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ew Village Brewery has remained closed, except for take out brews, during Phase 2 of reopening.

New storage space

During the closure, Frank and Lili Bacon took advantage of the patron-less state of things and finished tearing down the garage, while making plans for other updates and modifications. The garage, which had suffered from flooding during the last two hurricanes, is gone. Though a new garage is coming, for now there’s a half-size shipping container occupying the space.

Frank Bacon poses with a paint sprayer, ready to transform the shipping container into a clean storage space.

The shipping container, currently serving as storage space in Oriental, was built in China. It had been owned by a company in Denmark.

This container has been to more ports than most sailors in Oriental. It has been on top of freighters, crossing the ocean hundreds of times. Made of Corten Steel, it can survive the rigors ocean passage. An occasional hurricane in Oriental should be no problem.

Painted to match the Brewery, it holds all the brew-making supples that don’t require refrigeration.

An international pedigree.

A new walk-in freezer

Behind the container is another new addition. Used to be that patrons and staff could walk behind the brewery – instead of near the street – to the beer garden. That area is now the home of a new a walk-in freezer, accessible form inside the brewery. Frank used a two-ton a/c wall unit to cool the room, and increased the room’s insulation by almost double. (Frank says “most walk-ins are insulated to R25, this one is R42.”) It works. The room is really cold.

Frank and his new walk-in freezer.

Both the extension and the shipping container have been painted blue and white, to match the 110 year old building’s latest paint scheme.

Before it was a brewery, the building at 702 Broad Street housed workers for the Roper Lumber Company when Oriental was a lumber town. It has at times been a home and a business, housing a millinery and notions shop, an antiques shop, and a restaurant.

From the Oriental Museum archives.

It was also a brewery before, Lili said, though not a legal – or successful – one. A man stopped by the Brewery in 2019 and told Lili he’d lived in the building in the 70s. He and friends had attempted to make their own beer in the same place Frank now brews his. Only then, it was a screened in porch, and their efforts were far less satisfactory.

The Beer Garden gets a new table

Over in the Beer Garden, there’s now an exceptionally durable, new ping-pong table. Its predecessor was meant for indoor use and was eventually retired by the weather. This one will be less bothered by the elements, or anything else. It’s constructed of poured concrete. Lili was concerned it wouldn’t offer the same kind of bounce as a regular table. After a few trial runs, she reports it’s surprisingly good.

Lili and the ping-pong table.

A new problem: an old, leaky roof

There are other additions planned for the garden: an extension of the stage area for the musicians, and an outside bar. But those will have to wait. The May rain storms uncovered a more pressing project: a leaky roof over the brewhouse.

May brought over 13 inches of rain to Oriental, some of it with high winds. Those winds, says Frank, flexed the seams of the old metal roof, allowing wind and water to get underneath.

The very old roof.

The Brewery building was built in 1910. It’s possible the metal roof is original to the building; you can see it has many patches and repairs. Frank said that repairing the roof isn’t easy. It was installed using a triple fold seam, Frank said. “They hand rolled it as they built it. You can’t reverse it without breaking the metal.”

A new problem emerges: a leaky roof.

The Bacons caught the leaks in time, before they had a chance to turn into mold. The ceiling has been torn down, wet insulation removed and the whole thing taped up with plastic to keep debris from falling into the brewhouse. But now Lili and Frank have another project to handle – and this one is keeping the inside of the Brewery closed to patrons for a while longer.

Building materials make for an inhospitable customer environment.

Frank and Lili are unsure how long it will be like this. They’re getting repair estimates. Part of the concern is how much it’s going to cost. The other, is how long will it take? For now, the inside of the brewery is more storehouse than sitting area. The front rooms are filled with building supplies, and anything not immediately necessary to the brewing operation.

Captain Easy helping out at the Beer Garden window.

The Beer Garden updates will have to wait. It’s likely it will be open before the inside is. It’s unsure when that will be. For now, New Village Brewery is still open 3-7p on Thursday and Friday, 1-7p on Saturday, offering take-home brews from the Beer Garden window.

Related Links

• New Village Brewery Site

Posted Friday June 12, 2020 by Allison DeWeese