©2019 Saratoga Photographer.com
by Andrea Palmer
The historic Abner Doubleday House at 28 Washington St. in Ballston Spa is being put to a new use.
Real McCoy Beer Co. in Delmar is opening a new tap room in the building. Owners Mike Bellini and Alex Scher had been looking for a place to open a second taproom.
“From a demographic and analytic standpoint, Ballston Spa and Delmar are very similar in the population demographic. When we heard the Doubleday lease was up for grabs, we jumped on it,” said Bellini, and they took over the lease.
The brewery does not plan to make extensive changes in the building for the new tap room.
“Since it’s a historic building, we don’t want to make too many changes,” said Bellini. “We’re a small brewery but we’re growing fast. We have a team in place to handle everything for us while we keep a close eye on operations. Our team is committed to the brand we’ve built over the last four years.”
The new location will feature a 38-seat taproom. Besides Real McCoy beers, it will feature a guest tap with gluten-free and mead beverages. Production will continue at the company headquarters in Delmar.
The brewery is waiting for its liquor license from New York state and anticipates opening the tap room in mid-August.
The brewery will partner with local food trucks to have food options available on site.
“We have a great team of people who will run it for us up there and keep the town hydrated,” said Bellini.
The Real McCoy Beer Co. is a farm brewery, and as such is entitled to as many as five taproom locations. The brewery has been in business since 2015.
“We use locally grown hops and grain. Most of our grain comes from Saratoga County. Our hops come from all over New York state, some as close as Saratoga. We just made a trip out to a farm southwest of Utica, where we’re getting most of our malt for our flagship beer,” said Bellini.
“We’re launching our flagship beer in Ballston Spa. It will be a double IPA,” said Bellini.
The company’s website is www.therealmccoybeerco.com.