Nashville, TN is getting another craft brewery this fall.
Mill Creek Brewing Co., which launched from a Kickstarter campaign last year, is aiming to open its production facility and taproom by late October, assuming the brewery’s build out stays on track and the company’s brewing equipment arrives on time from Slovenia.
The brewery, co-founded by Chris Going (CEO) and Michael Krewson, is slated for a 27,000-square-foot warehouse located at 2008 Johnson Industrial Blvd. The building is located about one-fourth of a mile from Mill Creek, which explains the brewery’s name, and includes about 5,000 square feet for a taproom.
In the interim, Going and Krewson have enlisted another brewery (which Going declined to disclose) to contract brew limited quantities of Mill Creek beer to introduce the name to the local market. The first brew, a citrus-infused wheat beer called Lil Darlin’, will be available in select bars and taprooms beginning next week.
When Mill Creek opens in the fall, Going plans to expand the starting line-up to four brews: a farmhouse ale called Silo, a low-alcohol IPA and a traditional German-style lager. The brewery will run a 30-barrel system with four, 60-barrel fermenters.
“What Michael and I say is, we’re making approachable craft beer,” said Going. “It’s stuff that’s pretty easy for people to get into. The stuff we are coming out with initially is all low alcohol,” he said, in the 4.5 to 5.5 percent range.
Like many professional craft brewers, Going and Krewson both started as home-brewing hobbyists. (In fact, Krewson launched a mail-order home-brewing subscription service called Nashville Beer Post, which I wrote about last year.)
Going decided to turn his hobby into a business after a family vacation, on which he provided the homemade beer and managed to convert a Bud Light-drinking family member into a craft beer convert.
“My thought was, ‘If I can get somebody who loves Bud Light to try and enjoy a craft-style beer, maybe there’s a market for this,’” Going said.
He spent the next two years home-brewing and giving away samples at various festivals and events. Finally, last year, he launched a Kickstarter campaign to help fund a full production facility. He was aiming to raise $110,000, and while he fell short, 233 backers did pledge just over $67,000 total. Although he wasn’t able to cash in on the Kickstarter campaign, Going was able to tap into several of those backers outside of Kickstarter to raise money and also secured a bank loan to help open the facility.
Going will sell beer on tap only when Mill Creek first opens, with plans to enlist Toucan, a portable canning line, to begin packaging in November.
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