Put down the Coors. Pour out the Miller Lite. Dump the Budweiser. Muncie is brewing a name for itself, and it's going to be on its own fermented, carbonated terms. In one week, $4,000 worth of equipment is going to be brought to downtown's Heorot Pub and Draught House, filling 500 square feet in order to begin instilling the origins of Muncie's first brewery, according to owner Stan Stephens and brewer Robert Cox.
"This has been a long time in the making," Stephens said. "Brewing has always been the intention of the Heorot. There's no one brewing in Muncie and we wanted to change that."
Stephens has been working with Cox, a Ball State electronic technician, to pull together the elements for the perfect draughts. Stephens describes their future production being of India Pale Ales commonly referred to as IPA's, Belgian brews, imperials and stouts.
"The brewing system we have is small, so there's also a lot of room for experimentation and variety," Stephens said.
Stephens and Cox spent 10 years driving cross country via Route 66, touring breweries nationwide from Michigan to California.
"We have access to other people's ideas and have some of our own. It's been a lot of work, so this coming together is kind of a big deal," Stephens said, "Indiana is a little behind as far as the national brew trend when you look at places like California and Michigan, but there's a lot to be said about the last five years for Indiana with 30 new breweries popping up."
Cox has worked on the brewery system in his basement for a year, using his materials to make something unique.
"It's going to have a wooden frame to go with the viking theme we have," Cox said. "Yeah, we could've gone with all stainless steel, but I wanted to design something that would belong in the Heorot."
The system may look archaic but it's also very complex. He said he added a touchscreen to make the system as automatic as possible and uses a software program to measure out ingredients according to the type of beer called Beer Smith.
According to Cox, the brewing system can create about 10-11 gallons of brew in one six-hour sitting, then add the 3-4 week aging period for the brew to properly carbonate and mature. The production itself is a series of steps: milling the barley, mashing it with water, lautering, boiling with sugar and hops, mixing it in a whirlpool, cooling the mix, fermenting it with yeast and carbon dioxide, maturing the substance and then filtering it into a smooth brew.
"It's time-consuming work but it's rewarding," Cox said, who has worked with brewing for 17 years.
To make a basic batch of ale, Cox estimates 15 pounds of malt, six ounces of hops, and up to a liter of yeast coming to about $50 of ingredients for one batch. Stephens wants the ingredients to stay local, using a Muncie hops farmer for his blends. Community sustainability is a no brainer when it comes to brews.
"The more local resources we use, the more money stays in the local market," Stephens said. "I'm a Delaware County resident, it would be silly not to want that."
Stephens said The Heorot is poised to join with the Brewers of Indiana Guild (BIG), an organization dedicated to uniting brewers across the state. BIG's treasurer John Hill is enthusiastic about the growing brewery market.
"As far as breweries in Indiana, it's probably in the high forties, but we never know for sure, the numbers are always growing," Hill said, "We could use a brewery in every town of Indiana. The more the better. They help employ people and help the economy too."
With tens and thousands of dollars being invested in this, Stephens doesn't expect there to be a profit anytime soon. He estimates that once the brewing process starts up it will be another 60 days until any homemade brew is seen in the hands of a customer, but Cox anticipates the popularity of the brewery.
"I predict the demand will be much larger than what we produce," Cox said. "There's never been a better time to drink beer or brew it. What was going on back in centuries-ago Europe where every village brewed its own beer, I think is happening again now. Every town will have a brewery."
Stephens wants the effect to be special and one-of-a-kind, like the microcosm that is Muncie.
"We want to take every step to make it more of a local beer. The beer of the area," Stephens said.
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