Quaff ON! Brewing Co. is moving to a new location in Nashville, and the current brewery site is going to be redeveloped into an apartment complex, company leaders announced last week.

A new, 20,000-square-foot beer production facility for Quaff ON! will be built at Hard Truth Hills, which is part of the same parent company.

Currently, Quaff ON! beer is brewed, bottled and packaged at a former bowling alley and motel on State Road 135 North, north of Nashville. The move will allow Quaff ON! Brewing Company to double production.

The company is introducing Quaff ON! beers and Hard Truth spirits into Illinois this week.

“The big part of the push is the growing demand for our beer,” said Jeff McCabe, co-founder and executive chairman of BWQOHT Inc., the parent company of Big Woods restaurants, Quaff ON! Brewing Co. and Hard Truth Hills distilling company.

BWQOHT is one of the county’s largest private employers, and beverage production is the

“We’ve seen a real increase in demand for the beer in the bottles over the pandemic. Even with all of the difficulty we’ve had this year with the pandemic, the beer business has been really strong. Coming out of it, we’re even stronger.”

This move also frees up the brewing company’s current location on State Road 135 North to be the site of around 75 new apartments aimed to house working families.

BWQOHT Inc. is partnering with EdgeRock Development to convert the former brewery site into Orchard Hill Apartments, which will be a new complex.

Birch Dalton is the managing director for the project. “I’ve been a lifelong fan of Brown County and believe this project will fill a need for additional housing options for individuals who work but have to commute to the county,” he said in the press release.

“I’m honored to have this opportunity to help the greater community and continue to make Brown County a place where companies want to grow and expand.”

Construction for the new brewery is expected to begin this spring, with beer production and tours starting in fall 2021.

“We’re used to doing three or four things at once, so we’re going to go ahead and get started,” McCabe said about both projects.

“It’s quite a process to go through. There are a lot of agreements that have to be made and we have to go through a process with the county. We’re definitely getting started.”

Last week, Town Administrator Phyllis Carr said the Nashville Development Review Commission will be involved in any renovations or new construction that takes place at both locations, since both are within town boundaries and zoned for business.

Planning Director Christine Ritzmann said that meetings before the Area Plan Commission or Board of Zoning Appeals will not be required for either project.

However, both projects will be required to meet requirements for things like setbacks, minimum dwelling area and parking. Building, sign and improvement location permits will also be needed locally, along with commercial and multifamily building plan reviews by the Indiana Department of Homeland Security.

New brewery

The current brewery building is 8,000 square feet, not counting the space at the former Orchard Hill Inn next door which is primarily used for storage.

The new brewery at Hard Truth Hills will be 20,000 square feet.

“Our staff has been pretty stable. We have a great crew. They can do more; we just need to give them more room to do it in,” McCabe said.

The move will also put the brewing company in the same location as the distillery, and the “one-of-a-kind facility” will be able to offer “unforgettable experiences” for visitors, McCabe said in a press release.

“Our main priority has always been to ‘wow’ our guests, and this move will take our offerings at Hard Truth Hills to the next level,” he said.

Quaff ON! beers and Hard Truth Distilling Company spirits are currently distributed to more than 2,000 locations through Indiana, Illinois and Kentucky along with seven Big Woods restaurant locations.

“By relocating the production of Quaff ON!, we look forward to providing additional access to consumers and ultimately visitors at Hard Truth Hills,” said Derek Clifford, general manager for Quaff ON! Brewing Co.

“Hard Truth Hills visitors will be able to sit outside enjoying an ice-cold Quaff ON! beer while watching the Brew Crew in action. The customer will have an excellent view of the cellar which is where you will find the fermenters and brite tanks. These tanks are planned to be larger than our current vessels, providing Quaff ON! the space needed to expand production across state borders.”

The new brewery will also employ six additional brewery staff.

Housing plan

The hope is that the new apartment complex will allow for employees who currently commute in from surrounding counties to plant their roots more easily in Brown County and help the company support its growth, McCabe explained last week.

“When people come here and work, if they are from surrounding counties and see what a great place to live and work Brown County is, they would like to be here, but it’s tough for them to find a place that will work for them,” he said.

“Hopefully, this will just be the start. We like to think that if we do this, it will encourage other people to invest.”

BWQOHT Inc. is going to invest in the apartment complex alongside the developer, McCabe said.

“This is a great step for us, for our business, but we think it’s a positive step, too, for the area we live in. We think we can do something that helps our business, but helps the community, too,” he said.

The goal is to have the apartments be affordable for working people or families. An exact price range for how much the apartments will cost to rent has not been decided.

“Think about some people starting out and that kind of thing where you have two folks, maybe a young family working. We want to find something that will work for them,” McCabe said.

He said the company is not targeting to have the apartment complex be eligible for Section 8 housing funding. “We’re really kind of focused on working people coming in that probably wouldn’t qualify for that,” McCabe said.

The exact layout of the apartment complex on the 3-acre site, including the locations of parking spots, has not yet been determined.

“We have several different ideas for what it could look like, but that’s the kind of thing we collaborate on and make sure as many people as we can have input so that we come up with the best idea,” McCabe said.

Utility impact

The new apartment complex and new brewery will be served by Nashville’s wastewater treatment plant.

Dax Norton, strategic direction adviser for the town, said that the town’s sewer plant has the capacity to bring on 75 new apartments and a new subdivision in Nashville which another developer is working on for the Coffey Hill area.

Water for the new brewery at Hard Truth Hills will be provided by Brown County Water Utility, per a recent legal settlement between the Town of Nashville and BCWU. That makes Hard Truth Hills a direct customer of Brown County Water Utility instead of a Nashville Utilities water customer.

The apartment complex will be a Nashville Utilities water customer.

The town’s engineers estimate the new apartments will average 30,000 gallons of wastewater per day. The plant currently has an average open capacity of around 250,000 per day. “(There is) plenty of capacity to serve the new proposed apartments and the 15 new homes,” Norton said.

Late last year, the Nashville Town Council hired a firm to do a comprehensive study of Nashville’s sewer plant and operations — how the plant is working now, and what work it would need to take on any growth that might occur.

One of the biggest concerns with the town’s sewer plant is infiltration/inflow of water that is not wastewater into the wastewater system. If that issue can be fixed through a wastewater master plan that is set to be presented to council this month, Norton said it would “greatly increase” the capacity of the sewer plant.

“With the last 16 days and no rain, the plant has been operating at well below capacity because there’s no infiltration of stormwater into the system. The infiltration of stormwater into the system is the largest problem,” Norton said.

“If development continues, there is a trigger, eventually, that the plant will have to be increased in size, but it can done on the current footprint.”

More customers will not necessarily mean lower rates for existing sewer customers, though. “If you can show me a community in Indiana where utility rates have decreased, I would love to see it. I’m not sure I have ever heard of that happening,” Norton said.

“Could a rate study eventually be conducted to see if we’re to that point? Yeah. I would argue that, eventually, you’d have to get the rate study open and see if you can, see what you can do with those rates.”

New customers would also help cover an expansion to the plant without having a rate increase.

“That’s a good advantage as well, to be able to improve infrastructure with no rate increase,” Norton said.

“The master plan was a good move by the council. It’s becoming a timely deal at this point. I’m glad they did it. They may have to dive in quicker than they think.”