Wilmington brewery celebrates 9 years with expansion — and a party
Broomtail Brewery started small and produced about 300 barrels of beer a year. Barry Owings, who has a background in chemistry, was a home brewer. He and his wife Lisa Owings opened with the idea that he would brew on the weekends, and she would open the tap room to serve.
“But then the demand was huge,” he said.
That was nine years ago, and they now make closer to 1,200 barrels every year. But their growth has been very purposeful, Lisa Owings said. They’ve added capacity when they could and have developed a loyal fan base. At their anniversary party Aug. 5, they celebrated with an update, bigger space, a pig pickin’ (using a pig from Sun Coast Farms that was fed on the brewery's spent grains), new merch and live music.
Growing organically
Broomtail Brewery started in a small space in the complex at 6404 Amsterdam Way. They now occupy about 8,000 square feet. They took over the newest area in June. The area now includes a much larger brewery operation, space for barrel aging, a laboratory, offices, a homebrew shop, more cold storage and a newly expanded pub with several smaller seating areas filled with custom-made furniture and a new hop/octopus "Hoptopus" hybrid mural in one of the rooms.
Last year, the Owings family also rebranded their second location at 7211 Market St. to become Broomtail Pub & Arcade. In addition to adding space, it's also become more of a family business, with son Seth tailoring his college classes to be able to run the business side of Broomtail.
Art and science
With his background as a water chemist, analytics are a big part of what goes into Broomtail beers, Barry Owings said.
“We are very unique. You’re never going to have an off-flavor. We test everything from the day it's brewed to the day it's packaged," he said. "And we strip all of our water down to pure H20 and then build that water profile to where that beer is supposed to be from. So we are very true to style."
“A lot of heart goes into this,” Lisa Owings said. “A level of care along with the science.”
The beers
Broomtail makes about 15 beers regularly. A popular one is the Acerbic Ecstasy, a hybrid English/West Coast style IPA. But the BEE Kind Honey Kölsch is gaining on the IPA, the family said. (It’s made with a water profile found in Cologne, Germany.)
One of the most popular new beers is a mango wheat. In local shops and restaurants, you’ll often see Broomtail sours on the menu. They make European-style sours like the Galloping Göse, which also comes in sweet-and-sour varieties like Cotton Candy and Bubble Gum.
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Allison Ballard is the food and dining reporter at the StarNews. You can reach her at aballard@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Wilmington StarNews: Broomtail Brewery has a bigger space in Wilmington
