Smuttynose Brewing Opens Towle Farm

Smuttynose Brewing Co. opened its new brewery at Towle Farm in Hampton for public tours on May 31.

The $24 million state-of-the-art facility is 40,000 square feet upon 14 acres, almost double the space of its former site at Heritage Avenue in Portsmouth. The initial build-out gives Smuttynose Brewing between 60,000 and 65,000 barrels of capacity (15-16 million pints) and potential to grow to 120,000 barrels.

The great capacity means Smuttynose can tap into new markets, JT Thompson, Smuttynose "Minister of Propaganda," said during a tour Saturday.

Besides new markets, it gives Smuttynose the ability to add new products, such as Bouncy House IPA, the first new beer to come out of Towle Farm, and the first new year-round beer in five years (Bouncy House: 5 Questions with Smuttynose Brewing).

It is a LEED-certified project with a 100hl Steinecker CombiCube brewhouse with an automated four-vessel brewhouse for extra quality and consistency.

"The process control, which is really what every brewer wants, is significant; we can brew what we want to brew, how we want to brew it," according to Smuttynose.

The Hayseed Restaurant in the farmhouse on site will not open until later this fall. The trailer from the Finestkind IPA label is on display on the property, as well as a young fruit orchard, with colonies of bees.

Tours: Public tours opened May 31. For the summer schedule, the tours are

• Monday to Wednesday, noon to 5:30 p.m.
• Thursday, 11 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.
• Friday: 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.
• Saturday: 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.
• Sunday: 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

• New tanks: six 270 barrel fermenters (triple batch) and two 270 bbl bright tanks were installed earlier this year.
• Centrifuge: A GEA centrifugal separator is operational to reduce product loss while more consistently clarifying beer.
• A new automated labeler means "the end of crooked, crinkled labels that some beer drinkers adore and others dislike."
• LEED (Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design): The building is directionally oriented to capture as much sunlight as possible; it has lots of windows, solar tubes and an LED-lit-on-demand system. A new air compression system is variable speed and runs as required, which should save the system over 6 million kWh during its lifetime. Ambient vaporizer for CO2 system provides for "free-cooling" of its warehouse. Storm water treatment system integrated into the landscape design, including use of rain gardens and plant stock to manage runoff from paved surfaces, among other things. Smuttynose expects to save over 500,000 therms of natural gas through heat-recovery systems in the brewhouse.