USA, MO: Mark Twain Brewing Company plans to open this summer

Bill Martin hopes that by next summer the old Murphy Motors building in Hannibal, MO will be the home of Northeast Missouri’s newest brew. The Hannibal City Council sold the building to Martin and his partners for $225,000 in February. Since then, Martin and his son Wes, his brother and his nephew have talked paint, fencing and flooring in hopes that eventually they can focus on wheat and barley, Quincy Herald Whig reported on November 25.

Martin already has replaced broken windows with period glass, leveled a slant in the floor and brought the historic building nearly to its shell. From that shell, the space is being designed for visibility. Large windows and a broad patio look out over the downtown skyline and Hannibal’s riverfront. Glass walls will separate the restaurant crowd from the ving tanks and brewmaster. The Martins want customers to see as much of the beer-making process as possible.

They had originally hoped to open in time for the summer tourist season. But Martin said revamping the building and developing a workable floor plan have taken longer than expected.

While neither Bill nor Wes Martin has ever produced beer at this scale before, Bill Martin said he’s active in the local home brewers association. Eventually he hopes to use contest-winning beer recipes from the association and produce them on a larger scale.

Plans are for the brewery eventually to produce enough beer to keg and bottle it for distribution at the regional level. The brewery tanks will arrive in January.

They hope to have construction completed in early spring and hire staff in time to open before the summer tourism season.

27 November, 2013