Detroit’s Atwater Brewery has partnered with a new craft brewery in Texas called Flemish Fox Brewery and Craftworks to open a brewery in Austin, expected to be in production by early next year. The yet-to-be-named brewery marks Atwater’s first endeavor outside of Michigan.
“We’ve been very careful when it comes to growing our production footprint, but this opportunity was too good to pass,” says Mark Rieth, owner of Atwater. “Texas is an incredibly important market for Atwater and the opportunity to work alongside Flemish Fox and the Celis family offers meaningful benefits.”
Rieth says the 27,000-square-foot brewery will have the capacity to produce more than 60,000 barrels per year for Atwater and Flemish Foxes.
“As a city that shares our passion for the craft beer culture, Austin is the type of vibrant community we sought for our first brewing operation outside of Michigan,” Rieth says. “In addition to our core brands, we’ll also brew unique brands to be distributed exclusively in Texas.”
He says Atwater distributes to 21 U.S. states, plus Canada. Production from the new brewery will help Atwater fulfill orders from Texas as well as a number of western states.
Christine Celis, founder of Flemish Fox, says she will brew original Celis family recipes while incorporating some of the same yeast strains, methods, and processes used at her father Pierre Celis’ first brewery in Belgium.
“Flemish Fox will be a venue for great experiences, craft beer discovery, and parties with a Belgian brown café and taproom, spacious beer garden, and live music venue, just like our last brewery,” she says.
In December, Atwater introduced three new flavors — a grapefruit session ale, a rye malt, and an imperial bock — along with new branding designed by Detroit artist Tony Roko. Atwater opened a biergarten and taphouse in Detroit in November next to its brewery on Joseph Campau in Detroit. The brewery will open its third taphouse in Grand Rapids over the next few months.
