Ashtabula, OH - June 19, 2008
Brewing a new niche to add a micro-brewery to operation
Debonné Vineyards first winery in Ohio
By CARL E. FEATHER - Lifestyle Editor
When Anthony and Beth Debevc started Chalet Debonné in Madison Township 36 years ago, it was the first new winery to start in this area since prohibition.
Today, Debonné vineyards is the largest estate winery in Ohio. Along the way, it has blazed a path for at least 20 other winery starts that collectively are redefining the tourism economy of Ashtabula and eastern Lake counties.
Given the Debevc track record of being an industry pacemaker, one can’t help but wonder where the winery’s latest venture, Cellar Rats Brewery, will take the family, as well as the industry and region.
Debonne Vineyards is the first winery in Ohio to add a micro-brewery to its operation, although these dual operations are common in the Pacific Northwest and New York. Tony Debevc says it makes sense – winemakers know the chemistry of fermentation, and while making beer involves different ingredients and steps, the principles of controlling the outcome of the product with different yeast cultures and fermentation temperatures/times remain the same.
“Beer is just another fermentation process we’ve learned,” says Debevc, who nevertheless gave little thought to adding crafted beers to their array of fine wines.
With a healthy dose of prodding from his assistant winemaker, Brian Burns, and the Debevc’s son, Tony, Anthony Debevc investigated the brewery option and finally decided to make the investment.
Debonné rolls out the brewery – named Cellar Rats after the wine industry slang for those who work in the cellar – and two of its products this weekend. Rat Trap Lager, a light flagship beer was brewed April 22. Described as a medium-bodied, pre-prohibition style American lager moderately hopped with cascade and cluster hop varieties, Rat Trap features a buttery malt flavor with soft bitterness.
A wheat beer will be offered as Cellar Rats’ second offering. Burns says wheat beer is a hybrid between a lager and an ale. Several guest draft beers from other breweries are on tap as Cellar Rats gears up to full production. Burns plans to add Rat Tail Ale, a traditional, English-pub style ale, by the end of June.
Burns says compared to making wine, beer is a more complex process. With wine, there’s just one ingredient, the fruit juice, that goes straight into fermentation. Making beer involves cooking and blending of grains, extracting the sugary liquid, adding hops and yeast, and then selecting a proper fermentation temperature and time. Ale takes about a week of fermentation, a lager is held for two weeks.
The micro-brewery is like a big chemistry set for Burns, who has been brewing beer as a hobby for more than 18 years. The set comes with Ed Trebets, Debonné’s winemaker and chemist. Burns turns to Trebets to assist him with the equations and math that goes into brewing beer; Burns and his partner’s work is to sample the best crafted beers from around the world and figure out how to reproduce and improve upon them.
The brews are made in very small batches. “Ninety-five gallons maximum, we’re very small, one of the smallest,” Debevc says. The brewery’s three-tank system has the capacity to store two batches of a brew.
This small size gives Cellar Rats a lot of flexibility for experimentation.
“It’s nice to be able to do this on a professional system,” says Burns, who’s accustomed to brewing in the kitchen. “It’s nice to have a system like this to work out the kinks on.”
Some of Burns’ ideas include a Belgium-style white for the summer, an Oktoberfest beer for the fall and a winter brew for the holidays.
None of the beers will be bottled; the brewery sells its product only at the tasting room.
The whole operation is set up in the basement below the new tasting room and bar, which was added to the winery as part of the $250,000 investment. A window in the floor of the tasting room allows patrons to view the brewery equipment below.
Anthony Debevc hired Chardon artist Marianne Seaman of Paint Spill Design, Chardon, to create murals in the 16-by-20-foot tasting room. The murals depict spring and fall vineyard scenes and Anthony Debevc’s passion for aviation – Seaman painted the belly of Debevc’s plane on the tasting room’s ceiling. She used the contractor’s scaffolding to work on the overhead mural.
“I did a Michaelangelo thing on that ceiling,” Seaman says. “I like the ceiling (mural) because people don’t notice it right away.”
Anthony Debevc says the decision to expand into a brewery operation was motivated by Burns’ talent and interest, an approach that’s driven their business for more than 30 years.
“We’ve built our business around quality people,” he says.
The other part of that business model is to closely control the quality of every product that bears the Debonné name.
“If I can’t make it, I’m not going to sell it,” he says.
When the opportunity to purchase brewery equipment from a defunct operation in Franklin, Pa., came up, Anthony got commitments from Burns and Trebets to launch and run the project. With commitments from his workers, Debevc started Cellar Rats Brewery under the Debonné umbrella.
Debevc says one of the big hurdles to setting up a brewery within an Ohio winery is the cost of licensing. While a winery can retail its product under one license, a brewery takes two licenses, one to produce and one to retail, and each license costs around $3,900. He feels that’s one of the reasons Ohio wineries have not expanded into beer.
“To our knowledge, we’re the first combination of brewery and winery here in Ohio, that’s what the Liquor Department told us,” he says.
Anthony Debevc justifies the startup costs as a marketing investment that will drive retail sales at the winery. He says offering beer, as some area wineries already do, allows the establishment to accommodate a greater range of consumption preferences and tastes.
“It is really about providing a better service to our customers,” Debevc says. “Now we can expand our customer base to include those that appreciate a quality craft beer along with their spouse or friends that love the quality and value of Debonné Vineyard’s wines.”
Debevc sees the winery/brewery marriage as one that will be good for tourism, as well.
“It’s bringing in a whole different clientele that can experience wine country,” he says.
Will the brewery eventually become an estate operation, just as the winery is? Burns says while the brewery is purchasing its grains and hops from outside the area, an experimental hops garden has been planted next to the winery. Their research has shown that hops, which are added to beer to impart bitterness, were grown in northeast Ohio during pre-prohibition days. There’s no reason they could not be grown here again. In theory, the specialized grains used to make beer could also took root in local soil.
Debevc says the brewery is already generating interest within his industry, and he has a standing offer from another winery to purchase their brewery equipment when they’re ready to expand.
“It’s exciting for us,” Anthony Debevc says. “Our philosophy at Debonné is to move forward, be innovative.”
