USA, OH: Y Bridge Brewing coming to Zanesville in the fall

A local man has a plan to open the second brewery in Zanesville, Zanesville Times Recorder reported on May 26.

Ray Ballard lives in Nashport and is a full-time nurse at Mount Carmel New Albany, and in his free time he is working to open the Y Bridge Brewing Co. The brewery will be located in the back of the Operation Spirit building at 1417 Linden Ave.

"I grew up here and I was always fascinated with the Y Bridge," Ballard said. "The bridge identifies with Zanesville and local people will be able to relate."

Ballard fell in love with beer in the 1990s and he started brewing at his home after reading an article about how Jim Koch started Sam Adams beer company after brewing his first batch of beer in his kitchen. In 1996, he went to Connecticut to brew test batches of beer for a friend who was planning to open a brewery. In 2000, the Olde Burnside Brewing Co. opened and Ballard worked as a brewer from 2000 to 2003 before returning home to get his nursing degree.

The Y Bridge Brewing Co. is set to open in the fall if everything goes according to plan, Ballard said. He is still working on getting his licenses, brewing tanks and there are renovations that need to be done inside his 5,000-square-foot location.

Ballard said the brewery will start with five craft beers. There will be two IPA beers, a cherry stout, a brown ale and a blonde ale. He said he would like to have one of his beers be about 16 percent alcohol if the limit on alcohol content in craft beer is eliminated.

The microbrewery won't have a food menu when it opens because Ballard wants to focus on the beer.

"I've seen brewers who thought they could handle both and they couldn't," Ballard said. "If I can maintain quality, I know I can succeed."

The brewery will have a bar, production room, walk-in cooler, grain crusher and a 20-tank brew system. Ballard also hopes to have an outside patio area for customers to sit when the weather is nice.

Ballard will handle all of the brewing himself and he said he would hire a couple of people to handle bartending and outside sales. Ballard hopes to brew 2,000 barrels a year and he will sell growlers and either bottled or canned beer that can be taken home.

Ballard hopes the brewery will become his full-time job but he said he wants to keep practicing nursing on a limited basis.

Opening the Y Bridge Brewing Co. means more to Ballard than fulfilling his dream of owning a brewery. Ballard wants to get local bars owners together in hopes of getting the owners to work together to make the area an attraction for local residents. His idea was to call the area the blue district where local bars could work together to create an area residents could go for entertainment.

"I just want to be a successful part of the community," Ballard said.

28 May, 2016