E-Malt.com News article: USA, KY: Ethereal Brewing to open in Lexington

Andrew Bishop gets ready to open Lexington’s newest microbrewery, Ethereal Brewing, bizlex.com reported on August, 22.

Andrew Bishop is hoping to have beer production underway in early September and to open the brewery and taproom in the old Pepper Distillery by the end of the month or mid-October. After it is open, Bishop plans on having three or four of Ethereal’s own brews on their 16 taps and expects to have up to six on tap in short order, as he runs the brewery’s 10-barrel system, which is capable of brewing 20 kegs per batch, and a single-barrel system that he and friends had used for home brewing to make experimental beers.

Ethereal will feature a split of American and Belgian-style beers and, once they have aged long enough, Bishop plans to release a set of sour beers that need at least a year to mature.

The process of finding a location for Ethereal began 18 months ago, and he first saw the Old Pepper location nearly a year ago.

“We felt comfortable moving into this place because breweries are more destination spots, so you don’t have to have that foot traffic,” Bishop said.

While Ethereal will be the latest of three other Lexington breweries to open in the last two-and-a-half years, Bishop said he feels there’s plenty of room in the market for their program of beers, and if the response from the other breweries in town is any indication, they think so, too.

“Instead of direct competition, it’s more a friendly competition, and there’s a really good support system,” Bishop said, while describing the assistance fellow brewers at other microbreweries in town have given him. “It’s a very close-knit community, as far as brewers and the microbreweries in town.”

Ethereal will round off its open taps with a mix of beers from around Kentucky and other craft brews, but it does not plan on pouring other Lexington beers unless there is a collaboration brew they have worked on together. “We have no problem sending [customers] down the street” to their taprooms, he said, adding that it would be better for someone looking for local beers to get a true sampling of a company’s product rather than just one or two beers on tap at a different brewery.

“The craft-beer education level has increased in Lexington, and it makes it a good time to introduce more styles,” he said of his plan to produce Belgian beers to compliment the selection of American styles he plans to brew. “We love the Belgian beers,” Bishop said of himself and friends he’s worked with in home brewing. “You can get a lot a flavor but still have the light body on the tongue,” he said of Belgian beers. “A lot of people will see a dark beer and will think they’re getting ready to drink motor oil, [or] something that’s viscous, but you get some of these dark Belgian beers and they’re light and crisp.”

Ethereal’s brews are available in the taproom. “We do plan on distributing,” Bishop said, “It’s just a matter of when is demand going to be high enough and when are we going to have the means to be able to.” The initial plans call for eventually bottling rare beers in 22-ounce and 750-milliliter corked bottles, and Bishop said if there is demand for it, their regular brews could go into 12-ounce bottles in the future.


27 August, 2014