The Scoop: Earthbound Beer to expand to new brewery on Cherokee
{From left, co-owners Stuart Keating, Rebecca Schranz and Jeff Siddons}
St. Louis’ smallest brewery is about to hit a growth spurt. Earthbound Beer owners Stuart Keating, Rebecca Schranz and Jeff Siddons announced today, Sept. 15, that the nanobrewery and tasting room located at 2710 Cherokee St., will move operations down the block to a larger space at 2724 Cherokee St. Keating said they expect to take possession of the space Nov. 1, and anticipate opening doors to the brewery’s tasting room in June 2016. Keating, Schranz and Siddons founded Earthbound Beer last November in a shotgun-style space that holds less than 1,000 square feet for both the brewery and tasting room. Earthbound’s future home, currently occupied by Waberi Grocery (slated to move across the street), will include a 3,200-square-foot tasting room to seat 260 thirsty patrons, a 1,700-square-foot Biergarten and a full-service kitchen dishing up a menu of hot dogs. With a basement, sub-basement and ample ground floor space, Earthbound Beer will expand its brewing capacity to a seven-barrel system, initially producing 150 barrels annually with the potential for up to 1,500 barrels annually. The expansion will enable Earthbound to distribute its brews to St. Louis-area bars, once the brewhouse is completed in early 2016. Keating and his business partners also plan to adding a canning line in the future. “The plan is to get the brewhouse open before anything else,” he said. “It’ll take us a year to get (the tasting room) open.” This is not the first time that the building at 2724 Cherokee St., has seen brewing equipment within its walls; it once served as the stockhouse for Cherokee Street Brewing Co. Keating said the building’s history and existing design appealed to him and his partners, who intend to give the facility the look and feel of its 19th-century roots. “The building was designed to be a brewery,” he said. “It’s got a lot of what we’re looking for already in it.”-photo by Michelle Volansky
