QuoteMichael Payne, the brewer at Brewer's Pizza, tells us that he plans to start phasing out of that operation this fall. He intends to start his own production/tap room brewery along the lines of Bold City and Intuition.
Brewer's already had a great lineup of draft beers before it got its brewpub licenses and Payne started brewing there this past spring. You can read about his beers on July 28 in the full Amber Waves column.
Meanwhile, Payne said that he has his financing and isn't sure yet where he'll set up shop. But he's looking primarily at Riverside and San Marco.
His background includes studying brewing at Siebel Institute of Technology and Doeman's Academy in Munich and working at Terrapin Beer Co. in Athens, Ga.
Keegan Malone will take over Payne's place as the Brewer's brewer.
http://jacksonville.com/opinion/blog/428360/roger-bull/2011-07-18/another-brewery-may-be-works
Never heard of Brewers Pizza before now, but I'd say they have the 2nd best selection (in terms of quality) in the Jax metro right now. European Street and Mellow Mushroom exceed them in quantity, but the choices at Brewers are very well informed.
I hate Orange Park with every bone in my body, but I may have to stop by this weekend for a few pints.
I hadnt heard of Brewers Pizza (or their beer) until the Art of Beer fest at RAM this weekend. Pretty good stuff. Glad to see all of the beer places opening up! Hopefully this one will find its home in Riverside as well! I'd love to see a "beer district" start to take shape over here! :D
Captain, I don't think you'll be disappointed with a trip to Brewer's Pizza. Michael is the most knowledgeable beer guy I know, and both their house beers and their other selections are about the best in town. The pizza's damn decent too.
The new brewery will be exiting. I've been helping him look for places to set up, probably either in San Marco, or in Brooklyn. Keep an eye out.
Quote from: Tacachale on July 18, 2011, 03:29:54 PM
Captain, I don't think you'll be disappointed with a trip to Brewer's Pizza. Michael is the most knowledgeable beer guy I know, and both their house beers and their other selections are about the best in town. The pizza's damn decent too.
The new brewery will be exiting. I've been helping him look for places to set up, probably either in San Marco, or in Brooklyn. Keep an eye out.
Is there a proposed name for this brewery??
Quote from: Captain Zissou on July 18, 2011, 03:34:42 PM
Quote from: Tacachale on July 18, 2011, 03:29:54 PM
Captain, I don't think you'll be disappointed with a trip to Brewer's Pizza. Michael is the most knowledgeable beer guy I know, and both their house beers and their other selections are about the best in town. The pizza's damn decent too.
The new brewery will be exiting. I've been helping him look for places to set up, probably either in San Marco, or in Brooklyn. Keep an eye out.
Is there a proposed name for this brewery??
yes, Aardwolf. He was going to use that name for a brewpub restaurant he was planning before he got involved with Brewer's Pizza, but the new incarnation will be a distribution brewery.
This is awesome news. Bold City, Intuition, Green Room, now this. Jacksonville has been making some big leaps lately when it comes to craft brews.
Brewer's is a good place and Michael does know what he's doing when it comes to beer. But it is on Blanding in Orange Park, and that's pretty difficult to handle.
As of yesterday, Michael has officially left Brewer's to work on the brewery full time. He's being replaced by a new brewer who he trained, Keegan.
Finding a suitable location for the brewery will be the next step.
Dropped this into another thread yesterday: Looks like we can add another brewer to the nice mix that has developed in North Florida:
St. Augustine brewery to open soon
QuoteThe next addition to the Northeast Florida beer scene looks like it will be in St. Augustine. Mile Marker Brewing has its federal license and hopes to have its state license and be open for business in about a month.
It's located in an industrial park on Agricultural Center Drive out near the outlet malls on Interstate 95.
Michael Fierro and Vance Joy are planning a brewery that will ship bottles and kegs to area stores, bars and restaurants. And they'll have a tap room at the brewery.
The tap room, he said, is about 70 percent finished.
They've got two 15-barrel systems (that's pretty big to start with) and a bottling line. They've been making beer for several months, but aren't able to sell it. Fortunately, they've found enough friends to give it away to.
If their state license moves as quickly as they think it will, the tap room should open about the middle of August with the beer showing up in area stores and restaurants two weeks after that.
They don't have a distributor yet, though.
Fierro runs the business side of things. He's got about 20 years in the beverage business, starting off in beer sales before moving to developing non-alcoholic beverages such as Vitaminwater.
Joy is the brewer with about 10 years of home-brewing but no commercial experience.
Ed Canty, longtime brewer and founder of the Florida Brewers Guild, is a minority partner and consultant.
Fierro said they plan to start off with four fairly mainstream beers aimed at distribution: A kolsch, an IPA, a red ale and a honey ale made with local honey.
"We're not going crazy, not yet," he said. "We're trying to get some really smooth drinkability. We want to get something that appeals to everybody, not to the extreme."
The tap room, he said, will probably have eight or nine beers and be a little more extreme.
The partners wanted to be in downtown St. Augustine and looked closely at the old ice house on Riberia Street, but that was just too expensive right now.
"Five years down the road, I'd envision us there," Fierro said.
http://jacksonville.com/opinion/blog/428360/roger-bull/2011-07-20/st-augustine-brewery-open-soon
^I saw that. Very cool news. There's another group of guys in town who want to start up a brewery, but unfortunately I don't think there's much chance of them getting financing.
