As a Global Innovation Manager for Bosch, Ben King often found himself traveling to Germany. It was there that he fell in love with the fresh bocks, hefeweizens and dunkels in the beer halls of Munich. When he returned to the US, he found that those same beers, bottled and shipped over here, simply hadn’t traveled well. An Engineer with a newfound thirst for fresh German beer, King sought a solution. The answer was to open his own brewery dubbed 1487, with a clear focus on German-style beers brewed in compliance with the Reinheitsgebot, the German Purity Law (the beginnings of which were implemented in — you guessed it — 1487.) His goal: to deliver the same experience you would achieve when you entered a German beerhall.
Step one was to partner with fellow engineer Thomas Garbe, Bosch’s VP of Innovation. Step two was to bring in Lisa Rantala to head marketing. Step three, find a qualified, process-oriented head brewer with a creative touch. At the 2016 Craft Brewers Confernce, he found his man: Chris Costic, bringing brewing experience from Magic Hat and New Holland to 1487 as a partner.
With a one-barrel pilot system located in rural Alexandria, Costic began the process of fine tuning his recipes using all German ingredients. To be certain the beers met expectations, the 1487 team held a series of customer-focused events to evaluate their beers. At one such event in German Village, a customer proclaimed of their hefeweizen, “It’s wonderful. It reminds me of home, and I’m from Austria.”
Work is currently centered on the development of their production brewery and taproom. King revealed that it will be located in Pataskala, at a “non-traditional” location. Plans call for a 2000 square foot brewery with a five bbl brewing system. Their production target for 2018 calls for approximately 1200 bbl, with the majority being served in their taproom and the rest kegged for area bars and restaurants. The production brewery should be operational late this year.
The taproom, which is expected to open in late December, will add another 2300 square feet to the site, and, of course, will be in the style of a German bier hall. An outdoor patio will be added in the spring. They plan to have 25 taps available with 10 core house beers, including kolsch, altbier, bock, hefeweizen, munich dunkel, roggenbier and dunkelweizen. Ten additional taps will be allocated to guest beers outside their realm of German-style beers.
If you can’t wait for the brewery to open, their beer is currently on tap at the Hawks Nest in Alexandria. Their Kolsch will debut this week at the Highlands Golf Club in Pataskala. You can follow their progress on their Facebook page or their website, 1487brewery.com.
