Cola Today: Cottontown Gets A Brewery

CITY, FOOD & DRINK, THE DAILY
MAY 08 2017 / CHLOE
Cottontown gets a brewery

…in 2018.

A restaurant + a coffee shop come to a neighborhood – the only natural fit is for a brewery to join them, right?

Cottontown Brew Lab is opening in the reviving Cottontown neighborhood off N. Main St. – in a former auto repair building at 1223 Franklin St. – as a production brewery late this summer, and a tap room early 2018.

(If you live under a rock, Cottontown is buzzing with potential after now-successful The War Mouth restaurant opened there last year, and much-anticipated Indah Coffee shop opened last week.)

Here’s the current building, two-storefronts down from The War Mouth and around the corner from Indah Coffee ⬇️

Here’s what Cottontown Brew Lab hopes to look like late-summer 2017, with the tasting room-portion finished Jan.-April 2018 ⬇️

Timeline:

March 2016 | Building purchased by owner/president Zack Jones

January 2017 | Received Federal Brewery License

Now | Building clean up + waiting for plan approval by the City of Columbia

Once plans are approved:

-8-12 weeks of construction
-3-4 weeks of equipment setup + test batches of beer
-Late summer 2017 | Open as a production brewery (a.k.a. they’ll make beer but *only* sell kegs to bars + restaurants)

-The brew house will be in the main part of the building (the room behind the currently red-framed garage door)
-January-April 2018 | Taproom open to the public (a.k.a. you’re allowed in now to drink )

-1,500 sq. ft. taproom + bar area
-Housed in the right side of the building (set further back, with the currently white-framed garage door)
-They’ll offer light food options

The end goal? To be a regional brewery like Westbrook (Charleston) or Terrapin (Athens). Nice. We don’t hate that idea.

Cottontown Brew Lab says they’ve received nothing but love from the rest of the neighborhood, and they’re excited to open. We’re excited too – especially after seeing this Tropical IPA.

Cheers to more Soda City beers,

-Chloe