Mike Lee, owner of Mid-South Malts, is among the investors in High Cotton Brewing Company.
A team of investors has an option on a building in the Edge District near Downtown and plans to open a microbrewery in the space by year’s end.
High Cotton Brewing Company LLC has a contract to buy an 8,778-square-foot building at 598 Monroe, across from Kudzu’s Bar & Grill, and plans to start a craft brewing operation, according to several media reports. The building is a former auto parts distributorship.
High Cotton would be only the third brewery in Memphis after Midtown brewpub Boscos and Boscos’ sister brewery, Ghost River Brewing, a microbrewery in Downtown.
High Cotton’s partners include longtime brewer Mike Lee, owner of homebrew supply shop Mid-South Malts; Brice Timmons, a lawyer with Black McLaren Jones Ryland & Griffee, P.C.; Ryan Staggs, an engineer with Memphis Light, Gas and Water Division; and Ross Avery, a pilot with United Airlines. There is also a fifth silent partner in the venture.
High Cotton’s primary business would be selling kegs to local bars and restaurants, but it also plans to open a taproom with limited hours. That aspect of the business would require an amendment to the city’s alcoholic beverage ordinance and city and county zoning codes, according to The Commercial Appeal. Current rules don’t allow beer consumption in establishments that don’t serve food.
High Cotton will brew with a seven-barrel system, producing 14 kegs of beer at a time, the Memphis Business Journal reports, and plans to open with two regular beers.
We’re trying to formulate recipes that are very well-crafted and flavorful, and more geared towards the craft drinker – that’s our goal,” Lee told the Memphis Daily News. “We anticipate being very customer-friendly. We want to craft beers that people really want to drink.”
Stay tuned for more on High Cotton from FuzzyBrew. Meanwhile, what would you like to see from Memphis’ newest brewery? Leave a comment below.
