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Something's brewing at the old NAPA store
Patience is a virtue. And good things come to those who wait.
Those might be age-old idioms but they are also perfect depictions of what has been going on in Greencastle with Chris Weeks, the Wasser Beer Co. and the old NAPA store.
Brewers legendarily have had the patience of Job (or at least Adolphus Busch or Adolph Coors). After all, you don't just pull the tap and get the beer flowing. You've got to know your hops and your malts and your mash and your wort. You've got to go through all that lagering and lautering, fire-brewing and fermenting, cold filtering and more.
Chris Weeks would know such patience. It's even apparent in his private life. After all, he and wife Angie, who teaches second grade at Deer Meadow Primary School, dated in high school, reconnected while teaching on a Navajo reservation years later and now have been together 20 years.
While teaching 15 years at the Putnamville Correctional Facility and Indiana Women's Prison, Weeks let his brewery dreams ferment. He has waited ... well, weeks ... and months, years even for his project to come to fruition. He's now five years into the project of transitioning from teacher to entrepreneur and developing the Wasser Beer Co. brewhouse and pub.
Weeks has worked with Ivy Tech and Ken Eitel at Hometown Visions and the Small Business Development Center, refining a business model and dissecting demographics "to see if it's really feasible for a small town to support a brewery."
But now, with the recent delivery of his major brewing equipment, he can finally see the finish line ahead for Wasser Beer Co.
With his brew kettle and tanks now bright and shiny in the front window at 102 E. Franklin St., the business of converting the old NAPA store that long ago served as a Packard dealership owned by Roscoe Scott (Jinsie Bingham's father) is getting under way in earnest.
"These days I can't go five minutes without someone asking when we're going to open," Weeks smiled as the equipment was wheeled through a garage door at the west side of the facility, one of the aspects of the building that has made it a perfect venue for the brewhouse, he said.
Weeks looked for the right building for a long time, wife Angie said, offering a familiar assessment. "He's been very patient. He's been waiting a year and a half. It's been a real escapade, definitely a leap of faith."
Plans are to open sometime in the fall, Weeks said, although he must wait for the federal brewer's license he's applied for (which allows the serving of beer a brewer makes, as opposed to a state liquor license that lets retailers sell other peoples' products) and knows much remodeling still awaits.
"We've completely changed the roofline (taking it back to its historic look, uncovering old outdoor light fixtures along its west side in the process), and we're completely remodeling the inside, it's not a small procedure," Weeks said as the Underwood rigging crew out of Indianapolis removed brewing equipment from the back of a flat-bed truck parked along Vine Street, ending its journey from Boston.
Weeks was able to secure the equipment -- which represents the ability to brew more than 600 gallons of beer and allows for 10 barrels of fermentation -- from Idle Hands Craft Brewery that was expanding its Boston operations.
The remodeling work will include building a bar and brewhouse with a full kitchen in back, a family dining area up front and even a stage at the east end of a building that looks much bigger than its auto parts store days now that all the storage racks are gone.
Diners will be able to see the brewery equipment in action from their seats, while passersby will get a similar experience after the rear window of the building is again exposed.
Meanwhile, the familiar overhang out front won't be enclosed but will feature a deck for outdoor seating. The old raised concrete platform out front will be covered by that decking.
That's where the late Jack Hamm displayed a decorative gasoline pump on a concrete island that often spawned attention as well as some misinformation.
"A lot of old-timers thought they were pumping gas here," Weeks advised, "but they weren't."
Wasser Beer Co. will be serving up craft beer made in-house, along with select wines and "guest taps" of other brews, at least initially.
On the food side, Weeks said the menu will feature "sandwiches and small plates," food that pairs well with beer, concentrating on locally sourced food products to create "artistic innovations of common beer food."
His craft beers will include two lines. One he calls Abiding Traditions, noting it is brewed "true to the style" of the German wheat beers, pale ales and Belgian stouts.
The other line, Artistic Innovations, will feature "freestyle beers," which are most popular with beer connoisseurs, Weeks said.
That can mean brewing a beer that tastes good but is perhaps not true to the recipe. That style would include a "big hoppy beer" Weeks is calling "Hoptimism."
Simplified, the brewing process involves taking grain and soaking it in hot water to create a "grain tea called wort," Weeks said.
That creation is then boiled for more than an hour (according to recipe) as hops are added.
The result is then chilled to 68 degrees or so and transferred to a fermentation tank as yeast is added.
"After about 17 days, you have beer," Weeks said, noting that in contrast, many standard beers can take just a matter of hours. "So a typical (craft beer) batch takes just under 18 days, or approximately two-thirds of a month."
So remember, patience is a virtue. And good-tasting things are coming to those who wait.
Interested persons can follow Wasser Beer Company on Facebook or at kickstarter.com/Wasser Beer.