Brewed Omen, which owner Bill Ohm opened in the 1886 Millstream Building, 120 N. Main St., in 2022, with a great patio overlooking the Rubicon River in downtown Hartford, will soon be brewing its own beer.
Construction to build out a brewery in the lower level of the adjacent space to the north began on Monday and the work is expected to be completed in March.
Late last week, the taproom announced on social media that it had secured its building permit from Hartford and that demolition work was set to begin this week.
“We have all paperwork into our attorney to obtain State and Federal Brewpub permits, and are finalizing remaining financing this month,” the post noted.
“We bought a seven-barrel system used from Texas,” adds taphouse manager and future brewer Kyle Sikora, “and three fermenters from Company Brewing in Milwaukee. (We’ll have) six fermenters total.
“We have a goal to fill our tap lines with our products, minus our cider line. With the brewpub license we applied for, we can't make cider.”
The production space will be in the basement and the upper floor will have storage and office space. Brewed Omen plans to rent out the first-floor retail space in that building.
The taproom and brewhouse buildings will be connected via a new glass door on the north side of the current patio.
There is no plan at the moment to package beer brewed on-site in bottles or cans, though Sikora says, “I would imagine after the honeymoon phase, we would sell kegs for off-site (consumption).
“The idea has been floated for a crowler machine or canning our more in-demand products.”
Stay tuned for more news from Brewed Omen.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
