Yesterday at a meeting of the minds an idea was struck upon that I’d like some imput with. A local Salem man has been encouraged to open a brewery/public house of sorts and I was asked what I thought, and what cost/process would be involved. Seriously, you’ld be surprised the questions your asked when you write a beer blog. Everything from what beer should I pair this with to well…. How do I go about opening a brewery.
So, I’ve spent all day researching OLCC statutes and cost of even a small in house operation. Before I even get into the cost though I figure I’d toss it out there and see the reaction to the idea…. You know, for fun. Do you think Salem can handle a fourth brewer? This question is especially pertanent because it would be Salem’s first non chain public house in a long time.
Currently we have the Ram, part of the RAM chain. We also have Thompsons, part of the McMenamins chain. And lastly we have Pale Horse, a non chain brewery that only sells kegs and bottles, no on site consumption at a bar. Not to mention they only have 2 (soon to be 3) beers. This public house would not be affiliated with any chain, meaning that it would need a decent amount of traffic, which it already recieves. Also this location is fairly small. The non chain nature makes this a positive and a negative. Positive because it wont need to brew for multiple sites, negative because another site isnt brewing it’s beer.
So my questions are as follows
1 Is there room in Salem for another brewery?
2 What would you look for in the way of beers from a Salem brewery?
Im still going to research cost, and probably do a post on what it takes to open a brewery here, but in the meantime I’m just tossing out the questions. Also I know I’ve given very sketchy details. Maybe in the future if this idea moves beyond the “hey you might have somethin there phase” I’ll tell more.