Cooperative brewery for Ronan discussed at town meeting
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For those who like to support homegrown businesses, the Flathead Lake Brewing Co. has a brewery/taproom in Woods Bay, Glacier Brewing Co. has the same in Polson, and one could be on the way in Ronan.
Lake County Community Development Corp. held a community event on April 20 to gauge the level of interest in creating a cooperative brewery.
A number of reasons why Ronan might support such an endeavor were offered by those who attended, including: jobs, adding value to local agricultural products, use as a community gathering place, bringing people together, Main Street revitalization and making people happy.
Gypsy Ray, director of the LCCDC, noted that consultant Craig Koontz has been hired to help with such a cooperative. He was involved in getting the Tamarack Brewing Co. up and running in Lakeside and has experience with similar endeavors in a variety of places, including Sitka, Alaska, Lake Havasu City, Arizona, and Seattle.
“Ronan is truly a good viable place (for a brewery),” Koontz said, noting that, according to a Bloomberg study, Montana is second in the nation in beer consumption.
Brianna Ewert, LCCDC’s program manager, explained that a cooperative brewery is one that is owned by the people it serves.
She cited examples of two that charge $150 or $200 for a yearly membership per person.
The benefits of being a cooperative member would include voting rights, member “happy hours,” discounts, priority access to new beers, input on recipes, member
refunds when the operation is profitable and additional investment opportunities.
Ewert said the Mission Mountain Enterprise Center could house such a cooperative either temporarily or permanently, depending on the situation.
Koontz estimated that it would cost $200,000 to purchase the necessary equipment for a 50-barrel-a-year operation and “do it right” by buying American-made steel products as opposed to something used or made in China.
Ewert said the next steps forward include forming a core group to work on a feasibility study and then a business plan.
