Brew Debut: First-ever brewery coming soon to historic grocery building in Monett

A Monett native’s multiyear goal to launch his hometown’s first brewery is getting so close he can almost taste it.

An early- to mid-October opening is the target for Briar House Brewing Co. LLC, said co-owner Matt Batson. The venture at 222 E. Broadway St. will fill some 5,000 square feet in a roughly 112-year-old building that started as a grocery in downtown Monett.

“Just kind of depends on a few other things to happen,” he said. “One is the beer fermenting and tasting good.”

Batson said the brewery is beginning as a side project for him as he plans to balance it with his full-time job at Jack Henry & Associates Inc. (Nasdaq: JKHY). He’s a technical business analyst for the Monett-based financial software company, where he’s worked for nearly 24 years. He’s also been a home brewer for about a decade after being introduced to the activity by a friend.

“I’m moving toward the brewery as a full-time thing. Basically, it’s becoming my retirement,” he said, noting he owns Briar House with his wife, Rawn, a longtime chiropractor in town. “I have a hard time sitting still, so we’re looking for the brewery to be the income, but also provide retirement money.”

Briar House’s drink menu will start with five in-house produced beers on tap: a blonde ale, an IPA, an Irish dry stout, an amber lager and a dunkel. Sold individually by the pint or in flights, the official names are still being determined, as Batson said he wants to tie them back to historical aspects of Monett.

“In the beginning, it’ll be solely focused on making great beer,” he said. “We want to make sure that we’re putting out great beer, and as we go along, we’ll have offerings such as wine, a few cocktails. We’re looking to really figure out what people want and grow into that.”

Patrons will be able to bring in outside food and drinks, and Batson is hopeful he can attract food trucks to serve on-site.

“That’s something that we still have to plan out as far as the first few weeks that we’re going to be open,” he said.

Building labor
Batson said he bought the building for $93,000 in 2021 and has spent the past nearly three years doing renovations on a structure that he felt needed a lot of upkeep. Including renovation work and equipment purchases, he said startup costs are estimated at roughly $500,000.

“We decided that this would be a perfect spot for a brewery. Then we went in and gutted the main floor, and then we took out all the rooms upstairs,” he said, noting the second story was originally built to temporarily house people when they got off trains passing through town. “There weren’t much historical items left in the upstairs or the downstairs.”

Renovations for the building, which he said originated as Armstrong and Sons Grocers and has changed hands many times over the years since, involved gutting much of the interior. Batson said he handled the plumbing, framing and finishing work, adding that contributed to the length of time of the project but ultimately saved him money.

“We had to rebuild part of a brick wall that was encased in a block wall just because it had deteriorated too much.

“There was a lot of suspect construction work there in the past,” he said. “We did it all ourselves, and when I say all ourselves, there was a lot of friends and family.”

On the back side of the building, an addition was built on, although Batson said he was unaware how long ago. He is utilizing the rooftop of that addition to provide outdoor patio space. Doing so essentially doubles Briar House’s seating capacity to around 100.

Upon opening, Briar House will become the first brewery for Monett, which sits in Barry and Lawrence counties. While Lawrence County has no breweries, Batson said Hungry Hollow Brewing Co. LLC is the lone such establishment in Barry County. The Cassville brewery opened in 2017.

Brewery boost
The launch of Briar House will join a roster of Springfield area breweries, which Springfield Brewing Co. recently added to last month with the opening of One 2 Five Taproom in Rogersville. The Springfield-based company also plans to open a taproom in Willard this fall, according to past Springfield Business Journal reporting. Additionally, Great Escape Beer Works LLC is at work on a new taproom in Republic, for which officials are targeting a late fall or early winter opening.

“Things are really going strong in the Springfield area for sure,” said Sherry Wohlgemuth, executive director of Missouri Craft Brewers Guild. She pointed to to the upcoming area brewery additions, as well as 4 by 4 Brewing Co. LLC’s 2023 opening of a second location in Nixa. “The breweries have become such a communal place in these towns and cities. Most of them are family friendly. You can bring the whole crew with you.”

The guild is a 501(c)(6) nonprofit with a focus on promoting independent craft brewers, while advocating for a fair regulatory and statutory environment on the state and federal level. She said 4 by 4 Brewing and Springfield Brewing Co. are among the guild’s 74 members.

According to the Brewers Association’s annual report, the number of craft operations last year reached an all-time high of 9,761 breweries, up from 9,552 in 2022. In Missouri, the craft brewery count reached 165, good for 20th in the country. It ranked 21st in barrels of craft beer produced, surpassing 306,700. Nationally, beer output finished 2023 at 23.4 million barrels produced by small and independent brewers, which was a year-over-year dip of roughly 1 million.

“Sometimes Missouri as a typical Midwestern part of the country, we aren’t as impacted by some of the trends that are being seen on the coasts, and it sort of takes longer for things to happen to make it into the middle of the country,” Wohlgemuth said, in reference to brewery closures. “We are seeing obvious signs of people opening up in these smaller towns and smaller areas.

“I feel like this is sort of the untapped market – pun intended – where we’re going to start seeing more and more popping up in this area,” she said.

With seven barrels set to soon go into production at his facility, Batson said he’s hopeful Briar House’s annual beer output could exceed 300 barrels a year. However, he said beer distribution is not on his radar at this time.

“If this is successful and it goes like I think it will, our growth plan would be to open up another brewery in another location, another small town – not necessarily in this area, but in Missouri,” he said.

On the verge of opening, Batson said he has a mix of feelings.

“It’s relief that the building process is over and then a sense of anxiety trying to work out the business aspect of it, brewing aspect of it,” he said. “It’s just a slight anxiety, but real excitement about it as well.”