MIDDLETOWN—It’s a young but growing garden, said Kenan Porter sitting outside Clemson Bros. Brewery the day before its new beer garden opened to the public on May 21.
Green bunches of what look like trumpet vines had started to creep up the poles of a metal-framed cover that cast checkered shadows on the brick floor.
A blue stone topped bar with eight beers on tap sits in the middle of several picnic tables, gas heaters, and a coal-fired BBQ pit. On the side facing the street is a row of metal bar stools under a blue stone ledge that doubles as a counter. At some point there will be a 20-foot screen along the west side of the garden for movie nights, Porter said. “We got other stuff on the horizon.”
Porter and his family have invested $2.3 million into the Clemson Bros. building, formerly a hacksaw factory, and turned it into a brewery, bar, restaurant, and several apartments that are now occupied.
Funding for Expansion
They were hoping to bring bottling and distribution operations from Porter’s other business, Sabila Aloe, to the building as well, but funding from the state they applied for for equipment didn’t come through, or at least not entirely. They were awarded $215,000, about half of what they had asked for.
While aloe drinks are their main product now, Porter said they are hoping to expand into other non-alcoholic as well as alcoholic beverages, and if they had received the full funding, could have added 50 jobs to that side of the business and brought it to Middletown.
After trying to negotiate with the state, he turned down the $215,000.
