Nebraska governor Pete Ricketts set out on agriculture tour on Thursday, but this one didn't take him to any farms. During the Governor's Agriculture Adventure Tour, Ricketts stopped by a distillery in the Old Market.
The canning line was humming Thursday morning at Brickway Brewery and Distillery.
The five year old business employs eighteen people buys much of its hops in the state. Turning local grains into beer and liquor is called “value added” agriculture, something Ricketts wanted to see first hand.
It isn't just beer that's made at Brickway. President Zac Triemert studied distilling in Scotland and told 6 News that business is good, with plans on the horizon to expand. “Right now, we have our one location in the Old Market. We're looking doing a second production facility somewhere between Omaha and Lincoln. So we can shift all our beer production there just make spirits in the Old Market. We'll more than double our staff and not sure what that time line is but I'd like to see us doing something like that in the next 24 months."
Triemert says there are a lot of craft beers being produced in our area but craft spirits are relatively new. “I think craft spirits in Nebraska is something that's we're gonna see grow pretty significantly over the next five years and we're excited to be a part of it."
"Coming here to Brickway really helps us to identify that there are ways that we can add value to agriculture that are different from just your traditional livestock or something like that,” said Ricketts. “So it’s just really trying to highlight that there's a lot of different ways we can grow our state through agriculture."
The governor also visited a farmers market, a vineyard and an orchard.
(Photo courtesy of News)