Newport Craft Aims to be ‘Craft Beer and Craft Spirits Disneyland’ for the Community

The last time Brewbound spoke to Newport Craft Brewing & Distilling Co., the Rhode-Island based craft brewery had just purchased a 6-acre plot of land from the city, its first step in a major expansion and renovation plan.

Nearly two years later, the fruits of Newport Craft’s labor are finally coming to fruition.

Just in time for Memorial Day earlier this summer, Newport Craft welcomed visitors back to its taproom to experience a new outdoor area and indoor/outdoor bar, the first newly renovated area to open at the facility.

The bar area has a 150-person capacity (mock up pictured above) and is located next to a 5,000 sq. ft. outdoor grassy area with adirondack chairs for overflow and food trucks. Newport also plans to use the outdoor space for events such as yoga, volleyball, soccer and farmers markets.

The rest of Newport’s construction plans are scheduled to be complete by December. Those plans include a second floor taproom space, which will also be used as an event space, with indoor seating capacity for 200. Additionally, the “brewstillery” has been upgrading its production floor, also scheduled to be complete in December.

The project is valued at $22 million, Rhode Island Monthly reported. The investment will increase Newport’s production capacity to 100,000 barrels and exponentially grow its hospitality space, as well as upgrade the facility to be more eco-friendly.

Brewbound caught up with Newport CEO Brendan O’Donnell, as well as VP of New England and brewmaster Ben Chambers and head brewer Scott Douglas, to learn more about the project.

The Vision of a Brewstillery

O’Donnell was part of an unnamed investment group that purchased Newport Craft – then known as two brands, Newport Storm beers and Thomas Tew rums – in 2017. In 2019, the founders of Newport Storm left and the company rebranded as Newport Craft, overhauling much of its product offerings.

While O’Donnell and his partners knew they wanted to modernize Newport Craft’s facilities, they “didn’t have a final vision” or direction.

“Legally, we had plans that were in the works, but I’ve never built a brewery before from scratch,” O’Donnell said. “My partners had never built a brewery from scratch. We had a general kind of macro concept, and we were putting together this like collective idea that we wanted to do.”

O’Donnell turned to someone with plenty of experience in craft beer: Narragansett CEO Mark Hellendrung. Hellendrung advised O’Donnell that craft beer fans “need a home to go back to,” and “the best marketing dollars” a brewery can invest is in its taproom, “because people want an experience that ties them to their products.”

“Granted, we’re not Narragansett, and we’re not a 120-year-old brand,” O’Donnell said. “But for us, there’s 3.4 million people that come out to Newport every year – a lot of them are from New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, where we distribute – and if they can have a special experience at our facility …they’re more inclined to then – when they’re back at their local liquor store – pull that beer off the shelf or have it on tap.”

Newport Craft is now on a mission to be a community-focused destination brewstillery, equivalent to “a craft beer and craft spirits Disneyland where you just want to go out and be a part of it,” O’Donnell said.

While the company is “not trying to be everything for everyone,” it offers a wide range of bev-alc products through its portfolio of brands:

  • Newport Craft lagers and barrel-aged beers;
  • Radiant Pig hop-forward brews;
  • Braven Beer Czech pilsners and beer “basics;”
  • Sea Fog whiskey (and bourbon to come);
  • White Squall vodka and gin;
  • And Thomas Tew rum.

The company is also exploring hard cider and non-alcoholic beer, as well as cannabis products, and has partnered with a local vineyard to serve wine. Additionally, O’Donnell hopes to collaborate with some of the more than 60 other breweries in the state on more offerings.

Keeping Up with Production

During the renovation process, Newport has continued production. The company initially planned to contract out its offerings for eight weeks, but pivoted by the production team’s suggestion and added external tanks to keep all production in-house.

“We love our beer and we didn’t want to compromise that in any way,” Chambers said.

The decision was far from without headaches, with production having to pivot around construction decisions, including moving its canning line with less than a week’s notice and going nearly a month without drains as the floors were redone, Douglas said.

“When we hit that point, you just have to find another way to do things, you have to make it work,” Douglas said. “And it’s a credit to everybody who works on the production floors. They found a way through it.”

“People that are in my position would be pretty ignorant to not use their entire team to come up with these solutions, because there’s a lot of things that I personally would have missed if we didn’t involve the team on this,” O’Donnell said. “There’s a lot of small landmines that you have to avoid and the more people that are involved in the process, the more of those that you actually do avoid and learn from.”

Newport Craft hasn’t “pulled any punches” in terms of growth either, Chambers said. The company recorded a record sales month in June. It also expanded its beer distribution footprint into New Jersey and increased distribution of its spirits brands into new markets, including New York.

Across all its brands, Newport Craft is expected to produce 12,000 to 15,000 barrels in 2023, and double that to 25,000 barrels in 2024. The company is also producing close to 3,500 cases of 4.5 liter spirits annually, O’Donnell said.

“We’re growing and it’s not like, ‘Hey, we have to hit this benchmark of 50,000 barrels’ or whatever else: We want to hit a benchmark of demand,” O’Donnell said. “It’s more always trying to grow every year and make sure that our product is fresh and that we’re getting pulled as quickly as we can.”