USA, AZ: Female-owned and operated Greenwood Brewing coming to downtown Phoenix

Roosevelt Row will welcome Greenwood Brewing this fall as the female-owned and operated brewery brings its pints and brews to downtown Phoenix, the Downtown Devil reported on February7.

The location, which will be Greenwood Brewing’s first permanent brewery, will be located on Fifth Street and Roosevelt, between the already existing Eye Lounge and MADE Boutique. Along with the brewery, Greenwood Brewing will have a tasting room inside Eye Lounge to bring more business to the gallery, allowing it to be open every day instead of only weekends.

“It’s going to be located in the parking lot to the west of the Eye Lounge gallery and MADE building,” said Greg Esser, the vice president for the Roosevelt Row Community Development Corporation. “We’re going to do a small renovation to the existing building and build a new building that will house the brewery that is now the parking lot.”

The collaboration came about when Greg and his wife Cindy Dach, the owner of MADE Boutique, were looking for ways to help the Eye Lounge and MADE grow and thrive.

“We’ve been approached by restaurants, we’ve been approached by people to sell the property, but it never felt like the right fit,” Dach said. “Then we met Megan (Greenwood), who was looking to open a small brewery… and we felt like her mission and values were aligned (with ours).”

Megan Greenwood, the owner and founder of Greenwood Brewing, began to brew when she received an at-home brewing kit for her birthday in 2014.

As she fell in love with brewing, she started a mini-brewery out of her garage while she was working in corporate America. Greenwood began to notice how many of the most important conversations she had took place over a beer.

“I really wanted to ‘get real’ honest with my customers,” Greenwood said.

Greenwood then began to grow her business, bringing her recipes to local breweries and using their ingredients and equipment to brew for catered groups.

As Greenwood Brewing expanded and the name became a familiar title within the brewing world, Greenwood decided to bring her business to Roosevelt Row.

“I met Cindy because her story was the perfect fit,” Greenwood said. “Cindy wanted to convert a vacant parking lot into a beer garden and I was looking for a location for a brewery.”

The rise of craft beer has been a steady trend over the past ten years in Arizona as the emphasis on local business increases and more breweries open shop.

“I felt really intimidated in the craft beer scene,” Greenwood said. “My goal is to get more women and more non-drinkers into craft beer.”

Rob Fullmer, the executive director of the Arizona Brewer’s Guild says craft breweries encourage local businesses because of the number of workers involved in the process and the ability to connect a face to a product.

“People feel disconnected sometimes,” Fullmer said. “There’s an appeal to trying products made by people you know.”

Fullmer said the location of Greenwood Brewery is going to benefit downtown because of how close other bars and businesses are to it.

“It’s like the chick and the egg,” he said. “You build a grocery store but you need people to buy from this grocery store. The same goes for breweries.”

The designs and plans for Greenwood Brewing are still in early development stages, but construction is planned to begin late Spring and the opening is set for around September.

“I’m really excited to grow my business in downtown Phoenix,” Greenwood said. “I love brewing and I don’t really get enough of it as a contract brewer. I’m really excited to have our brewery on site where we can actually produce and create.”

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