The Crooked Can Brewing Company hopes to open the doors to their Hilliard taproom by mid February with the adjoining Center Street Market to follow in March.

Crooked Can opened their first brewery five years ago in Winter Garden, a suburb of Orlando. Co-owner Rob Fry lived in Hilliard for several years and targeted the city for expansion.

Of the new 16,000 square foot build, about 4,000 square feet will function as Crooked Can’s taproom. An additional 7,000 square foot patio will provide outdoor seating for the brewery and market. Visible through glass panels in the taproom is the 6,000 square foot brewery space which includes a 15 barrel three-vessel system with six 30 bbl fermenters and two 30 bbl bright tanks, plus room for expansion.

Crooked Can tapped former North High Brewing head brewer Zack Null to lead the operation. Null said he expects to start brewing next Wednesday and will be producing about 60 barrels a week. First on his brewing docket are a stout, pale ale, double IPA, New England IPA, key lime pie kettle sour, and Scottish strong ale — the latter two of which will be unique to the Hilliard brewery.

“Crooked Can already has staples that we’re certainly going to brew, but then we’re going to let [Zack] be creative,” said Fry.

In the meantime, they have shipped up over 200 kegs from the Florida facility in order to have five of Crooked Can’s most popular beers ready to pour as soon as the taproom is ready to open: Mr. Tractor kolsch, Mc Swagger’s Own amber ale, High Stepper American IPA, and Cloud Chaser Hefeweizen, and a Helles lager.

The rest of the new building comprises a 3,000 square foot event space in which Fry plans to host a weekend farmers market, and the 3,000 square foot Center Street Market, which will feature 10 local vendors including Dumplings of Fury, Meatball Mafia, Cheesecake Girl, Bakes by Lo cookies, Coffee Connections and Legacy BBQ. The market is expected to open by March.

Crooked Can Brewing and Center Street Market are located at 5354 Center Street in Hilliard.