Beer? Good.
That seemed to be the unanimous conclusion of the East Hampton Town Planning Board in its consideration of the application for the Springs Brewery. With plans to remodel her father’s 35-year-old Hampton Auto Collision shop on Springs-Fireplace Road next door to Springs Pizza, Lindsay Reichart and her partner, Gunnar Burke, quickly won over the board with their idea for “a year-round location for people to socialize.”
“We founded Springs Brewery in 2020 after several years of home brewing,” Ms. Reichart said. “Our project began as a reimagining of my father’s shop. Given the location, we thought it could be an opportunity to use the space to serve the community and offer the beer that we’re making at home.”
“The project is first and foremost a production facility and brick and mortar home for our existing wholesale business,” said Mr. Burke. “We currently contract-brew at a facility in Riverhead, but we plan to produce the entirety of our products at this facility.”
Should they win the board’s approval, the two will renovate the existing 2,680-square-foot building to include not just the brewery but a small retail area, three bathrooms (part of their proposal is the addition of an I/A septic system), offices, storage, and a patio and walkways. One of the garage doors will be removed and sealed off, and windows will be added to the front and sides of the off-white building, which sits on a quarter-acre lot. While the word “brewery” doesn’t exist in town code, back in 2013, Thomas Preiato, then the building inspector, made a determination that the Montauk Brewery qualified as a “retail store.” Noting the similarities between the two, the Planning Department was comfortable with that classification.
Citing the project narrative, Christopher Stoecker, a planner for the town, said the brewery would be “mainly a beer production space with a small public retail space where items can be purchased to go and minimally for on-site enjoyment.” Mr. Stoecker discussed the application with the planning board, raising questions about the septic flow, parking, and the number of seats expected inside the store and on the outside patio.
“The applicant should confirm that they intend to sell some alcoholic beverages to be consumed within the retail area and detail the number of indoor seats that will be provided. The applicant should also confirm the proposed use of the patio seating,” he said. “The board should discuss the anticipated impact the proposal would have on the surrounding community and whether the proposal is compatible.”
“If it starts to become a party scene-loud noise type of thing, then that’s not something that I think is in harmony with the community,” said Ed Krug, the board’s chairman.
“That’s absolutely not what we’re proposing,” said Mr. Burke, who said the tasting room would be both “low key” and “refined.” “It’s not a bar atmosphere whatsoever,” he told the board. “We propose 16 seats where products can be purchased to go, with limited on-site tastings. The patio seating is proposed to be used by the public in conjunction with that retail use.” He said their goal was to create a “pedestrian friendly and parklike landscape.” To that end, five of the six plant species they selected for their revegetation plan would be native, a move appreciated by the Planning Department.
“We need to kind of really be certain that this idea of on-site tasting is what it’s limited to,” reiterated Mr. Krug.
Britton Bistrian, a land planner speaking for the partners, said she owns a similar brewery in Westhampton. “It never becomes an evening place,” she said. “We open at 1 p.m. and we close at 6 p.m. Those are the hours in which people come and have a beer and then go to dinner someplace else. I don’t foresee that this could be a bar.” She said only 29 percent of the building was devoted to retail while 71 percent was devoted to the production warehouse.
Even though the brewery would be adjacent to the Springs Historic District, the board trod relatively lightly on concerns that dogged the application for the Springs General Store in its own quest to allow consumption of wine on its popular porch and picnic tables. Ultimately, the general store decided against pursuing liquor licenses for on-site consumption. Meanwhile, the brewery is applying for two liquor licenses from the New York State Liquor Authority, a farm brewer license and a micro brewer license.
Both allow for on-site consumption of beer made on the premises. In addition, the farm brewer license allows on-site consumption of any other New York State labeled product, such as beer, wine, cider, mead, or liquor. Both licenses allow the brewery to produce 75,000 barrels of beer, which could mean 150,000 barrels annually.
All that brewing requires a lot of water. Mr. Burke had innovative plans to reduce consumption, but Louis Cortese, a planning board member, raised concerns about how it would interact with the septic system.
David Rhoades, the septic engineer for the brewery, said there were no limits for the amount of gray water a site may generate. He explained that septic flow limits were set only to limit the amount of nitrogen. “Nitrogen all comes from your urine,” he said. The system had to be big enough to handle the gray water, but they only had to meet the flow rate based on the amount of seating at the establishment, not the amount of liquid moving through their system.
“Next to you is a pizza place,” said Michael Hansen, a board member. “Pizza and beer. My goodness, I think it’s going to be very popular. The type of person that’s going to be there is me.”
“We look forward to working with the board to make the minor revisions,” said Mr. Burke. “We are a small family business. Right now, it’s just the two of us. We’re not figureheads for wealthy investors or anything. It’s just us.”
