l.-r.: Sherry and Lane Smith at the Hop Yard. Setting the poles for the hops. Farm owner Gary Funk (left with the large pole), CamRock Café & Sport owner Derek Nelson in plaid with the shovel, his son Logan Nelson in the back on his knees and our son Aidan Smith in the front on his knees. CamRock Café & Sport will feature some of our beers on tap.
Another new brewery for south central Wisconsin? Yes, the Sunshine Brewing Company is in the works for Lake Mills. Plans are that the brewery will be selling beer in bombers and through select draft accounts by the end of the year.
Owner and brewer Lane Smith says the signature of his brewery will be Belgian-style beers. “I lean to very simple recipes that highlight the quality of Belgian yeast,” he says. Over time, Smith intends to make other ales like porters and IPAs, but initially he’s motivated by the absence of locally made Belgian-influenced beers.
Smith, 46, and his wife Sherry, 44, and their four children moved to Lake Mills in 2006 from the Los Angeles area. Since coming to Wisconsin, he’s become an avid home brewer. He recently attended the Madison College craft brewing certification program and is working on becoming a cicerone. About a year ago, the Smiths teamed up with two other local couples and planted a one-acre hop yard near Cambridge that will eventually supply hops to the brewery.
When Smith started planning his brewery, he called it Houblon Brewing (houblon is French for hops). However, it was hard to pronounce and the meaning wasn’t obvious to English speakers, so he rethought the name and recently settled on Sunshine Brewing Company, in part as a reminder of his days in sunny California.
Sunshine Brewing will initially contract-brew with House of Brews in Madison. Smith’s first two beers will be a Belgian tripel and a Belgian IPA.
Smith has received his local and federal permits and is waiting for state approval before commercially brewing his first batch. He’s hoping that within a year he’ll be able to open a three-to-five-barrel nano-brewing facility in a building he owns at 121 South Main St. in Lake Mills. Just west of Commons Park, it’s close enough to the millpond that the brewery’s future patio and deck should have a view of the water. However, due to road construction in that area scheduled for early next year, Smith is in no hurry to open his actual brewery until next fall. “We want to make sure we have high quality beer and are getting it on shelves. We’ll back into the taproom and local brewery aspect as we build a name for ourselves,” says Smith.
