Matt McGinley, Pat Morse and Jay Sykes owners along with camera shy John Gordon. The Tompkinsville brew house will begin offering tours of its facilities starting Saturday Jan. 31. (Staten Island Advance/ Jan Somma-Hammel)

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — For $5, beer enthusiasts can learn how it's done at Staten Island's only craft brewery.

Tompkinsville's Flagship Brewing Co. will begin offering tours of the facilities twice a day on Saturdays, starting Saturday, Jan. 31. The tour includes a short 15-minute presentation of the brewing process and a pint of beer at the end, for those old enough to drink.

"It's going to give people a good example of how a small business runs and give them an idea of what we do every day," said James Sykes, the brewery's executive vice president.

For Flagship, which opened about eight months ago, beginning tours marks a milestone in its growth as a brewery. Until this weekend, they offered private tours, but never routine public tours — something many breweries market as a way to connect with their consumers. It's something they've always wanted to do, Sykes explained, but wanted to have all the parts in place before welcoming the public inside.

The tours, which start at 2 and 5 p.m. at the brewery on 40 Minthorne St., are limited to 20 people per tour, on a first-come-first-serve basis.

Included is a behind-the-scenes look at the brewery's production side, from where they crush the grains, to the mashing process to boiling the beer and transferring it to the fermentation tanks.

Tourists will also see another milestone in the making: the bottling process, which allows them to sell their beer in bottles, as opposed to by the keg.

For a craft brewery, being able to bottle beer means things are going pretty well: Since bottling supplies are cheaper when purchased in bulk, the brewery must be able to invest in those supplies upfront. For Flagship, their first run of bottles will cost about $40,000. This will last them about six to eight months, depending on how well the bottles sell, Sykes said.

Currently, the brewery's labels are going through an approval process with the federal government, Sykes said. If all goes according to plan, the beer should be bottled by March.

"It's a huge milestone for a brewery," Sykes said. "We've been working on it since we opened. It's only been eight months, but it seems like a lot longer than that."

In other Flagship news, on Thursday, Jan. 22, the brewery will be unveiling its Metropolitan Lager, a Vienna rye lager known as a "true lager," since it takes about seven weeks to make. Unlike some of the hazier ales the brewery makes, this lager has been filtered, creating a smooth malty-sweet taste. The beer will be offered year-round.