Bring On The Suds!

A planned New Haven brewery has the go-ahead to open its doors in the fall and produce up to 45,000 barrels of beer a year — with the proper equipment to make that happen.

That’s thanks to a vote by the Board of Zoning Appeals (BZA) Tuesday night, before which East Rock Brewing Co. owner Timothy Wilson made an appeal for special exceptions on an existing plan for the forthcoming brewery, bar, and tasting room. The brewery is in an IL, or light industrial, zone, which does not generally include food and drink preparation in its regulation.

The board voted unanimously 5 – 0 to approve the appeal.

The approval comes with three conditions. Hours of operation will run Monday through Thursday from noon to 10 p.m. and Friday and Saturday from noon to 11 p.m. No certificate of occupancy will be issued to Wilson until completion of the Parking Garage planned at 285 Nicoll St. And no amplified or electronic music will be permitted on the exterior of the building.

At the meeting, Wilson saod none of the conditions would pose a problem. Tuesday’s meeting is not his first rodeo with BZA; he has already gotten approvals from the board and City Plan Commission, and returned only to seek further special exceptions (read more below).

The brewery will be ​“an asset that will strengthen the city’s celebrity as a cultural hub of Connecticut,” he said at the meeting. And part of that will be its manufacturing equipment — three silos and a CO2 tank outside, for brewing beer locally.

During the public hearing portion of the meeting, Wilson’s East Rock neighbors expressed enthusiasm for the project. Landlord Suzanne Lussier, who lives on Nash Street, said she had polled her tenants and gotten overwhelmingly positive responses. East Rock Alder Anna Festa and Deputy Economic Development Director Steve Fontana pointedto job growth and economic development as incentives for the exceptions. Former Alder Justin Elicker called it the kind of development that is helping to put New Haven on the map as ​“hip.”

“This type of development is critical to revitalizing urban centers like New Haven, so I really hope you support it,” he said.

BZA member (and former craft beer tasting host) Charles Decker asked Wilson what Connecticut or New England breweries he might consider comparable in size, and what the annual upper limit of beer production is. Giving a 45,000 barrel limit — far more than he would probably actually produce per year, Wilson added — Wilson suggested Branford’s Stony Creek Brewery provides a similar model. 

The proposed changes are not variances but what Wilson called jokingly ​“special exceptions on special exceptions” at an East Rock Community Management Team meeting last month.

Initially, the BZA approved Wilson for a 28,000 square foot space comprising a beer hall, tasting room and manufacturing operation open six of seven days per week. He returned seeking to change that interior space, granting the beer hall an extra 281 square feet (from 3,000 to 3,281) as he shrinks the factory by 2,459 square feet (from 25,100 to 22,641).

He also requested new permissions to put three silos — two for raw material and one for spent grain—and a CO2 tank outside the brewery, on the northeast corner of Mitchell Drive. And he wants to expand the operation for special events, with permission to open the beer hall on Mondays and prepare food on-site if he wants to. At last month’s meeting, he said he has no immediate plans to build an industrial kitchen on-site; in fact, he and his colleagues are more interested in collaborating with restaurants and food trucks for a twist on bar food. 

“We just want to be as transparent as possible,” Wilson had said after that meeting. As for an opening date, he told the group in East Rock, he had initially hoped for May. With some manufacturing equipment arriving in August, he’s now shooting for closer to September of this year. With current plans in place, East Rock Brewing Co. will employ 12 people for its brewing operations and another eight in the beer hall and tasting room.