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Founder Kevin Carr plans to have Community Beer Company open in November, joining the ever-swelling ranks of Dallas and Dallas-area breweries that were little more than dreams just a couple of years ago.
Deep Ellum, Lakewood, Peticolas and FireWheel brewing companies are already established and available in bars (and lately stores, in DEBC’s case), with Reunion and Four Corners also in the works, among many others in various stages of planning. Assuming they all make it out of the garage, and depending on the geographic distance one considers to be local, there could be 20 or 30 North Texas breweries in the next few years. But Carr isn’t worried about a flooded market — as long as the beer is good.
“I think the market can definitely support it,” he says. “We’re all concerned with making sure the entrants in the marketplace continue making a high-quality product so consumers keep coming back.”
Making a high-quality product shouldn’t be an issue for Community. Jamie Fulton, formerly the multiple award-winning brewmaster of The Covey in Fort Worth (which closed two years ago this weekend, matter of fact), will be in charge of the brewhouse.
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The five initial brews will include Fulton’s Vienna lager recipe, which took second place in the 2010 World Beer Cup, along with a wit, a pale ale, a strong Belgian (to be around 10 percent ABV) and a “public ale,” along the lines of an ESB.
As the name and motto “Beer for the greater good” suggest, Carr wants Community to be a charitable, arts-supporting business. He didn’t have any specific causes or artistic endeavors in mind yet, but says he plans to donate the brewery’s large event space (1530 Inspiration Drive in the Design District) to charity events as well as rent it out for art happenings.
The 30-barrel, four-vessel system, already delivered and in the construction phase, will be capable of 4,000 to 5,000 barrels its first year, Carr says, and the company already has some accounts lined up — many of the usual beer-centric joints, he says, as well as a few different restaurants and bars that aren’t usually part of the craft-beer conversation. Community will initially offer kegs, but plans are to begin bottling in the spring.
Now, if only we could taste it. That will have to wait until they’re off the pilot system, but Carr says the chance will come soon enough.
