E-Malt.com News article: USA, NC: Sycamore Brewing building new production facility in Charlotte

Justin Brigham spent Tuesday, November 16 installing new fermenting tanks.

It’s something he and his wife Sarah Brigham have done several times since opening Sycamore Brewing in Charlotte, NC two years ago, but this time was different. At 20 feet tall and weighing 4,200 pounds, these tanks were much bigger than their predecessors — and they’re not going in the current facility, where there’s no more space, Charlotte Five reported.

The Brighams are building a production brewery at 401 W. 24th St., in the section of town many now refer to as North End. There they’ve found an ideal building for the task, with tall ceilings to accommodate those new tanks and a footprint of 30,000 square feet (with the possibility of expanding another 20,000 square feet).

Don’t expect another taproom here — this facility is all about volume, at least for now. Supplying the new 150-hectoliter fermenters will be a 50-hectoliter brewhouse, capable of brewing roughly 42 barrels of beer at a time.

“One batch of beer off of this brewhouse is going to be worth a day and a half of effort at the current facility,” said Brigham, “and we can do six batches of beer a day at the new brewhouse.”

The brewery recently encountered some supply issues in keeping the beer flowing at their South End brewery. This giant leap in production will take some of the burden off of the current brewery, while allowing them to produce greater amounts of their core beers, like Countryside IPA and Peak Farm Double Pale. It will also allow Sycamore to produce more of its seasonal beers. The brewery currently partners with a mobile canning company, but will bring in its own canning line by year’s end.

One of the beers Brigham is most excited to bring back is its Southern Girl Lager, which won a bronze medal at last year’s Great American Beer Festival.

“After winning our GABF medal for lager we were unable to make it, really just because we couldn’t make enough beer and lagers take longer, so we focused primarily on ales,” said Brigham. “But with the bigger brewhouse and much bigger tanks, we intend to focus on brewing the lager again.”

The beer brewed in the production facility will help supply the taproom and get more of Sycamore’s beer around town, but don’t expect them to enter any new markets anytime soon.

“We’re really fortunate with the taproom’s location and the rapport we’ve built with our customers that right now we’re able to sell beer out of the taproom on a level that can support all of this,” said Brigham. “Moving to a distributor is a big step. When you get into a market outside of your own, I think that it’s very important to make deliberate moves and do it in a very stable way as opposed to just throwing beer far afield and hoping for the best. Our intent is to grow within Charlotte until we get to the point that we feel like we’re able to take that next step and then do it very deliberately.”

With the new brewery, Sycamore is poised to do just that. The new tanks should be filled with beer come springtime.


19 November, 2016