A second craft brewery is renovating space at the former firehouse on Second Street.
Peter Barraud of Baiting Hollow and Ian Van Bourgondien of Southold are planning to open the North Fork Brewing Co. by springtime, right next door to Long Beard Brewing Co., also a tenant in the firehouse.
The partners, cousins through marriage, are excited about sharing the historic firehouse with another craft brewery.
“That model works very well,” said Barraud, who lived in New Hampshire for seven years and saw clusters of breweries attracting visitors to their tasting rooms.
Long Beard Brewing Co. has not yet opened its tasting room, which is still under construction.
Barraud, 31, has been brewing beers and ales for more than five years, for the last year at Moustache Brewing Co. Van Bourgondien, 27, is experienced brewing different types of beers that aren’t common on the North Fork.
“We’re using local fruits and other things,” Barraud said. “We’ll have a rotating tap list.”
“We want to really showcase what you can do with beer,” Van Bourgondien said.
The young entrepreneurs have grow an acre of hops on a farm in Peconic.
“We’ll be using all of our own hops but logistically, with the amount you need, you have to order in,” Barraud said.
The pair met with the Riverhead Town Board this morning to discuss their application for the special permit they’ll need to open the brewery and tasting rooms. It will come with conditions, such as a 9 p.m. closing time for the tasting room and a ban against outdoor music.
A public hearing on the special permit will likely be scheduled for the first Tuesday in December.
Barraud and Van Bourgondien are hoping to get their building permit in time to be able to begin renovations before the arrival of their stainless steel brewing tanks in late December.
While they have blueprints for the layout of the approximately 4,000-square-foot space, they’re still thinking about the design of the interior of the tasting room. It will be about 1,000 square feet.
“It’s going to have clean, hard lines and it’ll be bright and cheery,” Barraud said. “We both grew up out here. We want it to reflect the area surrounding it.”
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