A new brewery, Welltown Brewing, has announced that it will open soon in Tulsa.
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We are excited. It is me and my father-in-law Paul Whitham that are pioneering this journey,” said Jeremy Diamond founder of the new brewery. “What we are super excited about is being part of the downtown growth. There is a so much going on down there in the next five or 10 years it is going to be ridiculous.”
Welltown Brewing plans to open in the heart of Tulsa. However, since they don’t have the keys in their hands yet, they haven’t announced the location. They expect to release more information soon, likely early April.
Their brewer is Gene Collins, a longtime Fellowship of Oklahoma Ale Makers (FOAM) member and brewing award winner. Collins has been brewing for years and will be brewing up his recipes with collaboration with Whitham.
Diamond and Whitham came up with a name that they think will fit in Tulsa and also be unique to the United States.
“So, Welltown Brewing’s name originated from the 20’s when Tulsa was basically the boom capitol of the world, it was the oil capitol so it is where everybody came. We thought it was a cool era and, with all the refineries, is how we came up with our name, Welltown,” Diamond said.
Most founders of breweries have traveled outside the United States and brought back their knowledge and their experiences. Diamond is no different, although the country he traveled to is still up-and-coming in the craft beer industry, South Korea.
“I fell in love with craft beer when I was working overseas. I had a fellow engineer friend that was homebrewing at his small apartment and he had this crazy Frankenbrew system set up. I remember walking in and he offered me a ginger beer. I tried this beer and remembered, ‘Wow, this thing is really good.’ Well, it turns out he made that beer in his apartment. That is when I really started getting into beer,” he said.
“I moved back to Tulsa and my father-in-law was a homebrewer. I remember going over to his house and trying different types of beer and really, really enjoying it.”
Diamond is all about bringing the community together. His vision is for his taproom to be the focal point to make this happen.
“Welltown’s goal is to really focus on community and really focus on the taproom specifically. We are not going to be distributing right off the bat. We really want to hone in on great beer and selling in our taproom,” he said.
“I think not rushing out there and not producing something for the liquor store shelves or the next tap at your local restaurant or bar. I think that is really good to help us focus on community and bringing people to the taproom and trying our beer. In the future that might change.”
In any business there are hurdles to jump through. Breweries have more than most businesses to deal with since they have federal, state and city rules to abide by. So the process takes a lot of time.
“We are going to do our darndest to be open in 2017. We are super excited to get open, we are super excited to bring beer to the public and we are super excited to bring people to our taproom,” Diamond said.
In other news:
Marshall Brewing Co., 616 S. Wheeling Ave., will host a St. Patrick’s Day celebration with a multitude of choices of brews. They will be offering two limited release firkins and will have the NCAA Tournament games on in the Tap Room. Try the Donnybrook Porter — Cask-conditioned Big Jamoke Porter infused with Jameson soaked oak and Irish Coffee Stout — Cask-conditioned Black Dolphin Stout infused with Irish Coffee. The Firkin beers are available by-the-glass only after 4 p.m.
Oklahoma City’s Oak & Ore, 1732 NW 16th St., has been recognized as the best beer bar in Oklahoma in the annual Great American Beer Bars competition by CraftBeer.com — the National Brewers Association website for beer lovers.
A week’s worth of activities are planned to celebrate the award along with the success of its second year of business in Oklahoma City’s Plaza District. Special beer tappings and customer appreciation promotions will be held the week of March 19.
The official 2-year anniversary party will take place from 12-5 p.m. on Saturday, March 25, featuring special released beers being tapped each hour. All 36 taps will be filled exclusively with Oklahoma craft beer. There will be hourly drawings for door prizes, and attendees who purchase an Oklahoma craft beer will be entered to win a limited-edition Oak & Ore anniversary T-shirt.
http://www.tulsaworld.com/blogs/scene/whattheale/what-the-ale-tulsa-s-brewing-industry-has-gained-yet/article_4c6a5f5d-38d9-5985-8d7b-0c7fff74e8fc.htmlHoly Smoot how many does that make now? We may have to start a thread just about Tulsa breweries! I love it.