USA, NY: Garland City Beer Works to open in Watertown in June

Nancy C. Henry is convinced that her brewery will make beer lovers out of everyone.

Working on the business venture for about two years, Ms. Henry hopes Garland City Beer Works will finally open in June in the former Lewis and Clinch machine shop at 321 Howk St. in Watertown, the WatertownDailyTimes.com reported on February 14.

A former Bud Light fan, she believes specialty and craft beers can be an acquired taste for fans of major label brands.

“You just have to drink a lot of it,” she said. “But just not in one sitting.”

Her enthusiasm for a good cold one came from learning about craft beers — and trying them — while working as a sales clerk at the Bottle Caps beverage center on Arsenal Street after she retired from teaching.

And now Garland City Beer Works will offer porters, stouts, ambers, a version of a sour beer and the brewery’s specialty, New England IPAs.

In its first year, the brewery will make 750 barrels of beer, with 90 percent sold on the premises in glasses and cans and the remainder to be distributed at restaurants and bars in the three-county region.

Ms. Henry, who is City Councilman Ryan Henry-Wilkinson’s aunt, hopes production will increase to 1,000 and 1,200 barrels during the next two years. The brewery will start with seven employees, with plans to triple that number over the next two years.

Microbreweries often create clever names for their beers as a marketing device to bring attention. But Ms. Henry plans to keep Garland City’s product names a mystery — for now.

“It’s a work in progress,” she said.

She and partner Colleen Henegan are leasing three-fourths of the space in the 8,000-square-foot building from landlord Reginald J. Schweitzer Jr., who’s using the remainder of the space for a catering business.

Chains and pulleys left behind in the former machine shop will be used in the brewery’s “industrial” motif, she said.

“We’re going to make it look like it’s for the working man,” the retired Copenhagen physical education teacher said.

While waiting to get through the cumbersome permitting process, work is nearly done with cleaning out the former machine shop and leaving the open space ready for renovations.

Varying-sized tanks and barrels will be visible to brewery patrons, so they can watch the beer-making process. She hopes to start making beer in April “to get all the kinks out” before selling their product.

Garland City Beer Works will use some New York hops and barley, but she likes the flavor that comes from Australian hops.

The city has a long history of breweries. The company’s name harkens back to the time when Watertown was known as the Garland City in the late 1800s and early 1900s, as many Public Square businesses displayed red, white and blue decorative garlands on their facades.

Garland City Beer Works will use some New York hops and barley, but she likes the flavor that comes from Australian hops.

The brewery is part of the state’s growing beer-making industry, with the number of beer producers growing from 243 to more than 400 since 2012.

Meanwhile, Boots Brewing Co., a craft beer business co-owned by city firefighter Daniel Daugherty, also is slated to open on Public Square in downtown next month.

Watertown Trust member Donald C. Alexander wanted to know about what kind of patrons will visit and how she’ll measure success.

“It’s not that we want to be rich, but we want to enrich the community,” she said.

With craft beer aficionados known to travel, she said beer lovers might come from Canada, Syracuse and Buffalo to enjoy Garland City beers, she said. Millennials are also into craft beers.

Recounting her own travels across the country, Ms. Henry said that if the brewery can make quality beers, word will get around.

“We’ll get them to like our beer,” she said.

16 February, 2018