Quote from Tacachale:
"Finding a suitable location for the brewery will be the next step."
Should not be hard in this market. I know of a couple spots. Send me a personal message and perhaps we
can do business together.
I've got an idea for a place to put his new brewery..... how about the Riverside Brewing District ;D
Quote from: acme54321 on July 21, 2011, 12:12:04 PM
I've got an idea for a place to put his new brewery..... how about the Riverside Brewing District ;D
I second that! :)
Quote from: MusicMan on July 21, 2011, 11:24:01 AM
Quote from Tacachale:
"Finding a suitable location for the brewery will be the next step."
Should not be hard in this market. I know of a couple spots. Send me a personal message and perhaps we
can do business together.
Michael Payne is the most talented brewer in Jacksonville and I would be very stoked to see him come to Riverside. Last Saturday at RAM I was crushing his Belgian Tripel. Probably why the night got a little fuzzy.
Finding a suitable location for a packaging brewery is very challenging in this city. You need at least 14' high ceilings, at least 5000 square feet, a lot of power and water. Those are just the basics.
Throw in the taproom needs and it takes a very unique spot that is capable of a vibrant retail biz and handling the manufacturing needs of a brewery.
It took me almost two years to find a spot and we are very happy here in the "District".
Ben
Ben,
At one point weren't you considering the building on the east side of Hendricks just south of the railroad tracks?? What caused you to not choose there??
I'd love for the new brewery to be within walking distance of the other two, but I think most of the usable warehouse space in that area is taken.
^Captain, are you talking about the old South Jacksonville Utilities building? Michael's looked at that too, but evidently it has some significant infrastructure issues. It also doesn't help that it's right by the water treatment plant that releases a, shall we say, fragrant aroma when it vents periodically. It's a really cool looking building though.
The new place probably won't be in the vicinity of the other two, though his goal is to be somewhere in the core neighborhoods. The buildings I've been looking at are mostly in San Marco and Brooklyn.
Quote from: Captain Zissou on July 22, 2011, 04:23:46 PM
Ben,
At one point weren't you considering the building on the east side of Hendricks just south of the railroad tracks?? What caused you to not choose there??
I'd love for the new brewery to be within walking distance of the other two, but I think most of the usable warehouse space in that area is taken.
Captain,
I never went inside that building. After I heard what they wanted for rent I moved on. That whole Hendricks area was the most inflated lease rates I encountered.
I know the Grassroots guys looked at it for the original incarnation of Aardwolf and decided to not sign a lease.
Ben
I'm surprised no one nabbed up one of the huge warehouses on Market St in Springfield. There are a couple over there that look like excellent opportunities. One of my favorites features vintage heart pine post and beam contruction, , 56,000 sq ft , 7 roll up loading doors, awesome original brick interior walls, is listed at $6 per sq ft.
Quote from: MusicMan on July 23, 2011, 12:03:52 PM
I'm surprised no one nabbed up one of the huge warehouses on Market St in Springfield. There are a couple over there that look like excellent opportunities. One of my favorites features vintage heart pine post and beam contruction, , 56,000 sq ft , 7 roll up loading doors, awesome original brick interior walls, is listed at $6 per sq ft.
Is that $6/sq ft/month? Or per year? Is that how much warehousing costs? :o
That $6 per square ft is the asking price.
$325,000 for 56,000 sq ft. For sale.
Bank owned.
Don't know if those folks are still looking for a spot to put their Brewery but down on Bay Street (near Marks/Dive Bar) there are some incredible vacant spaces, I think they meet all the physical requirements and are in an area that has some good stuff already going on.
56,000 is absolutely enormous. I believe Intuition's Space is 12,000 square feet and Bold City's is smaller than that. Great divide brewery puts out 22,000 barrels a year (44,000 kegs, which means they aren't even considered a craft brewery anymore. There are only about 100 non craft breweries in the country) with only 19,000 square feet of space. With 56,000 you could crank out 70,000 barrels a year and make you about the 15th largest craft brewer in the country.
That is a really cheap price, but I'm not sure a start up could handle that.
The Market Street building is really cool, and that is a phenomenal price.
However, most of the ground floor is elevated framed wood decking.
For production tanks, I would think you would want concrete slab.
I understand 2111 Liberty is under contract. Any idea who is looking at it?
56,000 is enormous. Also that is a vintage space and would need work before it could be ready. HOWEVER you could sublease some of that space and get a revenue stream to offset the expenses.
The sapces I've peeked into downtown are 5000-8000 sq ft. I still love the idea of a taproom next door to OLIO under the Churchwell Lofts.
MusicMan, I'll pm you about some of those spaces, they sound interesting.
I've checked some places out in downtown and LaVilla, but he's not sure they'd work for this. The space needs to be about 4000-5000 square feet (or be able to be subdivided to that size), with open warehouse space and high ceilings.
Have you looked at 1225 Hendricks, behind Radiance of San Marco? I'm not sure how much space would be available. Too bad that the old south Jax bldg is too expensive. That would be a perfect spot.
It looks like he may have found a good spot. I will certainly post it here when everything is finalized.
Cool. Hopefully everything works out as planned.