MONROE - To handle the growing interest in its tours, Minhas Distillery is planning to expand its tasting room, potentially adding four times more space in a brick-walled garage behind the distillery's existing tasting room.
The building that houses the distillery on 13th Street used to be an ice cream company, Goodmillers Co., and was built in 1845; now, instead of malted ice cream the building houses malted barley distilled into grain alcohol.
Lance Ray, manager of the retail side of the distillery, said Minhas plans to add three more bars and a smaller 50-gallon still next to the distillery's existing 1,000-gallon behemoth nicknamed "godstilla."
Ray said on a summer weekend, the distillery can get as many as 200 people touring the facility. The current tasting room, which is covered wall-to-wall with bottle displays and has suspended chandeliers of empty Minhas brand spirits, can hold about 30 people comfortably.
"We've had groups of like 80 people in here, and they're all like this," Ray said, hunching his shoulders and bringing his hands up folded into his chest.
"That's not enjoyable for anybody to be like that, so we need more room."
Behind the tasting room on the bottling line, there is a bigger area that Ray said is used on the weekends when there is no production, but even that is not enough. Ray said Minhas will need every inch of space the expansion will afford.
The plan would be the second expansion to accommodate visitors in two years. Minhas Brewery President Gary Olson said their daily tours at the brewery across the street have also been growing - the brewery's tour center was expanded last year to accommodate increased demand for tours.
The distillery's plans call for using empty storage space that used to contain a freezer to store ice cream. The room has similar brick walls and a wooden-joist ceiling, which will be renovated and sand-blasted to look similar to the current tasting room.
"We want to offer something new, but stick to our roots with design by keeping the exposed brick," Ray said.
Olson said they are still getting quotes on the expansion and they haven't quite made it to the point of navigating the legal hurdles of modifying an historic building.
"Once we get final quotes and award bids, then we'll go before the city and make sure we are compliant with everything legally," Olson said.
He estimated the cost of expanding would be about $100,000, barring any unwelcome surprises.
"We've got to find cost for bar shelving, lighting, all that good stuff - heating and air conditioning and redo all the plumbing because we're expanding the bathroom," Olson said.
The north face of the building is set to have big wooden doors for a new entrance and perhaps an archway through the brick wall into the current tasting room. Ray said they won't knock down the current east wall, but he hopes for a walk-through archway or at least windows that look into the current tasting room.
"Hopefully it will be just a cutout in the wall; we were never going to demolish it," Ray said. "We want it to look luxurious and fancy with lighted displays on the walls."
The building that houses the distillery on 13th Street used to be an ice cream company, Goodmillers Co., and was built in 1845; now, instead of malted ice cream the building houses malted barley distilled into grain alcohol.
Lance Ray, manager of the retail side of the distillery, said Minhas plans to add three more bars and a smaller 50-gallon still next to the distillery's existing 1,000-gallon behemoth nicknamed "godstilla."
Ray said on a summer weekend, the distillery can get as many as 200 people touring the facility. The current tasting room, which is covered wall-to-wall with bottle displays and has suspended chandeliers of empty Minhas brand spirits, can hold about 30 people comfortably.
"We've had groups of like 80 people in here, and they're all like this," Ray said, hunching his shoulders and bringing his hands up folded into his chest.
"That's not enjoyable for anybody to be like that, so we need more room."
Behind the tasting room on the bottling line, there is a bigger area that Ray said is used on the weekends when there is no production, but even that is not enough. Ray said Minhas will need every inch of space the expansion will afford.
The plan would be the second expansion to accommodate visitors in two years. Minhas Brewery President Gary Olson said their daily tours at the brewery across the street have also been growing - the brewery's tour center was expanded last year to accommodate increased demand for tours.
The distillery's plans call for using empty storage space that used to contain a freezer to store ice cream. The room has similar brick walls and a wooden-joist ceiling, which will be renovated and sand-blasted to look similar to the current tasting room.
"We want to offer something new, but stick to our roots with design by keeping the exposed brick," Ray said.
Olson said they are still getting quotes on the expansion and they haven't quite made it to the point of navigating the legal hurdles of modifying an historic building.
"Once we get final quotes and award bids, then we'll go before the city and make sure we are compliant with everything legally," Olson said.
He estimated the cost of expanding would be about $100,000, barring any unwelcome surprises.
"We've got to find cost for bar shelving, lighting, all that good stuff - heating and air conditioning and redo all the plumbing because we're expanding the bathroom," Olson said.
The north face of the building is set to have big wooden doors for a new entrance and perhaps an archway through the brick wall into the current tasting room. Ray said they won't knock down the current east wall, but he hopes for a walk-through archway or at least windows that look into the current tasting room.
"Hopefully it will be just a cutout in the wall; we were never going to demolish it," Ray said. "We want it to look luxurious and fancy with lighted displays on the walls."