E-Malt.com News article: USA, OH: Mount Vernon Brewing Co., Ltd. to open in Mount Vernon as soon as it gets its alcohol permit

A new brewery in Mount Vernon will be opening once its alcohol permit is obtained, and the owners say the business is the culmination of several years of planning, the Mount Vernon News reported on August 29.

Steve and Tina Ballantyne, owners of the Mount Vernon Brewing Co. Ltd., have been hard at work putting the finishing touches on the brewery so that it will be ready once the permit comes in. The COVID-19 pandemic has delayed the permit’s issuance.

The Ballantynes enjoyed visiting breweries and trying new beers and hoped to start their own one day, they said.

“Tina and I started visiting breweries several years ago, mostly in the Columbus [Ohio] area,” Steve told the News. “We really enjoyed the experience of trying new beers and comparing notes. It wasn’t long before we started talking about things we really liked about a place, or things we would have done differently. That led to a pipe dream that we would start our own one day.”

They started planning to open their own brewery approximately three years ago, but they had a difficult time obtaining a small business loan because the larger banks didn’t want to fund such a small business.

“We ended up going back to the drawing board to build exactly what we wanted and fund the entire thing ourselves,” Steve said. “It has been a lot more fun building something that is 100% our own, and we don’t have to fight with banks or investors to ask permission.”

The next challenge was finding a good location in Mount Vernon, as there were a limited number of properties “zoned correctly” for their business, Steve said. But in the end, they found 7 North Main St. where the Mount Vernon Brewing Co. will open.

“We started on this location around two months ago, with repainting the interior,” Tina told the News. “And we recently began work on our primary bar. Our landlord had a historic grocery store counter which we were able to raise and attach to an adjoining counter. We also removed the showcase in the front window and replaced it with a full living edge bar top. There was another piece of wall-mounted furniture which we have rebuilt into what we are calling a ‘piano bar.'”

Numerous other renovations— including a bathroom— and a merchandising area to sell hats, hoodies and T-shirts, have also been be completed, along with air conditioning installation.

“We have had tremendous community support and interest,” Tina said. “We are asked daily when we are going to be opening, and sadly, we don’t yet know. Right now, we are waiting on our license to serve alcohol, which is taking a bit longer due to the pandemic. But this has given us a chance to make sure that our brewery is perfect for our customers and that our beer will be awesome!”

“The inconvenience of COVID-19 was oddly part of our business model,” Steve said. “As businesses are struggling to find a way to re-open, we are able to plan for opening during the pandemic. Tina has been very diligent in finding furniture and surfaces that can be sanitized quickly and easily.”

[I have also been] “running around with a measuring tape to ensure that our customers can maintain comfortable distances without a lot of glass shields, and other distractions,” Tina said. “We also have plenty of space to work with, so we are lucky in that regard. We also plan to provide face masks to our customers.”

Once the MVBC does open, customers can expect not only a laid-back, enjoyable experience; but great beer too, the Ballantynes told the News.

“Tina has a policy that if the beer isn’t awesome, it goes down the drain,” Steve said. “So the pressure is on to not only make drinkable beer, but to make exceptional beer!”

“We are a family-owned and operated brewery,” Tina concluded. “In the past we have been called beer snobs, and we will not sell beer that we wouldn’t drink ourselves.”


31 August, 2020