Less than two weeks after The Scoop shared news that Alton, Ill., would be home to a microbrewery, word comes that another one is on its way to that river town in 2015.
The Old Bakery Beer, a brewery and tasting room, will be located at 400 Landmarks Blvd., a historic building in downtown Alton that has been a home for multiple bakeries in the last century.
The business is a venture by husband and wife Lauren Pattan and James Rogalsky. Pattan is currently the sustainability and operations manager for the tasting rooms at Urban Chestnut Brewing Co. Rogalsky will serve as head brewer. He was an assistant brewer at Urban Chestnut and is a graduate of the American Brewers Guild’s Intensive Brewing Science & Engineering course and seasoned home brewer.
The 13,000-square-foot space will be divided into the brewery and a tasting room with more than 100 seats. Old Bakery Beer will offer four year-round beers – a wheat IPA, a rye pale ale, a mild brown ale and a Pilsner-style brew – as well as several rotating seasonals. It will also feature other local brews on guest taps in the tasting room. Old Bakery Beer will brew on a 15 barrel brewing system, with potential to brew up to 10,000 barrels annually. Pattan said they hope to distribute in the metro east and then St. Louis.
Pattan will manage the kitchen, which will serve primarily soups, salads and sandwiches prepared with ingredients sourced within a 400-mile radius. Pattan holds more then eight years of food service experience, having held almost every job in the industry, from busser to general manager. “We feel like our experience has prepared us to be able to do it, and it’s something we’ve always been interested in,” she said. “Even though we are young, we feel like it’s now or never.”
This article appears in Guide to Beer 2014.