It took some ingenuity for this pizza restaurant to be able to start serving their in-house brews to the downtown Lafayette community.
Jim Deggy's Brick Oven Pizza and Brewery opened its Lafayette location on May 9, but the brewing took a little longer to get off the ground. That's because wastewater runoff restrictions prohibit full-scale breweries from operating in the downtown development district.
With a small footprint — owner Paul Averett brews the restaurant's craft beers in a bit of floor space right next to the pizza-making station — Averett was able to set up an operation that maximizes space, adheres to wastewater rules, and produces tasty brews that pair well with the restaurant's signature pizzas.
"I produce 90% less waste than any other brewery does," says Averett, speaking next to the three brewing tanks that stand in the middle of Jim Deggy's. "This is a brewery that I fit in an under 200 square foot area. What happens is, some of the brewing and procurement process is done off-site. In a normal brewing process, you'll have three to four times the equipment and four times the space."
He partnered with Brian Watson of SmartBrew, a mostly-automated system that Watson, an internationally-known brewmaster, invented to help a variety of restaurant and retail operations brew on site. SmartBrew makes the wort, sugar water extracted during the mashing process at the initial stages of brewing beer or whiskey. That product is then shipped to Averett, and he adds the yeast and other ingredients to begin the fermentation and flavoring process at the restaurant.
Owner Paul Averett talks about the beer brewing process Thursday, July 11, 2024, at Jim DeggyÕs Brick Oven Pizza and Brewery in Lafayette, La.
It only takes the restaurant owner about six hours a week to brew more than 120 barrels a month, on top of running his pizza locations in Lafayette and Pineville.
"It's kind of like, if I were to order let's say, chicken wings. If this was a full brewery I'd cut the chicken up, gut it, de-feather it, piece it up and make it on site. Here, I basically get the chicken wings from them, then I cook it and add my seasonings and stuff like that," Averett says.
The end result is several craft brews to pair with the restaurant's wood-fired pizzas: a raspberry blonde, the 201 house blonde, the Will-o-Wheat, the Blaze Haze juicy IPA, and a blood orange wheat ale. The raspberry and blood orange beers are especially fruit-forward, perfect to sip on during south Louisiana's hot summers. Averett says that he partners with the team at SmartBrew to create the recipes for his brews, based on market research on the local area.
"I'm a small microbrewery, for my restaurant and my customers only," he says. "I have a small footprint and I can do any wild type of beer I want in here, but the system also allows me to serve Bud Lite, Miller Lite, wine, liquor — that's the difference here between my brewery system and a regular brewery.
He says that their number one seller is the raspberry blonde, with their house blonde coming in a close second.
"I've had quite a few guys who are brewmasters come through here, and they're like 'oh crap, this is really good beer.' One guy said this is the best blonde in the area," says Averett.