Bristol brewery planning to open the taps this summer

By Christy Nadalin
Posted 2/14/19

With an amendment to the Bristol Zoning Ordinance use table allowing a business that is designated as food manufacturing to set up shop in a general business zone, Kyle Michaud has final approval to …

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Bristol brewery planning to open the taps this summer

Posted

With an amendment to the Bristol Zoning Ordinance use table allowing a business that is designated as food manufacturing to set up shop in a general business zone, Kyle Michaud has final approval to open his Twelve Guns Brewery at 549 Metacom Ave., just north of Arnold Lumber, and south of Peter Road.

Mr. Michaud has been home-brewing for about three years, entering — and winning — competitions.

“My friends were like, ‘You should sell this stuff!’ ” he said. “So I looked into it. There are a lot of barriers to entry, so it has been a yearlong process so far, just to get us here. But now everything’s really coming together.”

A recent graduate of the University of Hartford, where he received a degree in marketing and, as a student, ran an e-commerce company that sold things like survival gear and campus safety products, Mr. Michaud is just finishing up his professional craft brewing certification at Johnson and Wales.

The Connecticut native, who lives in North Providence, knew he wanted to locate in Rhode Island. He found a site he liked in Bristol, down Metacom adjacent to Classic Pizza, but the area was not zoned for the food manufacturing permit needed by a small brewery.

Mr. Michaud credits the Town of Bristol for helping him find a new site for which he could obtain the needed special use permit. “Bristol has been amazing,” he said. “They are really on board.”

“It’s an industry that’s growing,” said Chris Vitale, Bristol’s economic development coordinator. “We’re excited to help him bring this new experience to Bristol.”

“It’s basically an amendment to the use table,” said Ed Tanner, town planner, referring to the permit. “It’s not a bar,. They will be brewing and canning onsite, something that is currently only permitted in a manufacturing zone. Special use permits are only determined on a case-by-case basis, and the granting of which will not change the overall designation of the zone. According to Mr. Tanner, such zoning amendments are commonplace.

The name of the company, Twelve Guns Brewing, is a nod to Rhode Island history and the U.S.S. Providence, a 12-gun ship which was one of the first ships commissioned by the Continental Navy. “When I knew I wanted to open in Rhode Island, I wanted a name with local historical significance,” said Mr. Michaud.

With the zoning hurdle cleared, the biggest hold-up to getting that first keg tapped is waiting on the custom equipment which is being manufactured in Canada and won’t get here until late June. With a production process of about two weeks, Mr. Michaud is anticipating opening in late July or early August. He will be hiring four front of house people, two assistant managers and a part-time brewer, advertising for those positions in the next two to three months.

Twelve Guns will have a seven-barrel set up. One barrel is 31 gallons, so their capacity will be roughly 217 gallons per batch. The plan is to install the production equipment and canning line on the right side of the building, with the bar and merchandise on the left, and tables in the middle of the space. A garage door in the back can open in the summer, and can be a place to have a variety of food trucks serve the brewery’s tasting room patrons.

Mr. Michaud plans to host home-brew competitions, offering winners a tap, and the opportunity to let people taste their winning recipes. He’s also hoping to put together craft brewery festivals. Rhode Island has a smaller number of craft breweries than any state, with about 26. “We collaborate,” he said. “We don’t compete directly because everyone’s product is so different. It’s a very cool community, and everyone has been so helpful.”

Mr. Michaud is also keen to run an environmentally conscious operation, with a small footprint, even offering the byproduct of the brewing process to local farms to use as animal feed.

“There’s no alcohol, it’s just sweet grain,” he said. “The animals love it.”

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A lifelong Portsmouth resident, Jim graduated from Portsmouth High School in 1982 and earned a journalism degree from the University of Rhode Island in 1986. He's worked two different stints at East Bay Newspapers, for a total of 18 years with the company so far. When not running all over town bringing you the news from Portsmouth, Jim listens to lots and lots and lots of music, watches obscure silent films from the '20s and usually has three books going at once. He also loves to cook crazy New Orleans dishes for his wife of 25 years, Michelle, and their two sons, Jake and Max.