Turkey Creek Brewery has wood-fired pizza as well as their craft beers.
The staff at Turkey Creek Brewery were busy during their soft opening.
Scott Wuest, owner of Turkey Creek Brewery, works with the brewery equipment in house to create craft beverages.
Turkey Creek Brewery has at least eight crafted beverages on their menu.
Turkey Creek Brewery has wood-fired pizza as well as their craft beers.
The staff at Turkey Creek Brewery were busy during their soft opening.
Scott Wuest, owner of Turkey Creek Brewery, works with the brewery equipment in house to create craft beverages.
Turkey Creek Brewery has at least eight crafted beverages on their menu.
A new microbrewery in Hollister is bringing plow to tap crafted beverages and wood-fired pizza to the area.
Turkey Creek Brewery is located in the 1910’s stone building, which was known for years as the Red Lion at 1865 Business US 65 in Hollister. Turkey Creek Brewery is open Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Friday and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m..
According to the Turkey Creek Brewery website, the brewpub has favorite craft brews and wood-fired pizza. Their beers’ local ingredients and time-tested brewing techniques bolster Turkey Creek Brewery as they strive for recipes of impeccable quality. After 15-years of garage-based brewing, the formulas, aromas, tastes, and appearance are ready for the Ozarks.
Owner Scott Wuest said he and his wife Deneen have taken months remodeling the historic building to create a unique place for locals and travelers to gather for hand crafted beers and beverages.
“The remodeling of the building was an adventure, to say the least. We didn’t come in here with a well orchestrated design vision or architectural plan,” Wuest said. “I think we looked at the building and wanted to keep the historic feel of it. First of all, it’s just a wonderful old building with incredible bones. I think our goal was to keep the character of the building and that lent itself to the overall design that we ended up with.”
Wuest said he and his wife have memories of the old Red Lion and it was important to them to keep part of that history alive while creating something new for the area.
“I mean we’ve lived here 28 years. But I remember 35 years ago, my wife’s family would come to the area. And I remember coming in here with them,” Wuest said. “I have people who stop in all the time since we began the remodeling process and more so since we opened who just come in and are very intrigued by what we are doing because they remember it from back in the day.”
Wuest said the opportunity to put a microbrewery in the historic building came as a kind of a whirlwind.
“We started looking around for an opportunity and thought maybe we will do this someday. Then the father of a very good friend of ours bought this building maybe a year and a half ago. He approached us and said, ‘Hey, I want to see you put your brewery in there.’ We didn’t have everything lined up, so it has been a process since March. It was not only the renovation of the building, but the cost of everything.”
Wuest said he wants Turkey Creek Brewery to be known as a microbrewery that serves food.
“We had a decision to make when we first started. We could be a restaurant that serves craft beer or a microbrewery that serves food. When we first began that sounded like the same thing to me, but they’re not the same way. Our decision was we want to be a brewery first.”
Turkey Creek Brewery has several crafted beverages, named for the area, which they ferment and carbonate in house.
“Our intention at all times is to have eight craft beverages on tap,” Wuest said. “And the reason I say that is like right now we have a Farmhouse Strawberry Basil Cider and a seltzer that we made. Seltzers are getting to be a big deal in the market. And it is a fermented product, so we make it in house as well.”
Wuest explained he has been brewing for several years at home and has always dreamed of opening up his own microbrewery.
“I home brewed and then I joined a club up in Springfield, called Them Beer Knobbers, which is a great group of homebrewers. It has maybe 25 or 30 members. They meet at Show-Me Brewery in Springfield, the first Tuesday of every month. I mean seriously, there’s some incredible home brewers in that group,” Wuest said. “Every home brewers dreams of what they call ‘going pro or commercial.’ I also brew here in town with a couple of friends, and we talked about opening a microbrewery someday. The talk would come and go. Not to get too deep into it, my wife and I discussed seeking a business opportunity for ourselves that might help us later years.”
Wuest said there are some great breweries in the area but they almost all focus on either food first, or are distilleries first and beer brewing is not their primary focus.
“I wanted us to be focused on the beer making process. This kind of micro brewing setup, we’re taking it, literally, from the raw materials all the way to the tap, so plow to tap or plow to pint.”
Wuest said Turkey Creek Brewery is set up much like a home brewing system just on a larger scale.
“This system very much replicates some home brewery systems, just on a larger scale. Where a home brewery would be about 10 or 15 gallons,” Quest said. “This is 120 gallons. So you know it’s just a little bit more than 10 times the beer.”
Wuest said the idea of serving food was secondary to getting the brewery up and running.
“We thought, man, it’s gotta be more of an experience and not just food you can get anywhere,” Wuest said. “So that’s when we decided, okay, what are we going to have pizza, but it was not my desire to compete head to head with other pizza operations in the area. To be different we decided to do the wood fired pizza.”
Wuest said the brewery works much like the larger companies and has even got a control panel to help ensure the taste of each beer is as close as possible with each batch.
“I mean, in craft that’s not the easiest thing to get the margin of error as close as possible to ensure consistency. If a customer comes in today and drinks a Turkey Creek pale ale, and they come back, four or five, six weeks later, and it is a different batch. I mean there’s a lot of variables that affect being able to do that because you use raw agricultural products, especially as far as malted barley grains and hops. Those two things, you’re dependent on what the agricultural people put out. They can’t grow the same barley all the time, I mean you will never get the same batch twice. It’s not the exact same batch, every time. But our process is to make it as close as possible each time.”
Wuest said his team of employees are what is going to make the Turkey Creek Brewery a success.
“We’re fortunate to have an outstanding staff, who are helpful and have experience. They don’t have a big learning curve on customer service,” Wuest said. “They are amazing and I am thankful to have them.”
For more information visit turkeycreekbrewery.com.
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