Fresh beer on tap for bar hoppers

Wesley Fane The Daily Illini

The brewery, which is owned and operated by Chris Knight, will be one of the first of its kind in the Champaign area since Joe’s Brewery discontinued brewing beer in the 90s. Knight, who also owns The Blind Pig Co., said he has wanted to open his own brewery for a long time and was surprised that Champaign was not already home to several other microbreweries.

“I think Champaign could really use a brewery because it’s a sophisticated drinking outlet,” Knight said. “(The people) are used to good beer so it’s surprising that there isn’t already a brewery.”

The brewery’s brew master Bill Morgan said they hoped to have beer flowing earlier in the summer, but engineering and construction issues regarding the equipment has delayed making the first batch. “It’s expensive and time consuming and we want to do it right, so we’re not cutting any corners,” Knight said.

Other than home brewers, there are no other breweries smaller than the Pig’s anywhere in the country, Morgan said.

“We have virtually the smallest viable commercial brewing system that someone could even use,” Morgan said. “We’re going to have to brew three to four times a week.”

Because of its smaller size, Morgan and Knight may have trouble keeping up with demand.

“I think it’s a shame that there hasn’t been a brewery in this town in a long time,” Morgan said. “There’s no reason why a town this size can’t support a brewery.”

The Blind Pig Brewery had its grand opening Thursday afternoon in downtown Champaign. The brewery is a block west of the original Blind Pig bar and will start brewing its own beer in about a month.
Ned Mulka The Daily Illini

The brewery will eventually be able to have up to six on-site brewed beers on tap, but for now will start off with four, depending on the season. Morgan said that fall and winter menus may include an English-style bitter, an Irish stout, pumpkin ale and other Christmas-flavored beers.

“We’ll see what sells and keep the most popular beer as our flagship beer,” Knight said. Knight added that one of the first beers will be a British beer, as a way of paying homage to his British roots.

Becca Vann, manager of The Blind Pig Co., said she and other employees plan on having several sessions with Morgan so they will all be well-versed in what went into the beers they serve.

“There are so many home brewers in the area and so many people that are interested in this. Every customer will have some kind of question — sometimes they get very in-depth and complex,” Vann said. “It’s going to be a long shift if you don’t know anything about beer.”

Morgan got his start in the professional brewing industry at Joe’s Brewery. After he left Joe’s in 1995, he went on to win three medals at the Great American Beer Festival for his Belgium Specialty Ale, an Imperial Stout and a Raspberry Lambic.

The Pig’s brewing system will be able to brew up to eight barrels of beer at one time, and though Knight recently received a shipment of two and a half tons of barley and other malt supplies, Morgan estimates that each batch only requires 100 pounds of ingredients.

All beer is generally 80 percent malted barley, with the remaining 20 percent determining the flavor and color of the beer. From the first day a batch is started, it takes anywhere from three to six weeks until it is ready to drink.

The first day a batch is started is technically the brewing part of the process, where everything is hot to extract the sugars from the malted barley. Then, Morgan said, the sweet liquid is cooled. The beer starts to produce alcohol when yeast is added in the fermentation stage. Typically, the longer the amount of time left to ferment, the higher percentage of alcohol in the beer.

“I’m just excited to see fresh local beer returning to Champaign-Urbana. I’ve lived here a long time and have an idea of what people would want,” Morgan said. “I think everybody will be happy when we can finally get some beer rolling.”