Excitement brews over The Guild’s Taproom opening
The Guild on Main Street in Pawtucket becoming ‘a small Boston but without having to go all the way there’
PAWTUCKET — Lindsey O'Hara says that with a craft beer scene, plenty of dining options, music, and entertainment, The Guild on Main Street could very quickly become “a small Boston but without having to go all the way there.”
A Cranston resident and the manager of The Guild's Taproom, O'Hara – a former Pawtucket native – also serves as The Guild's event specialist and she envisions that it will be only a matter of time before the popularity of the craft beer cooperative begins to draw more curious customers and beer aficionados alike to the city.
“The way I look at it is that it really helps revive Pawtucket. It's a beautiful place … It's awesome to be a part of that,” O'Hara said.
O'Hara was serving up samples of Narragansett beer from inside “The Taproom at The Guild,” which held its soft opening over the weekend.
Jeremy Duffy, one of the partners at The Guild, said that they had the beer on site and they felt the taproom was
ready for its debut to the public, so he figured “why not?”
“It's amazing, we have people here on a cold day and we opened at noon,” Duffy said on Saturday afternoon. “(Friday) was a good, nice, steady crowd … There's great interest and support … The coverage statewide, people are really excited to have Narragansett back and they're excited about a unique concept. People have been pretty fired up.”
Duffy said that the taproom's opening is the first of what he hopes are many more stages in The Guild's retail aspect. He said that when the weather turns more consistently warmer later this spring, he has visions for opening a beer garden in The Guild's outdoor campus on the property's Bayley Street side. And in 2018, he plans to open a beer hall in an adjacent building. The beer hall, he said, will have a larger bar – estimating it at 5,500 square feet – and more capacity for people to come in and sample the styles brewed on site.
“The plan is in place,” he said. “Now we have to implement it. It's the evolution of the campus from a retail side … What we love is it really allows the customers and fans to experience the brewhouse.”
Joining Naragansett in brewing at The Guild are Newburyport Brewing Co., Devil's Purse Brewing Company, Farmer Willie's, and Sons of Liberty Spirits.
The taproom last weekend offered three dif- ferent styles of Narragansett beer and also a test brew made at The Guild, Duffy said. While inside the taproom, patrons could not only sample the beer, but if they turned their heads slightly while sipping the samples, they could see where the beer they were drinking was brewed.
The 100-barrel system allows The Guild to produce 60,000 barrels of beer per year, equal to nearly 20 million cans. The initial capacity of 60,000 barrels – the equivalent of 827,000 cases – has room to grow to 175,000 barrels in the coming years. The Guild also has packaging on site, including kegging and canning.
O'Hara said that four taps installed at the taproom will be consistently cycling out styles from the brewers who are a part of The Guild, with Devil's Purse, Newburyport, and Farmer Willie's all expected on tap within the next few weeks.
In addition to O'Hara, who'll manage the taproom, representatives from the brewers whose beer is crafted on site will also stop by the bar to inform customers about their different styles.
“They're really excited. There's a lot of pride and they want to talk about their beers,” Duffy said.
O'Hara, while discussing the taproom's initial success, added: “It's been awesome, I think it's exactly the vibe people are looking for … People are off their cellphones and they're talking to each other, it's bringing a sense of community back. I think that's a good sign.”