USA, SC: Conquest Brewing Company to open in Columbia

City of Columbia will finally join the ranks of Carolina craft brew mini-meccas like Charleston, Greenville and Asheville when Conquest Brewing Company taps its first keg later this summer, Free-times.com reported on July, 11.

The owners of the new brewery are Matthew Ellisor and Joseph Ackerman, two friends who have been home-brewing beer together for nine years.

With a space on Stadium Road, Conquest is just waiting on some licensing and for equipment to be delivered later this month. They will then take most of August to test out equipment and recipes and hope to open their doors in late August or early September.

Ackerman says the plan is to start small and build demand with a three-barrel setup at first and a tasting room complete with a growler-filling station for customers to take any or all of three launching brews home with them. Ackerman and Ellisor are also working on supplying four to six bars in town with their beers, keeping a smart eye on not expanding so fast that the supported bars run out of product (a problem that befalls lots of new craft breweries) until they can upgrade to a 15-barrel setup.

The three launch beers will be Artemis Blonde, Sacred Heart IPA and Brutus Stout. There will also be a Cyclops line of experimental brews in the works.

18 July, 2012