08 Dec Imitation Leads to Reality With Kopacetic Beer Factory
By Mathew Muncy
In 2010, Sean Manahan had just graduated from Purdue University, snagged a job at People’s Brewing Co., and opened Kopacetic Beer Factory, a faux brewery. Six years later, Kopacetic Beer Factory is now becoming a real brewery.
When Manahan graduated from Purdue, he had initially planned to go into law, but quickly learned it was not his calling. In his free time, he would brew beer at home, so he decided to get a job in the beer industry
“The process was interesting to me, and my mind was blown that there was more beer than a Keystone Light,” said Manahan. “I became obsessed with the process and begged Chris [Johnson] for a job at PBC.”
At People’s Brewing, Manahan started as a bartender but worked his way up to head brewer. All the while, his friends and him were diving further into homebrewing, which led to the creation of their imitation brewery.
Source: Kopacetic Beer Factory
Their new brewery needed a name and Manahan already had the perfect one. The idea for Kopacetic Beer Factory came from his grandfather, Manahan told me. Each year his family would travel to visit his grandparents, and when he would walk into their house, he would find his grandfather sitting in his chair with a cigar in hand.
“One time, when we arrived, I looked at my obviously comfortable grandpa and asked how it was going,” said Manahan. “He replied, ‘It’s all copacetic’, then took a long cool drag of his cigar. That moment has stuck with me forever.”
Copacetic means “very satisfactory”, according to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, but it wasn’t just the meaning of the word that caused it to stick with Manahan, but also the attitude in which his grandfather delivered it. And what about using a “K” instead of a “C”? The pronunciation of the word, in the dictionary, begins with a “K” and Manahan found it copacetic.
Manahan spent three years at People’s Brewing, earning invaluable experience as he worked his way up from the bottom. He not only learned how to properly perform each job but what to expect from a future employee in that similar role.
At this point in his career, Manahan was offered the head brewer role with Flat12 Bierwerks in Indianapolis. Leaving People’s Brewing was a tough choice, but he knew the benefit of learning to work on a different system, in a different environment, and on different equipment would be valuable in the long run. All of his prior training and his passion for brewing led Manahan to being promoted to Director of Brewing Operations at Flat12 after just a year-and-a-half.
Now that he is starting his own brewery, Manahan told me he could not imagine doing so with little knowledge of commercial brewing.
Source: Kopacetic Beer Factory
“Even a nano operation, like mine, shared many of the same process challenges as larger facilities, and it always pays to have seen it before,” explained Manahan. “Also, I’ve become familiar with the tools and equipment necessary to run a distributing brewery, but those tools are not as available for nanoscale systems, so many pieces need to be fabricated. An understanding of not only what something does, but also how it does it, is extremely valuable.”
When he left Flat12, Manahan realized now was as good of a time as any to follow through with his dream and officially turn Kopacetic Beer Factory into a legitimate brewery. He brewed in two large cities and now he was ready to return home.
Manahan and his wife both grew up in Monticello, Indiana, and his family owns a restaurant in town called The Scoreboard. Deciding to open Kopacetic Beer Factory in Monticello was a no-brainer, but pairing it with the restaurant was brilliant.
“I told my dad and my uncle we should step up our game and make The Scoreboard into a pub, and add a small brewery,” said Manahan. “The Scoreboard has always offered a large selection of Hoosier-brewed craft, and we started hosting educational tastings and even a beer fest here in town to bring craft beer to Monticello.”
Source: Kopacetic Beer Factory
Currently, Manahan is building out the brewery, which will be housed inside a 7,000-sq ft former highway department building. He plans to brew on a 1.5 barrel system with a 3 barrel fermenter. Going with a nano brewery will offer Manahan flexibility with his brewing, allowing him to create numerous varieties without having to be bound by the supply and demand of core beers.
“I learned and worked on big production systems and with distribution models for a long time,” Manahan said while explaining why he chose to brew on a smaller scale. “While it was a great experience, I’m glad to be done with it. At a certain point, it gets too serious.”
With their current timeline, Manahan and family expect to open the craft beer bar in December, have the required permits to begin selling their own beer by January, and then followed up by The Scoreboard moving over into the facility in February.
“I am more than excited to now bring the skills and knowledge I have gained back home and give Monticello its very first brewery,” said Manahan.
*You can follow the progress of Kopacetic Beer Factory on their social media accounts: Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
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