Posted on May 28, 2016
By Lucy Berry, AL.com The craft beer community is about to get a lot bigger in Huntsville.
Straight to Ale is weeks away from launching its new 45,000-square-foot brewhouse, taproom and mixed-use event space at Campus No. 805 at the old Stone Middle School near downtown Huntsville.
The expansion will introduce several “firsts” for Straight to Ale. In addition to beer, co-founder Dan Perry said the 30-barrel facility will produce wine, mead, cider and distilled spirits to reach a more diverse audience.
“We are putting the final touches on everything now,” Perry said. “All of the equipment is in place and hooked up. It should all be up and running in the next couple of weeks.”
Perry hopes to open to the public in late June nearly one year after breaking ground at the 13-acre property, which is also home to Yellowhammer Brewing, Earth and Stone Wood Fired Pizza, Lone Goose Saloon, Bubba’s Silver Spoon Catering and Stone Event Center.
Other offerings
Ronnie Raygun’s Arcade will serve taproom customers inside the Straight to Ale building. Perry said Dough’s Nuts Bakery is on hold for now and Sweet Liberty will not open a homebrew supply shop as planned.
“We are currently in talks with another local homebrew shop to take over their space,” he said.
Ale’s Kitchen, a new restaurant concept by No Brakes Bistro Food Truck’s Dave Stanley and Dion Denton of Big Ed’s Pizza, will be located at the Straight to Ale facility. Stanley said he will handle the daily kitchen operations, while Denton will provide logistical and managerial support while running Big Ed’s on North Memorial Parkway.
All of the food will be handmade, from-scratch bar grub with some international flavors and Straight to Ale beer mixed in. You can check out the menu here.
“We’ll have burgers, sandwiches, wings, tacos, fresh-cut fries and a few variations on Poutine,” Stanley said. “Poutine was a request straight from Dan (Perry). I was happy to oblige since I was born and raised in Canada.”
Stanley plans to add salads, weekly burger specials, a vegetarian burger similar to a falafel sandwich, and a kid’s menu. He said FredBread is developing a new burger bun for Ale’s Kitchen, which will also use FredBread for its sandwiches. They are in talks with a local tortilla maker for their tacos.
Stanley, who has already hired a front-of-house manager and two cooks, said he has always loved cooking and wanted to do it full-time.
“(This) sounded like a great opportunity for us so we took the plunge,” he said.
Leeman Ferry Road
Perry said the original Leeman Ferry Road location will stay open when the expansion happens next month at Campus No. 805. The additional brewing space will allow Straight to Ale to meet production demand in five states, including Alabama, Mississippi, Florida, Georgia and Tennessee.
The brewery, which is working to expand its Tennessee footprint to cover the entire state, recently signed a new agreement with Ajax Turner in Nashville.
“We are in discussions with wholesalers in a couple more states as well, and we hope to make those announcements very soon,” Perry said.
(May 28, 2016)