West-side brewery’s new taproom to open Friday
July 11, 2019
A west-side brewery is adding a taproom three months after releasing its first beers.
“We’re excited to be having regular hours and for people to come in and try our beer,” said Stacey Berry, who started Covert Artisan Ales with her husband, Dan. The brewery focuses on “the wilder and spontaneous side of fermentation” and specializes in batches that are made only two or three barrels at a time and aged for three months or longer.
The taproom opens at 3 p.m. Friday. It’s in the brewery, which is in a warehouse-type space at 605 S. Watson Avenue near 12th Street and Marion Road.
“We hadn’t really planned on doing a taproom. It was just a better business move,” she said. “We were going to just be a production space and just work with businesses in the community (to sell it to customers.) They’ve been really good and taken us in, and we’ll continue to distribute some stuff. But we’re looking to do more out of the brewery and bottle releases here as well.”
Since the first beers were released in April, customers have been able to come by on certain weekends to pick up the new releases in growlers. That will continue.
“They’ll still be able to come in and get whatever’s bottled. If we do super limited releases, they’ll be out of here.”
Covert’s creations won’t be the only craft beers available. “So far, the plan is to have seven of our beers on tap and some bottles from other locations,” Berry said. Offerings will rotate.
“Honestly, most of the stuff has been pretty well received across the board. We’ve started doing a little more experimentation, but I don’t want to give too much away,” she said. “One we’re hoping to release this weekend is pretty cool, and we’re pretty excited about it.”
The taproom won’t have a kitchen, but customers can bring food or have it delivered to the brewery. Berry said she expects to serve pretzels.
The brewery takes up most of the space in the building, so seating inside will be limited. Berry describes it as an intimate setting. When the weather is nice, there’s more seating outside.
The taproom typically will be open from 3 to 9 p.m. Friday through Sunday.
“Because it’s just the two of us, until we figure out additional employees or staffing, there may be reasons we need to close earlier or change the hours, but we’ll post it on Facebook and on our doors,” Berry said.
