Aberdeen’s first brewery is set to open in September under the city’s downtown revitalization initiative.

The owners of Watchtower Brewing Company transformed a former laundromat into a 3,000-square-foot brewery at Festival Park on Centennial Lane and Howard Street in downtown Aberdeen.

Watchtower Brewing is slated to open in September and will offer live music, outdoor seating, events in Festival Park and eventually, a rooftop bar, according to the owners, George Handlin, Joe Fino and Frank Young.

“Our biggest thing is about community and building friendships and making people feel at home,” said Handlin, the brewmaster.

Fino said that when Watchtower Brewing opens, it will have 12 taps serving 11 beers and one seltzer. One of the beers is a Pilsner named Beer in the Park, which he plans to serve at their future events.

“We can’t wait to actually serve in the park,” Fino said, confirming that one of the first events will be a music festival-style event. “We plan to do events where the park is fenced off so we can serve [beer] in the park and have vendors.”

The name, Watchtower, stems from the tagline, “guiding people to good beer,” or “guiding people to community.” Fino said they have yet to decide.

Before Watchtower Brewing, Handlin was a homebrewer. His brewing space was next to a 500-square-foot taproom with eight taps where friends and other brewers could sample his creations.

He’d question tasters not only on whether the beer was good but if they’d buy it.

In 2017, Handlin met Fino at a work event. The software developers bonded over their passion for homebrewing.

Fino and Handlin came up with the idea of opening a brewery, as many homebrewers often do, but decided to make it a reality after noticing a need for a community hang-out space in Aberdeen.

“One of my main reasons for coming here was for business, since there aren’t any breweries here, and the second was because the per capita income in Aberdeen is actually higher than in Bel Air,” Handlin said. “Economically and geographically, it was a great idea.”

Watchtower Brewing was made possible by the city’s revitalization initiative — formally known as the Aberdeen Main Street Reimagination Plan — which used state grants to help new businesses move into the downtown area.

The city’s mayor, Patrick McGrady, said the approach is “creative” and allows the city to “control its own destiny.”

“What happens is cities have a wait and see approach where they change their laws and see what happens, but we have taken a different trajectory in the last 18 months,” McGrady said. “Instead of waiting and seeing, we are aggressively focusing on an area we want to revitalize.”

To help Watchtower Brewing, the city used state grants to practically rebuild the site of the new brewery from the ground up. The city and Watchtower Brewing entered a five-year lease agreement under which $1,000 of each payment made by Watchtower Brewing is taken by the city and put into a savings account. At the end of the five years, the brewery owners have enough of a downpayment to buy the building from the city, if they choose.

McGrady said the city would take the money from the lease payment and site purchase to help revitalize another area of the city.

“This is a creative approach where we are trying to make something stick while promoting partnership, ownership and growth,” McGrady said.

McGrady’s focus on Howard Street is part of the revitalization project’s Cyphress Line, which is a walking path that will connect Festival Park to West Bel Air Avenue — the city’s “Main Street.”

Parking spots on Centennial Lane next to Watchtower Brewing’s outdoor seating will become a grassy area that extends the park. An ice cream shop is slated to occupy the former location of the Aberdeen Room Museum next to Watchtower Brewing.

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