A few days after announcing the leasing of a Ridgewood warehouse for the new home of Bridge and Tunnel Brewery, the owner has begun moving into his new digs.
Queens native Rich Castagna, who founded a 150-square-foot Maspeth microbrewery a few years ago, has already moved some vats, many kegs and tons of other equipment into the 2,300-square-foot site of the brewery’s future home near the intersection of Decatur Street and Wyckoff Avenue.
The father of three, who has a day job with a shipping company, is working on the brewery with a little help, but is aiming to set up and begin brewing from the new site within six months.
“The priority is to get beer flowing out of the doors, because I have to offset the rent,” Castagna said.
There is still much to be done with the new space though.
Castagna is hoping to soon bring a boiler, two fermenters and two stem jacketed kettles into the brewing section, which will be located at the back of the building.
The front part will become home to the bar and the tasting room. He already has long wooden beams in the site that he plans to fashion into tables.
Following the expansion, he hopes to bring beer to new outlets that he couldn’t serve before because of the limited brewing capacity at the former site.
“If I can get this thing up and running, there are a lot of other accounts that are frankly waiting in line for me to add them,” Castagna said. “In the nano system it’s kind of like I’m busting my pants. I’ve outgrown my school uniform.”
Take a look at the gallery below to see the future brewery in progress.
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