Craft Beer News
Heavenly craft beer brewery is in the works in Dallas' Medical District
A promising new brewery is set to open near Dallas' Medical District from a local brewer made good.
Called Celestial Beerworks, the brewery is from Matt Reynolds, who has been serving as the brewer at Malai Kitchen for the past two years. He and his wife Molly will open Celestial as a brewpub serving beer only, no food, in what they are designing to be an interactive and engaging taproom.
The brewery is still under construction, but they've taken delivery on five shiny new fermenters and have a lovely mural on the exterior wall painted by family and friends. They hope to be open by early summer.
Reynolds has been laying the groundwork by sharing tastings at various local events. His beers include Beta Borealis, a saison fermented with wild Chardonnay yeast and Chardonnay grape juice; an IPA brewed with "massive amounts" of wheat and flaked oats, then double dry hopped during fermentation to create an IPA bursting with citrus flavor and overripe fruit aromas; and a pale ale.
Like the name of their brewery, the beers are named for various astronomical figures. Their "Kepler" IPA is named for Johannes Kepler, who redefined the laws of planetary motion. Their pale ale is called Gravitational Collapse, which as we all know is the process that occurs when an astronomical object's gravity is so strong that it pulls its own matter inward, leading to the formation of galaxies, planets, and stars.
Reynolds is a former mechanical engineer who began home brewing as a hobby. It soon turned into a passion and a profession. He graduated from the American Brewers Guild program and was hired by Malai Kitchen.
"Malai was kitchen-based and took a refreshing approach to beer," he says. "I think that experience helped give me a different approach to brewing."
He doesn't aspire to be massive, but is instead aiming to be a neighborhood pub-style brewery and perhaps a destination for beer aficionados. "My goal is not to be on the shelf at Kroger," he says. "We hope people will come in if they like drinking fresh beer in its prime state."
Their space is a smaller warehouse, about 5,000 square feet and in a cool, offbeat location in the newly emerging Medical District.
"It'll be a simple space with a focus on the beer," he says. "We're going to shoot for at least 10 taps. Being smaller allows you to be a little more creative. We'll try to make it an open enviroment where you can come hang out."
