Many are the beer-geek, Trekkie and sci-fi nut who’ve enjoyed pints in tandem with the outer-space theme at Intergalactic Brewing Company (9715 Carroll Centre Road, #107, Miramar). Enough that owner and brewmaster Alex Van Horne has experienced steady growth and increasing demand for his beers, which hit nearly every style thanks much in part to a rotating “Red Shirt” series of one-and-done brews. Over the past three years, Intergalactic has gone from a single business suite, to back-to-back suites, but even after doubling his footprint, Van Horne needed more space for brewing operations, cold storage and his patrons.
In January, Van Horne leased a second unit within Intergalactic’s business-park home, a 2,600-square-foot space that, aside from a small office, is completely devoted to the customer experience. The cold-box from the original 750-square-foot tasting room was transferred to the new space (along with the original 20-tap setup) and expanded by 20 percent. Situated around that chilled-storage is an L-shaped bar featuring a ripple façade (that will soon be illuminated by LED lighting) and a counter-top decorated with glossed-over shots from the Hubble space telescope.
Posters from sci-fi movies have been posted near the entryway and around the room, which offers a variety of seating, including stools at the bar and around used barrels plus picnic tables near the back of the bar. The space has further been made comfortable by the landlord’s courteous addition of air-conditioning prior to Intergalactic moving in. A separate room that fits up to 25 people can also be rented out for private events. Altogether, the new tasting room can hold roughly 150 people, quite the upgrade from the old space, which only had capacity for 40 and regularly topped out on weekends.
Back at Intergalactic’s original space, brewing has finally begun on beer that is slated for someplace other than the tasting room. Last week, Van Horne and lead brewer Anthony Fusco brewed a full batch of The Cake is a Lie, a coffee cream ale that will all be set aside for distribution. Intergalactic is on-pace to brew between 300 and 350 barrels in 2016, with plans to increase barrelage in 2017 and beyond.