Brian Cendrowski

RJ Rockers’ New Brewery Shows South Carolina What It’s Been Missing

2009 was a banner year for RJ Rockers in Spartanburg, South Carolina. They won two major awards, including a gold medal at the Great American Beer Festival, and moved into their new brewery in downtown Spartanburg. I stopped in before Christmas to see the place and talk with the brewmaster and co-owner, Mark Johnsen.

The front of RJ Rockers’ new brewery

The first thing I noticed when I pulled up were the huge solar panels and large windows. They did a nice renovation job on this former Salvation Army thrift store.

Aside from the looks of the shiny new tanks and clean floors, they went the extra mile to make the brewery as environmentally friendly as beer making can be. For a small operation, this is a state-of-the-art facility that utilizes a lot of green technologies, including:

• 10 solar panels than can heat 500 gallons of water to 172 degrees in about five hours
• Rainwater collection tanks
• A brand new, highly efficient boiler
• Recirculating water
• Huge windows that keep the brewery well-lit, so lights don’t have to be turned on during the day

How It Came To Be

Mark filled me in on the story of how they came to be in this beautiful space. The search for a new location began back in October 2007 when Mark brought on two business partners, John Bauknight and Nick Wildrick. With the strength of the new partnership, they felt it was time to expand the brewery’s production.

Nearly a year and a half later, they found an old warehouse on the outskirts of town that they felt would do the trick. A story ran in the Spartanburg Herald Journal about RJ Rockers’ plans to move into this warehouse. It so happened that around that time, a local real estate developer, George Dean Johnson Jr., bought the old Salvation Army thrift store building on Main St. on the west side of downtown.

Johnson saw this story in the newspaper and must have been given a vision from the heavens. His people contacted RJ Rockers and gave them an offer they couldn’t refuse for the downtown building.

Lo-and-behold, the deal was finalized in February 2009, construction began in April and they brewed their first batch of beer on August 12.

With the new brewery, RJ Rockers now has a 30-barrel brewing system and increased their capacity from 1,500 barrels to 7,500. Since they aren’t going to quintuple production and sales overnight, Mark said they plan on brewing more seasonals and experimental beers using their excess capacity. He said to look for something new every couple months.

What’s This? A Government Agency In South Carolina Supporting a Local Brewery?

Pardon me if I seem a little jaded, but the government in South Carolina has not exactly been known to bend over backwards in support of local breweries. We’re slowly overcoming special interests and archaic blue laws. It’s a slow push, but we’re getting there.

That’s one of the aspects that makes RJ Rockers’ story fascinating. The Spartanburg city council approved historic incentives to entice the brewery to move into the Salvation Army building. The city agreed to give the brewery tax breaks if it adds 10 new jobs over the next 3 years. There are also incentives for attracting restaurants into this “complex” and for achieving food and beverage sales goals.

So why would the city be interested in attracting a brewery downtown, when they can’t even sell their own beer out of the brewery? (In South Carolina, it is not legal  for a distributing brewery to sell its beer, even within its facility. The beer must always pass through a distributor.) It’s always about money, so what is the financial motivation?

In recent years, Spartanburg has been trying hard to turn around its downtown and to attract new businesses. Mark observed that even though the brewery itself won’t directly generate a lot of traffic with people going in and out, “it acts as an anchor for the west side of downtown. The brewery brings a vibe that other downtown businesses can build on.”

In the large warehouse complex that was the Salvation Army, there are spaces for two more restaurants, in addition to the Tap Room that is already in operation. The plan is to make this a major hub of activity, all centered around the brewery.

The Tap Room

Even though breweries in South Carolina are not allowed to have their own tasting rooms, or even sipping rooms, RJ Rockers was able to bring back the feel of its original roots as a brewpub, allowing people to drink the brewery’s beer right next door in The Tap Room.

The Tap Room, owned by Keith Williams, is a completely separate beer bar that is attached to the brewery’s building. The funniest part of the whole thing is how RJ Rockers beer finds its way into the Tap Room. It illustrates how some laws override common sense. You guessed it, the distributor pulls his pickup truck up to the brewery, loads up a few kegs, drives 20 feet and unloads them at the Tap Room. Efficient, huh?

The Tap Room serves all 11 of RJ Rockers’ beers on tap and has a limited food menu. Starting later this month, you will be able to tour the brewery starting and ending in the Tap Room, and you’ll get to sample the beers you saw being made next door. From the customer’s standpoint, it’s as if the brewery and Tap Room are one entity. People can enjoy a tour, meet the brewers and then sample the beer. It’s a powerful way to build loyal customers.

I know this doesn’t sound like anything special to many of you around the country, and we do have brewpubs here that can give you pretty much the same effect, but none of the other distributing breweries in South Carolina have a setup like this “simulated” tap room at the brewery. I think it’s a wonderful example to our state government of what is possible and how this can benefit local breweries and surrounding businesses.

Award-Winning Beers

Aside from the excitement of opening the new brewery, there was a lot to celebrate at RJ Rockers in 2009. They took home a gold medal at the GABF for their Light Rock in the English-style Summer Beer category. Mark said that even though the medal hasn’t sparked a huge direct increase in sales for the Light Rock, their 4th best year-round seller, it has been incredibly valuable in increasing the awareness and credibility of the brewery as they look to expand into new markets.

Earlier this year they also took home a gold medal for the Son of a Peach in the Fruit Wheat Beer category at the Los Angeles International Commercial Beer Competition. Mark was amazed at the success of the Son of a Peach. He introduced it in the early summer of last year as an experimental brew. The aim was just to try something different and see what happens. This experiment turned into their biggest seller of 2009.

Son of a Peach is one of the few fruit-based beers that I’ve enjoyed. They use real peaches in primary fermentation, and the peach flavor and aroma is remarkable. At the same time, it isn’t overly sweet like a lot of fruit beers. It’s very well-balanced and refreshing.

RJ Rockers has a lot to be excited about going into 2010. With their recent successes and the freedom to branch out into new things, I’m certainly looking forward to what’s to come.

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