Greenport Harbor Brewing Company Slated For Spring Opening in Peconic

Beer loves hankering for the opening of the Greenport Harbor Brewing Company's Peconic location on Main Road will have to wait a few months longer.

On the business' Facebook page, the word is that the new location on Main Road in Peconic will open in mid-spring, 2014.

Until then, owners are gearing up plant four acres of winter malting barley in the field across from the new brewery in Peconic. The plan is to brew an all-Long Island harvest of local grain and hops next fall at the Peconic location, owners wrote on Facebook.

In May, Rich Vandenburgh, who owns the business with his partner John Liegey, said some issues including permits pushed the project back between six weeks and two months, with an opening tentatively slate for August, and a tasting room and beer garden open by early fall.

Originally, Vandenburgh had hoped to open the doors of the newlocation by July.

"It would have been awesome to open for the summer but just like anything, things always seem to move a little more slowly," Vandenburgh said in May.

Once the new location opens on Peconic Lane and Route 25  -- at the former Lucas Ford site -- the brewery's Greenport location on Carpenter Street will still remain fully operational, Vandenburgh said, with a test kitchen.

"We'll eventually wind up opening a tap room downstairs at the street level in Greenport," he said.

Since 2009, Greenport Harbor Brewing Company has been operating out of the renovated firehouse on Carpenter Street, which Vandenburgh renovated again to increase production due to demand for the craft beer. But that expansion was not enough.

Vandenburg said in February that he is also excited to create additional jobs on the North Fork.

“As far as we can tell the local community is very supportive of what we are doing at the old Lucas site, and I am very, very proud of the fact that we are going to take what was becoming an eyesore on the Main Road and transform that location into a beautiful and environmentally friendly spot that will continue to drive dollars to the East End.”