Green Bench Brewing Co. was one of St. Pete's first craft breweries when it opened nearly three years ago at 1133 Baum Ave. N. in the EDGE District (their third anniversary is Sept. 25, with the party scheduled for Oct. 1). Now they’ll be augmenting the current facility, with its tasting room and spacious beer garden, by spilling over into the approximately 4,000-square-foot warehouse space immediately to the east. Plans for the space include a climate-controlled “cellar” in which to expand the company’s production of barrel-aged sour beers, and a second tasting area focused on those beers.
Green Bench co-founder Nathan Stonecipher says the brewery secured a long-term lease on the building, which sits on the other side of the beer garden and formerly housed a door-and-window business, more than a year ago.
“We took it over knowing we didn’t absolutely need it at the time, but realizing that extra warehouse space would come in handy one day,” he says.
They’ve decided the extra space will best serve the brewery and its community as a place where head brewer Khris Johnson and the rest of the crew can focus on the specialized (and often unpredictable) brewing processes that produce sours, which involve the use of multiple strains of cultured and wild yeasts to attain their trademark tartness. As some of the label’s most popular offerings are sours, the new room would allow Green Bench to make and age more of the beer, and add a separate canning line dedicated to those brands. The additional space will also give the brewery’s mead and cider program room to grow.
Most excitingly for local beer lovers, the plans include a second tasting room among the barrels, where patrons can experience all of the elements of the beers’ creation. Think of it as a more laid-back, brew-centric version of a wine bar with its own attentive sommelier, where drinkers can learn about what they’re quaffing while enjoying it in the best possible atmosphere.
“Education has always been important [to us], and it gets pretty crowded in here. It’s difficult to take the time with our customers and these beers,” says Johnson. “We want this to be as intimate as we always intended it to be, no barriers between the person and what we’re doing, what they’re drinking… a lot of these beers, they deserve the same level of attention [as wines], they’re meant to be enjoyed and considered.”
Stonecipher adds that the new event space will up the ante in terms of ambience.
“It’s not just Green Bench Tasting Room 2.0,” he says. “We’ve got some unique ideas and it should be a showstopper of a space, a destination. We’re hoping to make it a must-see.”
And all of this is just part of the build-out, scheduled to begin by year's end. It'll free up space in the current brewery for even more equipment and production capacity; new outdoor space, including the possibility of an elevated seating area, is being discussed, too. For the Green Bench team, it’s all about providing beer lovers with more knowledge, more options and more satisfaction.
“To have this ability is obviously because of the locals who have supported us through the first three years,” says Stonecipher. “We’re always grateful for that support… what I hope we’ve developed is the core of our mission, to be ambitious and continue to push the boundaries of what we do, for us and for the community, give them something they haven’t seen before and that they hopefully enjoy.”
This article appears in Aug 18-25, 2016.