USA, IL: Black Belt Brewery to open in Lake Zurich

The Lake Zurich Village Board unanimously approved a special use permit for Black Belt Brewery to produce beer, suntimes.com reported on October, 9.

“We are going to be a production craft brewery,” said Island Lake resident Mark Abraham, one of Black Belt Brewery’s three owners. “We are not going to be a bar, restaurant or tavern.”

The brewery’s amber ale was chosen best in its category at two American Homebrewers Association-sanctioned competitions in the summer of 2013.

That beer is the only one the brewery plans to produce, unless Abraham, Petti and fellow business owner Caren Asher develop and produce another in the future.

At the village Plan Commission’s September meeting, Asher said it would take about four months to get the necessary equipment, after which the company would start brewing immediately.

Within the first three months of production, Asher predicted Black Belt would produce one batch per week, bringing in revenues of more than $120,000 each month.

15 October, 2014