E-Malt.com News article: USA, IN: Thomas Stieglitz Brewing about a month away from opening in Goshen

Goshen’s third brewery is about a month away from opening, according to one of the owners cited by Goshen News on February 20.

Jeff Thomas, co-owner, said last week that there is no hard deadline to open Thomas Stieglitz Brewing in the Goshen Innovation Center building at 211 N. Fifth St. Gary Stieglitz, his wife Laura, and Thomas’ wife Margaret, are the other co-owners.

The space was most recently used as The Local art gallery to display works by local artists. He said depending on how far along the owners are in the renovation process, the opening might be a “big to do” or a soft opening.

The brewery is the next step in his and Stieglitz’s interest in brewing all types of beers. Thomas said his own hobby of brewing beer grew slowly after he received a gift.

“Believe it or not, nine or 10 years ago my wife bought me a brewing kit and it has spun off from there,” he said. “My grandfather was a home brewer and I kind of picked it up and stayed with it.”

“He has been brewing for five years and we put our heads together and said, ‘Hey, let’s see where we can take this,’” Thomas said of Stieglitz.

The two couples and their friends have worked through many government regulations to get the business to the final stages before opening.

“We are actually a production brewery. This will be the tasting room. We are going to have taps in here so you can come have a glass of beer or fill growlers,” Thomas said.

“We have a catalogue of 20 plus beers that we can make,” he said. “We are hoping to have five seasonals and five standards running routinely.”

He said the beers they brew have already been accepted well locally. They have been serving the beers during First Friday events for about a year.

“We do the standard stuff, the pale ales, the ambers and stouts. And we like to take some stuff and throw in some funny flavors every once in a while,” Thomas said. “We do a Saison with rosemary. We have a porter that we add chipotle peppers and bacon to. So that is our pig and pepper porter. It’s a really good beer.”

Craft beer has become a cultural and economic phenomenon in the United States, with small breweries popping up across the country to meet the demand for locally brewed products.

“I think there is a big fan base,” Thomas said. “There are a lot of people into beer these days, almost to the point of craziness.”

With the opening of the city’s third brewery, The Back Alley Brewery and the Goshen Brewing Co., being the other two, Thomas said Goshen “is going to become a destination place.”

He said northern Indiana has many breweries, as does central Indiana.

“There are great brewers in almost every town now,” he said.

Thomas believes his brewery will complement the existing breweries.

“There is a difference in the fact that you have two other places brewing and serving food, so they are more or less brew pubs,” Thomas said. “Our intent is to be a commercial brewery, so we are going to make beer and turn it out to the public and put it into local restaurants and have it for sale out there as well as having it being in here.”

Most of the beer brewed at the location will be marketed regionally to retailers and restaurants, according to Thomas.

The heart of the brewery is 10 110-gallon fermenters. The brewery partners spent a lot of time and money remodeling the brewery space to make it clean and modern. They also have plenty of space to expand operations as demand dictates.

“It all depends on the demand and how quick we can meet things,” he said.

The hours of operation have not been set, but they expect to be open Wednesdays through Saturdays.

“We will see how the demand goes and meet it,” Thomas said.


24 February, 2016