By Melissa Wagoner
Dan Miletta can’t wait to get back to doing what he loves, brewing beer, a pastime he has mostly put aside for the last six months while he and business partner William Mary refurbished the space that previously housed Seven
Brides Brewing.
“We’re slowly getting back to where we can just focus on brewing,” Miletta said, looking around the space that now houses Ratchet Brewery. “Then we can just focus on making and selling beer.”
Making beer is something that Miletta knows a bit about, having been a home brewer for 15 years prior to the opening of the Ratchet Brewery taproom in Salem in 2017.
“I enjoy beer,” Miletta said simply. “I enjoy making beer. It’s a lot of fun.”
And fun is the name of the game at Ratchet Brewery’s new Silverton location, which opened on Sept. 1.
“Darts, shuffleboard, foosball, pinball, Golden Tee and soccer pool,” Miletta said, listing the numerous arcade and table games housed in Ratchet Brewery’s large backroom. “Kids are allowed until nine every night. That’s a little bit why I added the arcade.”
Making sure there is something for just about everyone is one of the biggest aims of both the layout and the menu at Ratchet, which serves up root beer on draft and a line of sodas for kids as well as 20 taps of locally brewed beer for adults – much of it made by Ratchet Brewery itself.
“We really go for nice, clean, easy-drinking beer,” Miletta described. “But we’ve done quite a few experimental things. We play that fine line of both. Consistency and quality; they’re the key to expanding.”
Expanding was exactly what Ratchet Brewery had in mind when they opened the Silverton venue, gaining the ability to brew beer onsite for the first time.
“Now we won’t have to contract brew anymore,” Miletta said. “That was one of the things that drew us to the space. Having this will help us expand.”
Although the taproom is up and running, the game room nearly full and a brand new projector screen installed for televised sporting events, there is still the matter of food.
“That’s still in the works,” Miletta admitted. “We are doing BBQ out of our kitchen with a guest chef in the interim until we get our kitchen going. It should be up and running before the end of the year now.”
But even without a permanent food menu, Ratchet Brewery is already bringing people in to enjoy the cozy seating, play in the game room and take advantage of the dry fall days around the outdoor fire pit, but most of all to taste Ratchet Brewery’s line of beers.
“People just want to come in and relax,” Miletta pointed out. “So far it’s been good.”
Ratchet Brewery 990 N. First St., Silverton
www.facebook.com/ ratchetbrewerysilverton
