After a decade in operation, a small-batch brewery is planning to open its first brick-and-mortar location, in Midtown. 

Memphis Filling Station, or MFS, is the brainchild of Bryan Berretta and his business partners, but the initial idea was for a growler shop where they would sell beer made by other people. 

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But, in 2015, the whole endeavor turned into something more serious when Berretta was tapped to serve his own beer at an event benefiting the Mid-South chapter of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.

“All I had was homebrew, but I didn’t usually share it because I didn’t think it was worth sharing,” Berretta said. “We poured an insane amount of beer: 20 gallons, bottle by bottle. One of our co-founders, Heather (Reed), and I said to each other, ‘Wow. That’s a lot more fun than growlers.’”

They began to serve their beer at more and more events and not only did they begin to realize the quality of their own product, they began to question why they’d want to sell growlers of beer they didn’t make themselves. 

It’s possible the universe agreed their first plan wasn’t the right one. 

“Each time we would turn a corner on signing a lease for the growler shop, something would come up and stop it,” Berretta said. 

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“Time after time, something would fall through,” MFS partner Scott Kley-Contini reiterated. “Eventually, they just ditched the growler thing because everybody loved MFS beer.”

Kley-Contini, a longtime friend of Berretta’s who had been living in California, moved to Memphis in 2021 to work on a new Memphis Filling Station plan: a full-service brewery. 

Prior to that, he was homebrewing in California and trying to find the right partners with whom to open a brewpub. 

“Almost everything that drives us centers around the question, ‘How can we use this to benefit people and organizations that got us here?’”

Bryan Berretta
co-owner Memphis Filling Station

“And it was the same thing,” as Berretta’s situation, Kley-Contini said. “Not the right time. Not the right place.”

Together, Berretta and Kley-Contini had an aligned vision for MFS: small-batch, locally focused craft beer in an inviting space and made by a tight-knit team. 

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Today, they have all of that except for the inviting space … so far.

“We’re currently in talks with a developer of a space in Midtown,” Berretta said. “I don’t want to put too much out there because I don’t want it to fail.”

But they are in negotiations on a space that has all the makings of a brewery, according to Kley-Contini. 

When asked what makes MFS’ beer stand out against the ever-growing market of local beer in Memphis, Beretta cites experimentation and novelty as the driving force behind their brews.

“We’re big fans of big-barrel beers,” he said. 

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Big-barrel beers are typically dark, rich, highly alcoholic beers — such as a Russian imperial stout — that are aged in wooden barrels after fermentation. They’re also usually one-off batches, limited in their editions. At the moment, these beers are hard to find at the local level.

Aging aside, MFS says they’re prioritizing flavors that aren’t the ones typically found in the Mid-South.

“The West Coast craft industry has two veins: the most hops you can possibly put in (a beer) and then as boozy as you can get it,” said Kley-Contini. “People here are ready for it. We want our staff and guests to be very knowledgeable about what we do and why. You’re going to come into our place and probably learn some stuff along the way.”

MFS’ beers can be found all across the spectrum, from an easy-drinking citrus wheat ale to a thick and creamy milk stout.

But it’s not all about the beer for MFS. It’s also about working together and working for the community. 

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Memphis Filling Station consists of Berretta, Reed and Kley-Contini, alongside Blake Marcum and Jesse Lara.

“We all work hand-in-hand with each role having overlapping responsibilities. It’s an awesome team with a singular focus in mind: to bring Memphis a unique, community-focused beer experience,” said Berretta. “Almost everything that drives us centers around the question, ‘How can we use this to benefit people and organizations that got us here?’”

Since the 2015 event that got them thinking about selling their own beer, MFS has participated in more than 30 charitable events, Berretta said. And a central tenet of their business is “being part of something bigger than ourselves.”

In October, for example, MFS will be part of Ales for Alzheimer’s at The Arcade Restaurant. 

“When we designed what MFS is going to be, it was based on how we experience Memphis as a whole,” Berretta said. “Memphis pulls together to help Memphis out really well. Now, we have the ability to do that through a brewery, but we also have a responsibility to do that really well.”