Brewing Butte beer

By Holly Michels of The Montana Standard. - 06/10/2007

Schnabel stands outside the future home of Quarry Brewing last week as his daughter Becca waits patiently. The brewery’s signature beers include Headframe Hefeweizen and Pit Water Porter. Lisa Kunkel photos / The Montana Standard.

From ales to porters, stouts to hefeweizen, Butte has just about every kind of beer — except a locally brewed brew.

But that’s about to change, as the Schnabel family broke ground this month on Quarry Brewing, the Mining City’s first hometown brewery in decades.

“It’s been too many years since Butte had a local brewery,” Chuck Schnabel said. “We want to bring back that great tradition.

Anaconda native Schnabel, his wife Lyza and children Becca, 9, and P.J., 5, are the driving force behind the project, an endeavor born out of love of family and a good brew.

“We wanted something we could have together,” Schnabel said Thursday as his children played in the gutted parking garage at 45 W. Galena, the brewery’s future home.

“What we’re all about is local. We’re a local brewery for everyone in Butte to come and have a sense of community. We want to keep it close and focus on Butte.” Schnabel wants to focus on distributing to restaurants and bars, though he will operate a tap room.

Butte’s Urban Revitalization Agency director Karen Byrnes said the brewery is a great addition to Uptown.

“I think it’s wonderful,” she said. “That building hasn’t been in use for quite some time. It’s so nice to see it come back to someone whose use really fits with the structure of the building, and provides additional jobs and serves the community. It’ll be great to have a new beer for all the restaurants to carry.” In Schnabel’s opinion, Butte is a good place to brew.

“Butte’s water has the same chemistry as breweries in Burton-upon-Trent,” a legendary town in England know as the Mesopotamia of English-style brewing, Schnabel said And though the beers may have a British flavor, the names are undeniably Butte.

“The first beer is Headframe Hefeweizen,” Schnabel said, a German-style beer with hints of banana and clove.

The beer’s label, painted by local artist Elaine McGree shows two headframes framing the Immaculate Conception Church.

The brewery’s amber beer, Open Cab Copper, is named for Schnabel’s father, Mel.

“The label has the crane in front of The Old Works (in Anaconda),” Schnabel said. “My dad ran that for 12 years.” But Schnabel is predicting the brewery’s best seller, “based completely on the name, ” will be its darker brew — Pit Water Porter.

“You can’t find a more Butte name than that,” Schnabel said. Though it sounds toxic, he said the beer will have a sweet mocha flavor. And no, the water won’t come from the Berkeley Pit.

“It’s a perfect rainy day, good See BREWING, Page D6 cold weather beer.” And Schnabel knows good beer. For the last nine years, he’s worked as a head brewer for Ram Big Horn Brewing in Washington.

Among his duties, Schnabel conducted blind taste tests on 16 beers. “When we tested, we did three rounds per night, two nights in a row,” he said.

It’s hard to understand why anyone would leave that job, but Lyza said the family wanted to come back to Butte.

“We wanted a change of pace and the lifestyle here,” she said. “It was meant to be.” Every family member has a hand in the brewery.

Lyza, a nurse at Community Medical Center, does promoting and bookkeeping. “It seems like all I do is gopher all day long, back and forth running errands,” she said. “But I wouldn’t want anything else.” For the brewery’s child play area, daughter Becca is designing a coloring book, and her brother, P.J., gets to plan the play equipment.

Though the brewery is small — 2,400 square feet — Schnabel plans to max out his facility.

He’ll brew three times a week, making 96 31-gallon barrels a month “We’re doing this on a shoestring budget,” Schnabel said. “But if you’re doing your job right in here, you’re going to produce a good beer.” Schnabel said he wants to paint the inside of the brewery in earth tones and maintain an industrial feel. He’s planning to glass in the brewery area for viewing and use German fest style seating with long tables so tasters can all sit together.

Schnabel said the brewery will offer what his daughter Becca calls “pigs,” a 2.25 gallon take-home tap.

“You can always have fresh beer at home,” he said. “And you can either adopt a pig or be a foster parent.” Pig owners can decorate their containers and get less expensive refills.

The brewery will also have a mug and jug club. For $30, patrons can get a filled jug and a 16-ounce mug to hang on a peg in the brewery, always at the ready for four fill-ups a day.

“It helps us follow the 48-ounces per day (law), and it has a fill line so everyone makes sure they’re getting all their beer,” Schnabel said. “It’s all about good beer. Our growlers are going to be $5. We know it’s Butte, and we want to be affordable and sell beer.” Schnabel hopes these programs will help create a community atmosphere and generate excitement, but he doesn’t want to compete with bars.

“We want to distribute to bars and restaurants, first and foremost,” he said. The brewery will distribute through Thompsons Distributing and Schnabel says he’s already had inquiries from local venues.

Schnabel hopes to open by Aug. 1, but there’s still a lot of work to do. The barrels need to be set up, windows replaced and walls sheetrocked.

“So far everything has fallen into place, like its meant to be,” Schnabel said.

For the building’s finishing touch, Schnabel wants to hang a German painting with the German phrase “Hoppen en maltz gotterhaltz.” Translated, it means “Thank God for hops and malt,” Schnabel said.

Amen.