E-Malt.com News article: USA, MS: Lucky Town Brewing to open in Madison County

For now, Lucky Town Brewing Co. is in the start-up phase, homebrewing its signature tastes of stouts and ales out of the brewmaster's house in Madison County. But Lucky Town is moving closer to filing the required federal and state paperwork that will lead to its becoming the second licensed brewery in the state of Mississippi, MCHerald.com reported on October, 20.

"We're not stopping until it's a reality," brewmaster Lucas Simmons says. "We're going to build a brewery before it's over."

"Brick and mortar is realistic in one and a half to two years," adds Chip Jones, distribution and sales manager.

There's also the possibility that mugs of Lucky Town beers could be in consumers' hands by next summer if Lucky Town contracts out the brewing process, Jones said.

What started as a hobby for Lucas eight years ago has grown into a passion for him and the other founders of Lucky Town, who set up the fledgling business in January in addition to their other full-time jobs.

"It started as homebrewing, but as the beer became popular, we decided to turn it into a business," said Angela Blackburn, special events coordinator for the budding brewery.

Through word of word, tastings and competitions, the signature beers have found a following despite homebrewers' not being able to sell their product.

"People are trying our beer and enjoying it," Blackburn said.

Jones first proposed the idea for starting a licensed brewery, but "Lucas was just waiting for someone to say that," Jones said.
Sometime in November, Lucky Town plans to hold a launch party as it begins the process of moving from homebrewing, where the beer can only be given away, to an established business, where the beer can be sold.

There seems to be a ready market for locally brewed craft beers.

"Local businesses are begging us to get legal," Blackburn said. "The craft beer culture in Jackson is huge."

"Once people try one craft beer, they want to try others," Jones said.

To get the start-up money needed to begin the licensing process, Lucky Town is using Kickstarter, a website that offers a funding platform for a variety of creative projects. Once the clock starts on Lucky Town - the day of the launch party - Kickstarter will accept online pledges of financial support that will be Lucky Town's seed money.

"They give us two months to raise a set amount," Blackburn said. Lucky Town will be aiming to find $25,000 in pledges.

Lucky Town's signature beer is The Flare Incident, which won first place for stouts and overall winner in last year's first annual Outlaw Homebrew Competition in Hattiesburg. "It's a maple and brown sugar oatmeal stout. Other products are the Ballistic Blonde, a Belgium style ale, the Lizard Tale Pale Ale, which has some citrus notes and took home the People's Choice award at another homebrew competition. The India pale ale, known as the Hop Fiasco, has an explosion of hops, a key ingredient in beer-making. Another of its beers is Stout of the Rising Sun, which is flavored with jalapenos.

"It's a lot of fun getting people to try our beer," said Simmons.


21 October, 2011