From our media coverage partners at TravelersRestTribune.com
TRAVELERS REST – Plans for a brewery located on Main Street in Travelers Restare moving forward, and the owners of the future establishment – Swamp Rabbit Brewery and Taproom – anticipate opening in mid-March.
On Monday, a dozen or so large tanks arrived from JV Northwest in Oregon to the soon-to-be brewery at 26 South Main Street, owned by Ben Pierson and his wife, Teresa. Once running, the brewery will feature a comfortable taproom where guests can sit back, relax and sip on American, European and seasonal ales poured directly from the tank.
The owners expect to start brewing the first week of February and to open to the public officially the second week of March. In addition to serving samplers, pints and growlers, the brewery will include daily tours of the indoor taproom and outdoor beer garden.
The beer variety at Swamp Rabbit Brewery draws from Ben’s training in American-, English- and German-style brewing in companies everywhere from Portland to Munich. He estimates this to be the couple’s sixteenth and final location, as Travelers Rest joins a slew of a career’s worth of breweries across Greenville, Chattanooga, Roanoke and St. Louis, to name a few.
"I wanted to own my own brewery, so 25 years later, here it is. I’m awful excited about that," said Ben, who explained that he was solely the brewer at all of his previous workplaces.
Ben and Teresa have spent the last several months planning architectural designs at their new Travelers Rest location and renovating the space that was once the city’s post office. According to Ben, the major construction projects remaining include finishing the bar and installing a wall to separate the bar from the taproom.
Once open, the brewery will likely be open for production Monday through Friday, while the taproom will probably include the following hours: Sunday from noon to 6 p.m.; Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m.; Thursday and Friday from 2 p.m. to 10 p.m.; and Saturday from noon to 10 p.m.
As a fairly small brewery, they foresee selling around 1,000 barrels of beer a year in Travelers Rest. Nevertheless, the Piersons have high hopes of attracting locals as well as visitors from all over to the quaint but growing city.
"We’re planning on making them the best beer they ever had," said Ben.
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