Tickets for the third annual Cooper-Young Regional Beerfest will go on sale on this site at 10:00 AM on Friday, Sept. 7. This year, we are not charging any ticketing fees for purchases online.
. . .
The Cooper-Young Regional Beerfest on Oct. 13 features only craft beers from within a days drive of Memphis. The festival benefits the Cooper-Young Community Association, a non-profit organization that maintains the Trestle Art, organizes clean-ups, and does many other things in this Midtown neighborhood.
Ghost River Brewing recently received a 50 BBL tank that will increase their production capacity.
Our annual capacity before the new tank was 5200 barrels (31 gallons per barrel) per year.
The new tank is a 50 barrel tank. We should be able to put 1300 barrels a year through the tank, bringing our capacity to 6500 barrels a year.
All (100%) of our current capacity, and I mean all, is sold in Shelby County, TN and Desoto County, MS, Basically metropolitan Memphis. We currently cannot meet demand in these two counties. For example, we always focus on our core brand, Ghost River Golden. Running out of that beer would be disastrous for our distributor. Because of that, we are typically brewing 650 barrels per year of each the Copperhead Red and the Glacial Pale Ale. A 25 barrel batch of each of those comes out every two weeks. Our distributor typically runs out of those products before the next batch is ready.
Overall, between our Tennessee distributor, our Mississippi distributor and the brewery, we typically only have about 5 days of supply at any given time. While this is great for turnover, it is way too close for comfort. It does not allow us to pursue new opportunities in our core market.
Because out of town business is more expensive to conduct (there are many reasons for this), we have no plans to leave the Memphis market until we believe we have reached our full potential in our home market. We do not know what our ceiling is in terms of sales in Memphis. Like I said, we are currently turning away business in Memphis because of capacity issues. It makes no sense for us to turn those local customers away to develop out of town markets that would yield lower margins. Also, we currently only put the Golden into bottles. We have a lot of potential in Memphis with both the Red and the Pale in bottles.
All that being said, at this point, when we get to the point that we have beer available to develop new markets, I feel like our best potential is northern Mississippi. The market is under served, it is close to home, and we have a good distributor relationship established with Clarke Beverage who covers the whole state. Clarke is chomping at the bit to expand distribution into Mississippi. We simply cannot do it until we know we can support it. Remember, wherever we go, it will be our first out of town market. We have a learning curve to deal with regarding conducting out of town business.
If you wonder “why not develop more capacity” I will answer it is not that easy. Developing brewing capacity is extremely capital intensive. We are a small company with limited resources and access to capital. The margins are low. The returns are slow. It simply takes time. We have outgrown our current location, so the next step will be a huge investment of time and money.
The new tank:
Memphis City Council approved a meassure to allow microbreweries to operate a taproom without the requirement to serve food. Previously microbreweries were required to operate a kitchen. It is also reported that the City Council is considering allowing microbreweries to open in new areas of the city where they were previously not allowed to.
Here’s an update from Drew Barton on the proposal:
“The amendment to the city code of ordinances allowing breweries to operate a tasting room without the obligation to maintain a kitchen or serve food, was passed by the city council yesterday.
The amendment now makes its way to the mayor’s desk. There doesn’t appear to be any resistance from the Mayor’s office.
I would like to take this time to thank the guys at High Cotton, in particular Brice Timmons, for getting this ball in motion and seeing it through over the last couple of months.
Hopefully soon we can all meet up and have a beer in a tasting room!”
This is great news for the city of Memphis and Craft beer lovers. Let’s hope this sails across the mayor’s desk with record speed!!
(Portland, ME) — Due to the high demand for Shipyard Pumpkinhead, Shipyard Brewing Company is pleased to announce it has leased space to begin brewing at an additional location in Memphis, Tennessee. This will also allow Shipyard to offer its products in cans for the first time and expand its overall brewing capacity.
“This is a very exciting time in our growth,” stated Shipyard’s president Fred Forsley. “Our brewery in Portland is at full capacity and this allows us to meet consumer demand for our products.”
Shipyard has leased space within a brewery in Memphis and manufactured tanks to employ its signature open top fermentation brewing process using Ringwood Yeast. Master Brewer Alan Pugsley did the first brew in June and cans of Shipyard Export will be available in Maine starting next week with other select markets to follow this summer. Shipyard Pumpkinhead will be available in cans this fall.
