It’s quite an understatement to say that managers of IRONSHIELD Brewing™ near Atlanta take customer satisfaction seriously. Or, that brewing is a passion there.
“Brewing is as much an art form as it is a science,” says Ironshield co-owner and Brewmaster Glen Sprouse, a nationally-recognized brewer and brewery designer. “And of course there’s passion, but there’s a need for all of it—fine art, hard science and obsessive enthusiasm—if the beer is to acquire a following, and favor, in today’s very crowded marketplace.”
The brewing industry currently is one of the fastest-growing industries in America. The trend is moving upward, and breweries like Ironshield are in a good position to earn and maintain market share.
As one looks behind the scenes at Ironshield, based in Lawrenceville, Georgia, everything about its operation points to an exceptional level of professionalism and dedication to craft. Among “microbrews,” Ironshield is a very large brewery.
Authentic classics
At 60,000-plus square feet, Ironshield is the 18th brewery that Sprouse has commissioned. His many years of industry involvement, including hands-on work at many breweries, position him well to turn that knowledge and experience into an optimized plant, and production, at Ironshield.
“Our sole focus here at Ironshield is to make authentic classics with the finest, old recipes—German lagers and Belgian ales,” Sprouse says. “These aren’t our interpretation of the recipes, but rather a finely-detailed replication of the world’s greatest beers with no compromise.”
The road to Ironshield’s brewing perfection is one with several twists and turns, a few pleasant surprises and with three driven, self-directed guys at the helm. The genesis of the effort began with a friendship between Sprouse and CEO David Rice.
Marathon effort
An important next step was to find just the right professional to head-up their day-to-day brewing operations. After a long search to fill the lead brewer position, they found Jason Carroll whose resume is an impressive, perfect fit to the entrepreneurial, all-about-brewing team.
Carroll, as brewing supervisor, began his brewing career 15 years earlier at the Franciscan Well Brewery, Cork, Ireland. While there, he studied and worked under the tutelage of Peter Lyall, one of Ireland’s longest standing head brewers.
Rice, Sprouse and Carroll then began a marathon to get the facility operating, and optimized, by the spring of 2020. First to open was Ironshield’s brewing operation—for wholesale beer sales. Several weeks later, they opened the taproom.
Drainage – a brewery’s foundation
Back in 2017, and only after many months of planning, strategizing and development work, Sprouse and Rice purchased a 50-year-old newspaper printing facility 35 miles Northeast of Atlanta. They describe the facility’s renovation as “wholesale; very close to breaking ground on a new plant—though more challenging in many ways.” Their multimillion dollar remodeling investment led to a transformation of the facility by late 2019.
Sprouse was especially concerned about one particular need: proper drainage. “It’s a critical, one-time investment upon which the rest of the operation rests, quite literally. Brewers have nightmares about three things: process heating systems, chilled water cooling systems, and drainage. “The most vexing of these is drainage. If the drainage isn’t up to task—meaning it can’t deal with the volume, high viscosity, chemicals, or heat—it’s a huge challenge. After all, if the drains aren’t up to task, you’re stuck with them. They’re on the floor on which the entire operation rests.”
Sprouse says that while he had known about BLÜCHER drains beforehand, it was his first experience at specifying them. Unlike large drainage/piping firms with little or no value-added service, the assistance he received was invaluable. “Sadly, the level of ignorance among owners of microbreweries under construction is staggering. When it comes to floors and drains, their sub[contractors] are often unqualified. I’ve seen and learned about swimming pool drains being used for breweries or public bathroom drains.”
The stainless steel feature drain edges designed specifically to overhang and interlock with the poured floor, helping to establish and keep an ideal slope for the drainage. “By design, the second coat’s thick, epoxy overpour runs flush with the end of the drain so that the surfaces interlock, providing the ideal barrier to moisture infiltration and, ultimately, separation and bacterial contamination,” Sprouse says.
A final advantage to the drainage they chose is that very little water is used to flush the waste. The smooth, V-shaped stainless steel drain is designed to concentrate the moving water to rush wastes into stainless steel P-traps. “It’s unfortunate that so many breweries—and I’ve seen a lot of this—are built on cracking floors with poor drainage,” Sprouse says. “Eventually, unsanitary conditions will shut them down. There’s no better example than a brewery to show the importance of the floor and drains, as a system. They must be done right, from the beginning, for long-term operation.
Sprouse says the brewery was under a lot of pressure during the renovation period. “It would’ve been easy to choose a lesser, quicker solution to drainage and flooring. But we were able to overcome obstacles and solve problems.”
Today, Ironshield is shipping beer to wholesalers across the country, and the taproom has opened the door to close contact with a broad range of adoring clientele. The brewery’s facility is running optimally—from its many kettles and taps to the floor drains that effortlessly take the punishment of high temp and high volume washing to maintain fast, efficient cleanliness throughout.
Dream team
Sprouse, a Georgia Tech-educated mechanical engineer, has offshore oil fields, and plant automation and management with Siemens. After a stint with Miller Brewing, he earned his Master Brewer’s certification at the Intensive Brewing Science and Engineering program then offered at UC Davis, later to become the American Brewers Guild.
Rice has 28 years of beverage and consumer goods industry experience focused in manufacturing, supply chain and business management, including 13 years with Coca-Cola and five years with Microsoft. He also has more than five years’ experience as an award winning home brewer.
Carroll was part of the original team that worked with the famed Jameson distillery to create the global product, Caskmates. After winning numerous international awards, he was recruited by Guinness as head brewer for their Open Gate Brewery.
Today, as the Atlanta area grows, Ironshield is poised to serve some of the finest brews available to the region’s many beer-ologists, libationist, beer devotees and wert gurus. New recipes are always being considered but, even more importantly, the brewery’s tried n’ true favorites are brewed to perfection, each and every time.
Story by John Vastyan
John is president of Common Ground, a communications firm that specializes in marketing communications and business-to-business PR for the broad construction industry. Visit www.seekcg.com for more information.