USA, FL: Ancient City Brewing to open in St. Augustine, Florida

St. Augustine is going to have its own brewery again. Ancient City Brewing is opening in the same spot west of Interstate 95 where Mile Marker Brewing closed in 2014, Jacksonville reported on April 21st.

Vance Joy, who was the brewer and co-owner of Mile Marker, is the brewer for Ancient City. But he said it’s a completely new company owned by Dylan Rumrell and Greg Tuttle.

Mile Marker closed without notice or explanation, and Joy said it wasn’t pretty.

“We had 16 partners,” he said. “It was a mess, bitter and angry.”

The plan was to open the tap room at 3420 Agricultural Center Dr. on May 15. But it will just be serving other craft beers until Ancient City gets its brewing license, which he hopes will be in June.

He’ll be brewing on the same seven-barrel system that Mile Marker used, but is bringing in a 30-barrel system.

“The trouble with Mile Marker is that we could never brew enough beer,” he said.

Rumrell said that new system still has to be built and won't come in until later this year or early next.

Ancient City signed a three-year lease on the space, with options for two more. Rumrell said they'll just have to see how the business goes as to whether they stay there or move.

"We'd love to be downtown," he said, "but this is perfect for distribution. And that's primary, the tap room is secondary."

22 April, 2015