What’s brewing at Wiseacre’s new Downtown brewery?
What’s brewing at Wiseacre? A lot these days.
The local craft brewery opened a new 40,000-square-foot brewery and taproom in the South Main District in Downtown Memphis this year. The brewery began production of beers in April but did not open its taproom until June 26.
The stunning new building that combines an industrial look with the brewery’s signature pop art packaging is located at 398 S. B.B. King Blvd. on a lot that had been empty for decades. The location is south of Vance Avenue, north of East Butler Avenue and west of Abel Street.
“It’s only fitting that we found another location in our hometown to continue to grow. We are excited to be a part of the renaissance happening in the South Main corridor,” said Kellan Bartosch, who owns Wiseacre with his brother Davin. Both brothers grew up in Memphis and attended White Station High School.
Opened in June 2013, the original brewery on Broad Avenue is just under 13,000 square feet. The Downtown brewery is almost four times the size.
The new brewery is a game-changer for Wiseacre, significantly increasing its production capability. The new brewhouse is currently producing 50,000 barrels per year, with the capacity to brew up to 80,000 barrels per year. The Broad Avenue location is only a 20,000-barrel brewhouse.
“Within two years of first opening, we realized that we couldn’t make the amount of beers we wanted in that building,” said Davin Bartosch on why the brothers chose to invest in an additional brewery.
Davin said they flirted with the idea of transforming Mid-south Coliseum into a brewery at one point, but ultimately decided it was better to build a new building built specifically as a brewery.
“Broad was retrofitted so we knew how much more complicated it would be for the utilities in an even bigger brewery,” said Davin.
The brewery is state-of-the-art. All new equipment for fermenting and brewing beers, tied in with energy-efficient tanks for water control and supersized water pipes. Much of the equipment was imported from Germany, where Davin attended brewing school. Three giant silos store grains for the inhouse mill. Eight 200-barrel fermenting tanks and four 80-barrel fermenting tanks sit adjacent to the automated Krones canning line. There is even a dedicated lab and a positive air pressure tasting room to ensure quality and consistency in every batch of beer brewed.
Wiseacre currently has nine beers in production at the new brewery — 15 to 20 specialty beers will also be added to the production throughout the year. One such specialty beer is the recently released Cherry Berliner Weisse.
Wiseacre beers are distributed in Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Georgia, Northern Florida and beer-centric cities like Chicago and Philadelphia.
The brewery and taproom feel nothing like the original brewery on Broad Avenue.
The light-filled tap room, which has soaring ceilings and floor-to-ceiling windows, is painted a bright aqua blue. It’s a stark contrast from the wooden, windowless interior in the Broad Avenue taproom. Nods to the brewery’s beers are throughout the space, appearing in unexpected places such as vignettes on the wall and as wallpaper in the bathrooms — all created by Rachel Briggs, the artist behind every can of Wiseacre beer.
“It was important for us to incorporate art into our building,” said Davin. “It is a big part of our identity.”
In NON-COVID times, there will be seating for 330 guests indoors and up to another 800 outdoors on the various patios.
The taproom has 30 taps for draft beers and sells cans of beer for takeout. Food will be offered in the future.
Davin added that the Broad Avenue brewery will remain open. “We couldn’t close our home,” he said. “We will be brewing some more esoteric beers there. More fun beers. Stuff that takes longer and requires more effort.”
The tap rooms at both locations are currently closed due to Shelby County Health Department’s COVID-19 directive. Wiseacre offers online ordering for curbside pickup or delivery from the Broad Avenuelocation from 1 to 6 p.m. daily. Packaged beer to-go is available for walk-ups only at the Downtown location from 3 to 8 p.m. daily.