USA, KY: Mile Wide Beer to open in late summer in Louisville

The mysterious Mile Wide Beer Co. announced this week it will open in late summer, also detailing what types of beers customers should expect, Insider Louisville reported on May 26.

Located at 636 Barret Ave., Louisville, Mile Wide is owned by four partners: Scott Shreffler, Kyle Tavares, Matt Landon and Patrick Smith, the latter of which also owns River City Drafthouse. Shreffler and Tavares are former representatives for Schlafly Beer, which is based in St. Louis, while Landon has worked in construction.

Word began to leak out about Mile Wide’s impending arrival last year, but the ownership team has done its best to keep the story quiet, at least until Schreffler announced his resignation from his post as regional brewery representative for Schlafly a few weeks ago.

The secrecy is ongoing to a point – only a handful of non-revealing photos have been posted on the brewery’s social media accounts, and a request to take photographs inside the space was politely denied, although the Mile Wide reps did open their doors for a tour and a few tastes. The future looks promising at the brewery in the shadows of the old grain silos perched along Beargrass Creek.

At this point the team is awaiting a few construction jobs to be completed in order to put down new flooring. Once that is done, a pair of coolers will be built, making way for renovations to the centrally located circular bar that remains, followed by a hand-built bench along one wall.

The brewhouse will consist of a 15-barrel, three-vessel system with an initial annual capacity of about 1,700 barrels, thanks to two 15-barrel fermenters, three 30-barrel fermenters, and a pair of bright tanks.

Brewing test batches on a 27-gallon system, the Mile Wide team has developed a nicely balanced and approachable Belgian-style witbier to be the only year-round brew available on the taproom’s 12-taps. The brewery also will feature a rotating Scavenger IPA series, so-named because they will “scavenge” whatever hops and grains are available.

So, the flavor and aroma stands to vary with each batch – some Scavenger IPAs might be triple-hopped, while others might be a single-hop variety.

“Since we’re a new brewery,” Shreffler says, “we can’t get hop contracts.”

But having only one year-round beer means that head brewer Tavares and the team can brew to their whims a lot of the time, ensuring plenty of variety. The small batches currently being brewed are mostly to perfect the wit and to come up with possible other beers of the future.

“The primary focus of these pilot batches has been on yeast trials for the witbier,” Shreffler says. “We’ve also brewed a single hop IPA, a pale ale that uses all Australian hops and an English mild.”

It is perhaps fitting that Mile Wide is in a space adjacent to Diamonds, as that building originally housed Silo Microbrewery, Louisville’s first brewery following the 1978 demise of Falls City. Silo opened in 1992.

While an exact open date hasn’t been announce for Mile Wide Beer Co., at least part of the mystery has been solved.

26 May, 2016