E-Malt.com News article: USA, TN: Wiseacre Brewing announces completion of an aggressive expansion project

Wiseacre Brewing Company is excited to announce the completion of an aggressive period of expansion that nearly tripled the nine month-old brewery’s production capacity, added 20 new jobs and created new outdoor seating areas for Tap Room guests.

With the addition of 320 barrels of fermentation space, and two 60-thousand pound grain silos, Wiseacre will work towards meeting the growing demands for its two year-round beers Ananda and Tiny Bomb, which was recently named “Best Beer in Tennessee” by Southern Living magazine, as well as accommodate local bars’ increasing interest in carrying Wiseacre’s specialty brews. Later this year, Wiseacre plans to add a third year-round beer to its lineup. Co-owners and brothers Kellan and Davin Bartosch credit the enthusiastic support of the Memphis community with accelerating the need for this expansion.

“We knew Memphians would get behind us if we worked hard and had a great product, but we never anticipated such a tremendous response from restaurants, bars, stores and our Tap Room patrons,” said Kellan.

“Our experience working with great breweries and mentors in the industry gave us a good vision of how to make tasty beer then really grow Wiseacre and we hoped that one day we’d be able to bring that vision to life. And now it’s happening! We’re growing quicker than we ever thought and it’s pretty dang exciting!”

The expanded production facility as well as an added patio area at Wiseacre’s Tap Room on Broad has necessitated the creation of 4 new full-time and 16 new part-time positions in just the last few months, and the hiring is expected to continue through the rest of the year. Wiseacre’s brewing operation, led by brewmaster Davin Bartosch, has attracted talent all the way from Chicago and Montana.

“Our two new brewers, Andy McQuary and Brian Balough, who are big-time talents in the industry, were so excited about what we were doing here in Memphis that they jumped at the opportunity to join the Wiseacre team,” said Davin. “That our peers respect and admire Wiseacre enough to move across the country to be here, on top of the fact that we can create jobs in Memphis, makes us feel great. We didn’t want to just get a brewery open. We wanted to establish something great for Memphis that would grow with the community and, after months and months of hard work and 20-hour days, it’s starting to feel that way.”


20 June, 2014