Home News Local News Local young entrepreneurs to launch North Fork Brewing Co. in Riverhead

Local young entrepreneurs to launch North Fork Brewing Co. in Riverhead

Peter Barraud of Baiting Hollow, left, and Ian Van Bourgondien of Southold have teamed up to establish North Fork Brewing Co. at the old Second Street Firehouse. Photo: Denise Civiletti

A Southold man and his Baiting Hollow business partner are planning to open a new craft brewery in Riverhead.

Ian Van Bourgondien of Southold and Peter Barraud of Baiting Hollow are hoping have the North Fork Brewing Co. open for business in the former Riverhead firehouse by springtime. The new brewery and tasting room will be located 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.

Barraud and Van Bourgondien are hoping to get their building permits in time 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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Denise Civiletti
Denise is a veteran local reporter and editor, an attorney and former Riverhead Town councilwoman. Her work has been recognized with numerous awards, including a “writer of the year” award from the N.Y. Press Association in 2015. She is a founder, owner and co-publisher of this website.