Ragged Island Brewing Company gets o.k. to operate a limited series of beer gardens at its future home

The Town of Portsmouth’s Zoning Board of Review last night unanimously approved Ragged Island Brewing Company’s special use permit to operate a limited series of beer gardens at their new location at 54 Bristol Ferry Road.

According to the application, the brewery would partner with McGrath Clambakes and the permit will allow the brewery to host a limited “beer garden” on Fridays, Saturday, and Sundays from July through September.

“Katie and I are so grateful to the Town of Portsmouth for supporting our small business in these difficult times. Hosting a beer garden at our Farm will allow us a chance to recoup some of the business we have lost during this pandemic,” Matthew Gray, Co-Owner of Ragged Island Brewing Company told What’s Up Newp on Friday.

Proposed hours for the beer garden are 3 to 8 pm on Friday and Saturday and 1 to 6 pm on Sunday. All guests would be required to make a reservation.

For the immediate future, Ragged Island Brewing Company will continue to brew and operate out of its location in the Portsmouth Industrial Park, which is currently just open for to-go can sales.

“We are very excited to start share our future home with our loyal customers. We have been working hard at the farm to get it ready for next year. Having a limited number of customers on the property will allow us to see what it is going to be like when we are officially open as a farm brewery,” Gray said.

As for timeline on the beer garden series, Gray told us that they are working hard to get this open as soon as possible, but that they have a lot to do to be ready. “As soon as we are comfortable and know we can host guests in a safe and Covid 19 compliant way, we will announce that on our social media pages”.

Ragged Island’s petition to Town of Portsmouth

More of our coverage on Ragged Island Brewing Company;

Ryan Belmore