E-Malt.com News article: USA, TN: High Cotton Brewing Company to open in Downtown Memphis

High Cotton Brewing Company, Downtown Memphis’ second microbrewery, will open in the Edge district later this year, The Commercial Appeal reported on April, 24.

Plans call for a brewery and a tap room where customers can sample beer by the pint or take out half-gallon containers called growlers. High Cotton's primary business would be selling kegs to restaurants.

The partners hope to be open by Oktoberfest this fall, said lawyer Brice Timmons, who filed incorporation papers with the Secretary of State recently.

His partners include United Airlines pilot Ross Avery, Memphis Light Gas and Water Division utilities engineer Ryan Staggs and Mid-South Malts owner Mike Lee.

"All of us brew beer, but (Lee) is the serious guru of the bunch," Timmons said.

The brewery can move forward under current regulations, but the tap room hinges on amendment of the city alcoholic beverage ordinance and city and county zoning codes. Current rules don't allow beer consumption in establishments that don't serve food.

Owners of High Cotton and Ghost River Brewing are supporting regulatory changes, said Josh Whitehead, planning director for the Memphis and Shelby County Office of Planning and Development.

The changes are patterned after regulations in other cities. Tap room hours would be limited, and it could only sell beer that's brewed on premises.

"I don't think we're going to have a flood of applications, but looking at other cities ... there's a growing appetite for American breweries and even more so, local breweries," Whitehead said.

"We want to be intensely local, that's our goal," Timmons said. "Unlike most breweries that open up, we're trying not to open up in an industrial or light industrial area. We want to be in a walkable community where there are residences nearby. What we mean to accomplish is to have a place where you can go into the brewery, you can have a pint and you can get a growler to go."

It's High Cotton because Timmons and Avery grew up on cotton farms in North Shelby County and Lee's father was in the cotton business.

Timmons credited Boscos and Ghost River with pioneering the local market for craft beer.

"We don't even view ourselves as competitors. Ghost River is becoming a large, even regional brewer that is targeting a mass audience. That has done an amazing job of creating a market for local beer. We'll be working with them to create an even larger market for local and craft beer."

He said the High Cotton style will be "small batch, limited production. We all like really well-balanced, malty beers. That's not to say we don't like hops, but balance is the key. We are shooting for a richness of character that makes sense in the Southern tradition of food."


25 April, 2012