Northside Northampton Brewery almost complete

Construction is almost finished on the new Northampton Brewery located on Fredericton'snorthside,where they've beenbrewing Picaroons beer since February.

"Construction is just down to some pretty nitty gritty deficiency-type details so the project is pretty much finished," said owner Sean Dunbar.

Dunbar said there hadbeen some delaysand construction took longer than he had hoped, but it wasn't anything major. They set up the buildingknowing they would have to deal with flood waters from the St.John River.

"The building is constructed, not to withstand flood, but to accept water in and have water go out with as little damage as possible," said Dunbar.

"We're not going to stop Mother Nature so we'll just let the river flood and hope that we've taken all the preparations we could possibly do."

Not open to public yet

Most things are off the floor and the tanks are on stilts. All the electrical is above the expected water level in the event of a flood.

Though the building is brewing, it isn't open to the public yet. Dunbar says that's because he isn't sure what that will look like yet.

"We really haven't defined what the public role of the building is yet so from a public openness point of view, the plan is still, I don't know, still being made up. So I don't even know what that looks like."

Dunbar says their focus is making sure all their production is ready, as well as integrating all staff into the new building. He says they do plan on putting in a spot where people can have a drink, but he isn't sure when or where that will be.

"I know that there will be sometime in the future the ability to have a drink. We really haven't designated the space for that within the brewery yet," said Dunbar.

"Once we get finished filling it up with all our gear and see how much room we have left over then we'll decide where that's going to be. And there will be a growler station and growler refills."

Dunbar saysthe company'sBrewtiqueon Queen Streetis fulfilling those needs for now.