USA, SC: Columbia Craft Brewing Co. getting ready to join Columbia’s booming brewery scene

There’s a new brewery landing in the Vista, The State reported on June 12.

Columbia Craft Brewing Co. is renovating a long-empty warehouse on Greene Street between Gadsden and Assembly streets.

The 5,200-square-foot warehouse is in the heart of the University of South Carolina’s growing Innovation District.

“We looked at a number of locations around town and on the edge of town, but decided we wanted to get close to downtown,” said Richard Strauss, a retired CPA whose family now invests in and manages vacation properties in Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge, Tenn. “We’re on the edge of the university and (student) housing in this mixed use urban district. It was about being centrally located.”

Columbia Craft is the most recent in Columbia’s booming brewery scene. It will join River Rat, Conquest, Swamp Cabbage and Twisted Spur.

In addition, Hunter-Gatherer Brewery and Ale House owner Kevin Varner plans to open a brewery in the historic Curtiss-Wright Hangar at Jim Hamilton-L.B Owens Airport near Rosewood Drive.

Strauss and his sons Andrew and Justin are installing a 15-barrel brew house capable of turning out about 1,500 barrels a year. They have contracted with head brewer Shaun Piggott of that Tampa Bay area in Florida.

The Strausses plan to brew an IPA, pale ale, porter, red ale, lagers, sours, “and from there we can have different extension,” Richard Strauss said.

The brewery, expected to open in September, will have a tasting room. The family also purchased and demolished the old Flag and Banner retail store fronting Assembly Street, which is adjacent to the warehouse, and will use the lot for parking, a beer garden, a patio, and space for two food trucks.

“We were very patient in choosing our location,” Strauss said. “We think it will pay off.”

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