USA, KS: Flatlanders Brewing Company coming to Wichita later this summer

Wichita’s Delano district will be rooftop bar central later this summer when a new microbrewery opens, Yahoo reported on March 24.

The new brewery, which will be called Flatlanders Brewing Company, is taking over the vacant space at 623 W. Douglas, which is directly to the west of Picasso’s Pizzeria and was previously home to graphic design business Visual Fusion.

The brewery will be owned by Picasso’s founders Kurt and Jessica Schmidt and partners Jason Ayala, Lawrence Schutz and Lance Diffenbaugh. Though it is right next door to Picasso’s — and will have an adjoining door that will allow brewery customers to get Picasso’s pizza — the business will be a separate entity from Picasso’s, Schmidt said.

It should be open sometime in the next four or five months, which would be July or August. The brewery, which is taking over the space that’s been vacant since Visual Fusion left during COVID, will have two stories plus a rooftop patio looking out over Douglas — just a few blocks east of the new rooftop patio Wichita Brewing Company opened last month.

“I’ve been wanting to do a brewery for a long time,” said Schmidt, who has hired an established brewer from Kansas City to run his beer program.

He initially was planning to open his brewery about five years ago and had plans drawn up to enclose the space that now holds Picasso’s large, back patio. Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit, and those plans were put on indefinite hold.

Then, he started talking with his friends about the brewery idea: Ayala, a local firefighter, and Schutz, a pilot for United Airlines, are Schmidt’s lifelong friends: The three used to wrestle together. Diffenbaugh, he said, owns a deck-finishing business with Ayala.

“We hang out all the time, and they’ve known forever that I’ve wanted to do this,” Schmidt said. “It just kind of happened.”

The partners got serious about the plan last spring, when the owner of the Visual Fusion space asked Schmidt if he’d be interested in taking it over. At the time, Schmidt said, he didn’t think he could handle an expansion.

Then, he decided the space would be perfect for a brewery.

Flatlanders will have 75 seats on the main floor and another 75 on the second floor. Schmidt said he’s not yet sure what the capacity of the rooftop patio will be.

The brewery will offer a large variety of different beers, including sours. Schmidt said he’s always loved craft beer and got even more interested in brewing when he collaborated with the owners of Central Standard Brewing on a special beer brewed in honor of Picasso’s 10th birthday in March 2022. It was a sour IPA called Pineapple Dough Boy, and they’ve made it on Picasso’s birthday each year since.

Schmidt said that he’s friends with one of the owners of the new Wichita Brewing Company in Delano, which just opened two blocks away from Picasso’s. He said he’s excited about the idea that Delano could become a bit of a craft brewery hub: Not only will it have WBC and Flatlanders, but Manhattan Brewing Company also has a tap room nearby that opened last summer, just off West Douglas at 117 N. Handy.

“Delano will be a destination for people who love breweries and like to go brew hopping,” he said.

Schmidt said he and his partners are waiting for final approval from the city of Wichita on their plans for the brewery, then they’ll start construction, which should take a couple of months. After that, they’ll need another six to eight weeks to brew beer. Their brewing equipment will be set up on the main level, toward the back.

Flatlanders, Schmidt said, is what his cousin in Colorado calls his Kansas friends. The name seemed perfect for the brewery, he said.

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