Shauna Steigerwald

ssteigerwald@enquirer.com

Ever since he sold his share of Rivertown Brewery back in the fall of 2014, Randy Schiltz has been working on plans to start another brewery.

He and his wife, Karen, are now moving forward with those plans. They hope to open Wooden Cask Brewing Company at 629 York St. in Newport by June or July.

Named for the traditional method of serving beer, Wooden Cask will be a production brewery with a tap room. "Traditional" is how the Schiltzs hope to set themselves apart in the growing local craft beer industry. Randy Schiltz said the new brewery's primary focus will be on traditional, easy-drinking beers that are a little lower ABV, "beers that people can relate to." He's particularly interested in making some English, Irish and Scottish styles.

That reflects his own taste and background: An English-style bitter got Schiltz interested in craft beer, and it was the first style he made when he started home brewing about 17 years ago. He went on to co-found Rivertown Brewery with Jason Roeper in 2009. Roeper bought Schiltz out in the fall of 2014.

Schiltz's mindset is also about getting back to more traditional beers, which he believes many craft breweries have gotten away from.

"A lot of people know of the English, Irish and Scottish styles, it's just that craft brewers have changed those styles so much that they're not what they used to be," he said.

When Wooden Cask opens, five flagship beers will be bottled and sold in the tap room year-round: An American wheat, a Scottish-style stout, an IPA, a double IPA and a light hybrid brew for people who come in and want something light.

"Almost every tap room I've been into, you hear someone ask 'what's your lightest beer?' " Schiltz said. "It's a way to get people started so they can see that craft beer doesn't have to be 100 IBUs and 14 percent ABV."

Seasonals and a small barrel-aged program, including bourbon-barrel aged beers and an English IPA aged with brettanomyces yeast, will be offered. They also hope to make a cider and non-alcoholic soda to round out the tap room's dozen taps.

Schiltz said he'd like to try things like an educational series, where, for example, he'll brew a small-batch base beer with four different yeasts or several different hops to help people understand the differences those ingredients make to the beer's taste.

"The more educated you are about the beer you're drinking, the better choices you can make," he said.

The Schiltzs looked all over Northern Kentucky before buying the 1887 building in Newport. It was once home to Jockey Club, a 1980s punk rock bar; marble floors in the brewery area, which will be home to a 15-barrel brewhouse, harken back to that time. The building was most recently home to Yellow Cab company, whose name is still on the side, so there's a large parking area.

As they remodel, they hope to incorporate some of the building's historical features – to restore tin ceilings, for example, and to repurpose wood from six bowling lanes they removed to use for the bar and tabletops.

The space is approximately 10,000 square feet altogether, with the barrel-aging area and tap room taking up about 4,400 square feet of that. The latter will have tables, bench seating, couches/lounge areas, TVs and games, including darts. Schiltz said he hopes the space will reflect the styles of beers he'll be serving and have sort of a stripped-down English pub style.

Schiltz said he hopes to be open Tuesday through Saturday and may add Sunday hours if demand is there.

The beers' branding and packaging, too, will have a traditional look, with a "W" logo shaped from barley.

Schiltz expects to produce about 1,500 barrels in the first year and to grow to 3,500-4,000 in a few years. But he'll wait for that growth to happen organically.

"I would rather move slowly in the right direction than blaze out in the wrong direction," he said.

And besides, he wants to enjoy the trip.

"Brewing beer should be about fun," he said.