shirt will win fans long before they taste a drop of Memphis Made beer. “When you’re bad, you get put in the corner,” the shirt reads, with a map of the state of Tennessee below it and a star to mark the spot where Memphis sits. Outside the brewery, which is located at 768 Cooper, the “I Love Memphis” mural echoes owner and brewmaster Drew Barton’s love of his hometown. Inside, Barton’s plans for the brewery bespeak a second passion.

“I started homebrewing when I was in college in Michigan, and I fell in love with it,” he says. “I bought a homebrewing book and read the whole thing cover to cover. Twice.”

He returned to Memphis to finish his schooling and got a degree in zymurgy management, the art and science of fermentation. Barton left again to work in a brewery in Asheville, the French Broad Brewery. He started out as a delivery driver, and within 18 months, he was head brewer. In 2010, after a few years running French Broad, he moved back to Memphis to work on starting his own brewery. Construction is under way, and Barton hopes to be open by late summer or early fall of this year.

“Right now, we’re looking at doing an IPA and a Kölsch,” Barton says. “Those will be our year-round beers. Everybody’s making IPAs, and IPAs sell. So, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. The Kölsch will be something nice and new for this market. It’s a German golden ale, very clean, crisp with a slight, spicy, hot note. It’s good in the summertime, so on a hot summer day in Memphis, it’s going to be gangbusters.”

Barton is limiting the number of year-round beers to two, making room for plenty of seasonal and small-batch brews. They will also have a taproom eventually, though Barton admits that will come later in the process. As for how he feels about the influx of breweries in Memphis, Barton says there is plenty of room for more beer.

“In terms of competition, there’s room for a lot more here,” he says. “Having four breweries located in Memphis? I don’t think that’s a problem. We could have 15 breweries here. The craft brewing industry is such that we could all get together on a Friday night and drink beers and talk shop. For the most part, craft brewers help each other out. And if you’ve got good product, you don’t have anything to worry about.”