USA, SC: Steel Hands Brewing anticipated to come online this fall

The City of Cayce’s newest tagline is Time for Life, but with the efforts that city officials have put into recruiting a brewery over the past few years, it might as well be Time for Beer, the Free Times reported on March 7.

Now, a new brewery is anticipated to come online in fall 2018, and it’s going to be a big one. Steel Hands Brewing, named after the nearby steel mill, will be a 30-barrel brewhouse with a 10-barrel capacity for expansion. With 10,000 square feet of overall space and seating for 150 people in the taproom, this will make Steel Hands the largest brewery in the Midlands, with the next closest one of its size being Savannah River Brewing in Augusta, Georgia.

On tap to handle this large capacity system is Mark Walters, formerly of Abita Brewing in Louisiana, and of River Rat Brewery in Columbia. The Buffalo, New York native has more than 22 years of experience brewing beer.

Steel Hands plans to distribute in kegs and to have a full bottling line onsite.

Co-owners Darryl Frick, Scott Lambert and Brooks Smarr are looking to develop this brewery with the latest brewing technologies to produce a variety of great tasting beers for local and regional consumption, as well as to be a community partner.

“We hope Steel Hands Brewing will become a catalyst to the community for future hospitality investment,” Lambert says. “We are excited to be a part of the local economic development and are thrilled to revive an abandoned industrial site into a production facility. Our vision includes enhancing the neighborhood by providing a Southern anchor and destination point for visitors to experience a variety of great tasting beers.”

“As we approached the City of Cayce with our goal of opening a production brewery and taproom, their immediate excitement and support for the project was evident,” Lambert says.

City of Cayce officials have been hoping to land more hang-out and relaxed types of businesses in city limits for a few years.

“The Steel Hands Brewery is a great fit for all of our citizens and will have a large impact on the Midlands region,” says Rebecca Vance, city manager for Cayce. “Not only will this be a fun place to gather, socialize and have events; it will also have a distribution component, so it will bring new job opportunities to the area.”

The $4 million dollar investment will also include outdoor gathering space, a restaurant, parking spaces and room for expansion.

A groundbreaking is set for Wednesday, March 7, at 10:30 a.m. on at 2350 Foreman St. in Cayce. Depending on when the other brewery in the works — Hazelwood Brewing in Lexington — comes online, this could be the first production brewing up and running in Lexington County.

08 March, 2018