The Saco Planning Board has given approval for a brewery to open in the basement of a building at 743 Portland Road/Route 1.

Barreled Souls Brewing Co. plans to open a brewery and speakeasy-style tap room by this summer. The brewery will become the second in the city – after Run of the Mill – and join a growing number of small breweries in southern Maine.

Chris Schofield, who owns Barreled Souls Brewing, said he is excited to have the Planning Board’s approval and is ordering equipment that will allow him to brew with a Burton Union system, a method developed in the 1830s that was once a staple of British beer-making.

“It feels more real every time we take a step like this,” Schofield said.

City Planner Bob Hamblen said the Planning Board did a conditional-use review Tuesday and members were supportive of the brewery. They seemed particularly interested in Schofield’s plans, including the potential of having food trucks park outside the brewery occasionally.

Schofield said he is securing permits and making upgrades to the brewery space. He hopes to be open for business by July.

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When Barreled Souls opens, it will join a mini-boom in craft beer breweries in the area. Forty-nine breweries and brewpubs are now operating statewide, up from 32 at the beginning of 2013. At least one brewery is expected to open each month in 2014, according to the Maine Brewers’ Guild.

Gillian Graham can be contacted at 791-6315 or at:

ggraham@pressherald.com

Twitter: grahamgillian


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