E-Malt.com News article: USA, WI: Second Salem Brewery to open in downtown Whitewater

Second Salem Brewery is scheduled to open for the public by the end of December in Whitewater, WI, Gazettextra.com reported on November 22.

It will operate separate from the restaurant after it is up and running in January.

The business partners--three Whitewater businesses owners and a beer historian--started thinking of opening the nano-brewery about a year ago.

Their all share a love of quality craft brews and a hope of revitalizing downtown Whitewater.

The partners are:

-- Christ Christon, owner of Lakefront Pub.

-- Karl Brown, beer historian and UW-Whitewater history professor.

-- Joe Coburn, co-owner of the Coburn Co., a dairy equipment and farm supply provider in Whitewater.

-- Thayer Coburn, co-owner of the Coburn Co.

Joe Coburn said there's a market for a craft brewery in Whitewater, and he's confident the four business partners have what it takes to be successful.

“We have an experienced brewmaster who has opened commercial breweries,” Coburn said. “But then also Christ has operational experience running food service retail operations for almost 15 years.”

The brewery will be equipped to produce eight to 10 kegs of beer a month. The short-term goal is to have four flagship beers on tap by the end of the school year.

Working in the brewery will be Brown, the beer historian and UW-Whitewater history professor, and one assistant.

Brown has worked overseas in managing and installing breweries in Japan and Greece and worked at perfecting his own home brews in the United States.

He said another goal is to be environmentally conscious. The brewery will be entirely electric and donate leftover grain to local farmers.

Down the line, the brewery will convert an unused section of Lakefront Pub into a taproom.

A year or two from now, the partners hope to be in the position where they need to look for a larger facility to increase production.

The business owners aren't worried about the economy. They referred to the craft brewing industry as robust.



27 November, 2013