Empyrean Brewing Company - History

History

Lazlo's Brewery and Grill was founded in 1990. Rich Chapin, the Head Brewer, began to convert his award-winning homebrew recipes for the restaurant. The grand opening of the brewpub took place on March 20, 1991, at 710 P St. in Lincoln's historic Haymarket District. During that year, the company sold approximately 500 barrels of their beer.

In 1996, construction began on a new fermentation cellar in the adjacent Coffee and Spice Building at 729 Q St. After completion of the construction in 1997, Empyrean Brewing Company and Lazlo's Brewery and Grill became separate financial entities under the Telesis umbrella. As production increased, K & Z Distributing of Lincoln and Miller Brands of Omaha begin distributing Empyrean beer.

Just one year after contracting with the distributors, Empyrean had over 70 draft contracts in Lincoln and Omaha. To meet these needs, brewing capacity was increased to 2,500 barrels. The increasing popularity of the beers caused Empyrean owners to begin to consider bottling the beers for more widespread distribution.

Empyrean began the bottling process in 1999 with their LunaSea ESB, Third Stone Brown and Chaco Canyon Honey Gold. In doing so, Empyrean became the first Nebraska craft brewery to bottle its beers.

In 2000, a second Lazlo's location was opened in South Lincoln on Old Cheney Road. As the brewing capacity was increased again, Empyrean began to draw up plans for a new brewhouse which would make it the largest brewery in Nebraska in 2001. It was at that time that Dark Side Vanilla Porter was created. By 2002, Empyrean became the first brewery in Nebraska to distribute across the entire state. In Lincoln, the Telesis family was expanding as well, with the creation of FireWorks, a restaurant focused on wood-fired cooking. Also in 2002, the Burning Skye Scottish Ale was created.

At the 2006 World Beer Cup, the LunaSea ESB took the Silver medal in the English-Style Extra Special Bitter or Strong Bitter category.