A local man is seeking a manufacturer’s permit from the DeKalb County Beer Board to establish a Micro or Nano research brewery for the distribution of commercial beer.
Alexander William Seitz of Floyd Drive, Smithville plans to operate the business from his home to be called “Caney Fork Theoretic Ales”. His permit application will be considered by the beer board at its next meeting on Thursday, July 2 at 7:00 p.m. at the DeKalb County Complex UT Extension Office.
Seitz, a clinical research technician, told WJLE Tuesday that he got the idea for starting his own home brewery after working for two years at Calfkiller Brewing Company in Sparta as a research and quality laboratory manager. “I wanted to bring this home to our county. This will be a nano sized brewery to dispose of artisan beer made during research. I plan to do very small batches and bring back the culture and history of some beers that you don’t get to see much in our area. It’s a little bit different from your average brewery. It’s a research brewery, ” he said.
Seitz hopes to market his beer through the Calfkiller Brewing Company and Grass Roots distribution. “Calfkiller owns its own distribution company and its Grass Roots Distributing so I would just sell it to Calfkiller and they would distribute through their distribution company. It would probably be available at one or two restaurants in the Smithville, Cookeville or McMinnville area or wherever I could find a popular audience and then maybe do small bottles from special occasion batches,” he said.
If granted a permit, Seitz said he plans to begin operations as soon as possible. “I live on Center Hill Lake and I have a home with a full size basement. My plans are to produce the beer there. A lot of big breweries have started out this way. It allows me to have very close control. I want to take a lot of care and time and it will be a real easy way for me to do that by being right there with it all the time. As soon as I get permitted I am going to start designing. I have already started retrofitting the basement. I also plan to put a special chamber outside to do some open air fermentation,” said Seitz.
Although he plans to begin the brewery as a sole venture, Seitz said he may bring in others later. “I will be by myself at first but I would like to find a few other people. I have a home brew group right now. Jason Lemanski of Cookeville is the one person I brew with right now. I would definitely like to find some other interested people if it all pans out,” said Seitz.
Seitz moved to DeKalb County almost four years ago from Texas. “My step father moved us here from Texas. He was a musician in a band called the Marshall Tucker Band. We decided to move up here from Texas and I decided to stay I liked it so much,” said Seitz.
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