E-Malt.com News article: USA, ND: New production brewery planned on north side of Sioux Falls

Two local brewers are teaming up to open a new production brewery on the north side of Sioux Falls, Argus Leader reported on July 9.

Co-founders Blake Thompson and Derek Fernholz are planning to open the yet-unnamed brewery off North Cliff Avenue near the KOA. At 12,000 square feet, the building will house a 30-barrel brewing system and canning equipment, according to Fernholz.

"Our best case scenario is brewing at the end of September, with beer in the market mid-to-late October," he said.

Thompson and Fernholz are both brewers, but came to it in different ways.

Thompson's family are owners at two Napa Valley wineries (Jessup Cellars and Handwritten Wines), and he caught the brewing bug during a harvest job at Jessup in 2011. While there, he also did an internship at Napa Smith Brewery, which led to a six-month Master Brewers Program at University of California-Davis and courses with the Siebel Institute of Chicago, part of the World Brewing Academy.

"I like making beer," Thompson said, "you can be creative, it challenges you and it makes people happy. That's what I really want."

Fernholz started homebrewing with some buddies out of college eight years ago.

"I thought it was really fun making beer, and they were better at drinking it than making it," he said. "I've been doing this ever since."

He later joined the Minnesota Homebrewers Association, and became a certified beer judge. Ever since Fernholz moved to Sioux Falls a year and a half ago he's been thinking about starting his own brewery. Joining up with Thompson was a good move he said.

"We have a good, interesting mix. He's got the education and technical, and I have a little more experience," he said.

The two had been independently writing business plans to open a brewery, and decided to join forces last January.

The time between now and when the production brewing equipment arrives (from Minnetonka Brewing & Equipment Company in Minnesota) will be spent working on recipes on a one-barrel system. The two beers they know will be part of the brewery's first offerings will be a Farmhouse Ale, about 4.2% ABV and very drinkable they say, and a Double IPA around 7.7% ABV and "comfortably in the middle" of the overly hoppy flavors often associated with the style and a session beer.

Distribution will be in Sioux Falls to start, with taps around town and can six-packs in stores. South Dakota being a state where you can't self-distribute, a deal with a distribution company is in the works.

And there's still the issue of a name.

The original name for the brewery, Overture, is already trademarked by the wine maker Opus One. They've gone through hundreds of ideas, and are now working with a team to find a name.

With thousands of breweries across the nation, not counting the thousands more like this one in the planning, "you almost have to make up a word," Fernholz said of the search for a name.

The duo's main goal, beyond running a profitable business, is to be involved with people's experiences.

"We want to make a thing that people will bring when they gather with friends and family," Fernholz said. "It seems interactions are longer and more real when you're sharing a beer."


11 July, 2014