I recently attended an open house at the soon to open Concrete Beach Brewery located in the heart of Wynwood’s Art District. The 11,000 square-foot brewery will feature a twenty-barrel brew house and, an indoor/outdoor Social Hall for public gatherings as well as live entertainment.

The brewery is the fifth being opened by Alchemy & Science, which is a subsidiary of Boston Beer.

I was fortunate enough to have a conversation over a beer with Alan Newman, the president of Alchemy and Science. He explained to me that he feels that Miami is the perfect place for Alchemy and Science to continue to fulfill to its mission of expanding the craft beer community.  When I asked him about the beers that would make up their core collection, Alan explained to me that he learned a valuable lesson in his previous company (he is the founder of Magic Hat Brewing) when it came to designating beers as being the flagships. The brewers felt that their flagship beers were what happened to be their favorites but one day someone pointed out that #9 made up a huge portion of their sales and that was actually their flagship. Because of that experience, Alan said was adamant about saying that “the consumers will decide what our beers will be.”

Also spending time with the guests were Stacey Steinmetz who came from Magic Hat and started Alchemy & Science with Alan,  Jon Carpenter  - the Head Brewer for A&S  and Chris McGrath - Lead Brewer for Concrete Beach.

I took a tour of the brew house that was led by McGrath and spent some time talking with him afterwards. Chris came to Concrete Beach from Central New Jersey where he spent four years as the head brewer at River Horse Brewing Company.  When asked what we can expect from the brewery, he said that the goal is to produce “world-class craft beer inspired by the culture and flavors of Miami.”
McGrath said that the first two beers to hit the market will be Rica, a hoppy wheat IPA and Stiltsville, a European-style Pilsner with a citrus hop character. Initially these beers will only be available in bottles but as the brewery gets up and running, they’ll eventually be on draft throughout the market. The bottles should start showing up in South Florida retailers beginning on October 1st.

I was able to spend a little time with Jesse Morris who will be managing the Social Hall once it is up and running.  It still needed a lot of work before it’s ready to open but Jesse did a great job helping me envision what to expect. There will be an outdoor area with picnic type tables and chairs as well as an indoor area that will have more of a lounge feel to it. In the middle of everything will be a large, circular bar that’ll be both inside and out. Below are some pictures of an artist’s rendering of the space.