A new brewery located on Spring Street will be opening its doors on August 9th.
Fortlandia Brewing Company is owned by five Fort Wayne locals who collectively have over 40 years of brewing experience. The company is owned by Sam Snyder, Ken Daly, Jerry Glass, Dan Voors and Ed Whipp. Owners Snyder, Daly, Glass and Voors all met each other through a home brewing association (MASH). Sam Snyder said, “After becoming friends and learning about each other’s backgrounds, we realized that we all had specialties in different styles of brewing and if we put them together, we could offer a variety of some unique beers that taste great.”
Collectively the ownership group has won over 20 awards in different home brew-craft beer competitions and these award-winning beers will be some of their core brews.
Fortlandia will also be the first brewery in the area to be using the term nano-brewery, meaning beer production will be small, one barrel per batch. The ownership is using this concept so that they will be able a produce a large variety of new beers and flavors on a regular basis. Snyder explains, “Our beer styles starting out will range from light to robust and we want to offer our customers the ability to try something new on a regular basis. Small batches will allow us to turnout new brews constantly. We expect to have quick turnaround because we will have limited amounts of each beer and 10 fermenters in our brewery.”
The Brewery, located at 1010 Spring Street, will have a tap room that has seating for 25-30 people and will offer 10 different brews on tap. Additionally, the brewery will begin with limited distribution to some local bars and pubs in the Fort Wayne area. Long term goals for the brewery are to expand into a larger space that allows for more seating but starting out ownership believes, “the colonial style pub is a perfect place to offer their beer.”
Follow Fortlandia on Facebook and Instagram at Fortlandia Brewing Company.
Sam Snyder is client of the Northeast ISBDC, where he received marketing assistance for his new business. To learn more about the NE-ISBDC, visit WWW.ISBDC.org or call 260-481-0500.