This is not the first time Shipyard has brewed outside of Maine. In 1997, Shipyard opened the world’s first airport microbrewery at the Orlando International Airport. Today, the Shipyard Brew Pub in Winter Park, Florida operates its own nano-brewery. Plans are also underway to open a 20 barrel brewing facility elsewhere in Florida later this year, using the same brewing system that had been installed at the Orlando airport.
About Shipyard Brewing Company: Founded in 1994, Shipyard Brewing Company is located on the historic waterfront in Portland, Maine and produces 17 varieties of award-winning English style and seasonal beers. Its products are distributed in over 35 states. The Brewers Association ranks Shipyard as the 16th largest craft brewery in the U.S. and 24th overall, making it one of the top 15 rising breweries in the country. In 2011, the brewery produced 129,285 barrels (1,781,260 cases) of its award-winning brews. This marks a 31.7% increase over 2010.
via BeerPulse.com & Shipyard Blog
The Dixon is hosting Art On Tap – the most “artful” beer tasting in Memphis. With live music, beer from all around the world, and delicious food, you can’t miss this event! This is a great time to join Young At Art and come for FREE!
For Reservations call 901.761.5250, ext 100
Young at Art Members receive free admission JOIN NOW
Members: $30; Non-members: $40
Beer provided by
A.S. Barboro | Bluff City Brewers & Connoisseurs
Boscos Squared | Budweiser Memphis
Ghost River Brewing
Food provided by
Boscos Squared
Las Delicias
via Dixon.org
There will be a public hearing to discuss the Unified Development Code (UDC) at the City Council meting on Tuesday, July 17th, at 3:30 p.m.
Our interest in this is because of the proposed amendment to the Unified Development Code that includes a provision to allow Memphis breweries to operate an on premises tasting room WITHOUT having to maintain a kitchen (and offer food). This would allow Ghost River and High Cotton (and future breweries) to sell individual pints at the brewery but not have the burden of maintaining a kitchen.
If you have time, please attend the City Council meeting, Tuesday July 17th. and show support for this important amendment.
There will also be a public meeting on Wednesday, June 27, 2012, from 6-8 p.m., at Playhouse on the Square, to discuss the proposed changes to the UDC. More information about this meeting can be found here.
Other resources:
- Information about the UDC amendment and its affect on local beer culture can be found in this Memphis Business Journal article.
- Information on the UDC and its history located here.
- If you have any questions, please email Drew Barton or Josh Whitehead.
Hope you can attend the meeting on the 17th and PLEASE pass this information on using your social media of choice.
Cheers
Boscos Brewing of Memphis, TN was recently awarded Gold in Category 52 (German-Style Pale Wheat Ale) at the Brewers Association World Beer Cup 2012.
2012 World Beer Cup Facts
Date and location
2012 World Beer Cup judging took place May 1-2, 2012 at the Town and Country Resort in San Diego, California. Awards were presented May 5, 2012 at the Town and Country Resort in San Diego, California.2012 World Beer Cup Overview
Other 2012 World Beer Cup Facts
The 2012 World Beer Cup was the largest commercial international beer competition ever held. Of 3,921 entries, 1,270 (32.4%) came from outside the U.S., while 2,651 (67.6%) came from the U.S. Of 284 total awards, 72 (25.3%) went to breweries from outside the U.S., while 212 (74.7%) went to U.S. breweries. Over 250 volunteers sorted and served competition entries. The smallest category was German-Style Sour Ale with 11 entries. New categories included American-Style Brett Ale (28 entries), Indigenous Beer (26 entries) and American-Style Sour Ale (14 entries).via WorldBeerCup.org (Full Fact Sheet)
Excerpt from winners list:
Boscos Brewing corporate office is located in Downtown Memphis (827 South Main Street). Their brew pub is located in Midtown Memphis (2120 Madison Avenue). They also have three other locations (Nashville and Franklin, TN and Little Rock, AR).
Boscos Brewing is also affiliated with Ghost River Brewing.
High Cotton Brewing Company will become the second brewery to call Memphis, TN home behind Ghost River.
