Home Business Business News Greenport Harbor Brewing Company gears up for summer with double brewing capacity,...

Greenport Harbor Brewing Company gears up for summer with double brewing capacity, new series of beers

Greenport Harbor Brewing Company was launched in 2009 by Rich Vandenburgh and John Liegey, with new owner Duffy Griffiths coming on this year. File photo

With demand at an all-time high, Greenport Harbor Brewing Company is nearly doubling its brewing capacity with four brand new fermenters just installed this week.

The four 90-barrel fermenters, which can each hold up to 2,800 gallons of beer, represent a 70 percent increase in brewing capacity for the North Fork’s first micro-brewery. “We were having a really hard time keeping up with demand,” said Rich Vandenburgh, co-founder of Greenport Harbor Brewing Company.

“With this expansion, we’ll probably be able to keep pace with it.”

The brewery’s wild success since it opened in 2009 has led to the purchase of a second location in Peconic just five years later. That location is now undergoing a major expansion, with the tasting room set to double in size by the end of the summer and a new brew pub opening up to serve pub food alongside Greenport Harbor’s craft beers.

Four new fermenters were installed at Greenport Harbor Brewing Company’s Peconic location this week and will be in operation by next Friday. Photo: Peter Blasl

Today, the brewery’s products can be found in locations throughout Long Island, New York City, New York State and Connecticut. The four new fermenters, in addition to the existing four 90-barrel fermenters and five 30-barrel fermenters, means that Greenport Harbor Brewing Company is going into the summer season firing on all pistons.

It also means that the brewery is ready to launch its latest series of new beers this summer.

Called OG – short for “Original Greenport,” among other things – the series will feature some new, interesting and unique beers that will be brewed in the company’s first location in Greenport Village by the company’s new brewer, Pat Alfred, who joined the company about a month and a half ago.

“A bunch of really interesting beers are coming out of that,” Vandenburgh said. “We’re excited about it.”

The brewery also plans to brew some barrel-aged sour beers, including a Berliner Weisse that will contain blueberries and raspberries. “There’s going to be a lot of interesting options,” Vandenburgh said.

The addition of Alfred makes four brewers employed by Greenport Harbor Brewing Company. The brewery currently has 17-full time employees, Vanedenburgh said, and is continuing to grow.

“We had no expectation when we started out to be where we are today,” Vandenburgh said. “We really believe in the North Fork and everything local that it has to offer, and we’re really happy that we took the leap.”

SHARE
Katie Blasl
Katie, winner of the 2016 James Murphy Cub Reporter of the Year award from the L.I. Press Club, is a reporter, editor and web developer for the LOCAL news websites. A Riverhead native, she is a 2014 graduate of Stony Brook University. Email Katie