People have been trying to bring a new brewery to Goshen for a long time and now Larry Libey is making it happen.
You may know Libey as the owner of Gateway Cellar Winery, 211 S. Main St., Goshen. He bought that from Scott McDowell in September 2011.
Over the past number of months, he’s been making beers too to practice and working on getting the proper permits to open Back Alley Brewery in the back part of his building.
The federal permit process, which he handed over to his attorney, took six or seven months.
The state of Indiana process too 10 days, he said.
He’s still got some work to do. “I’ve got to get another license yet,” he said.
The fire marshal needs to visit. He needs to add two handicap-accessible bathrooms. Some other construction work will be completed. But he’s trying to be open by the end of January. He’d love to have a Super Bowl party around his nine taps. He said the food will be pretty basic, more concessions than restaurant food.
He’s hoping six of the taps will have his brews, which he’s making in half-barrel batches, which is about 15.5 gallons.
He wants to sell two domestic brews, which he calls “yellow fizzy beers.” He also plans to offer a non-alcoholic brew he makes.
He said the range of styles varies. A black lager and red ale have tested well so far.
The holidays will be busy with the winery, he said. He makes wine, mostly softer sweeter wines, at the winery and said he’s nearly maxing out production. “Things are going well here,” he said.
I’ve not heard anything lately about a potential brewpub in the former NIPSCO building. I still think that would have been a better location for Mad Anthony’s than the former State Theater in Elkhart, but Elkhart needed Mad Anthony’s more.
I have heard of another local establishment making some plans to brew and serve its own beer, but I don’t have anything confirmed. Stay tuned.
You can contact me at mking@etruth.com, 574-296-5805, on Twitter @hungrymarshall or via the Dining A La King Facebook page. My column appears Mondays in The Elkhart Truth.
Hey Marshall, did Back Alley Brewery ever get off the ground then? I also heard a rumor about something going in the old NIPSCO building and am trying to find out more. Any news fit to print, or otherwise, on that front?
I’ll check again. Still hadn’t last I heard. There have been a lot of rumors abou that NIPSCO building. I’ll check again.