The long wait for the doors to open at Buffalo Bayou Brewing Co.'s new location in Sawyer Yards will finally come to an end Friday at 4 p.m.

The 28,000-square-foot space at 2101 Summer Street is a significant upgrade over the brewery's original location on Nolda Street. And it's been in the works for years. During a hard hat tour of the site in August, owner Rassul Zarinfar talked about the long wait.

“Originally, we’d been hoping to have this open by now. We made our first cash offer on this land in 2014,” he said then, as he stood on the first floor of the facility, with capacity to up his production from its current rate of 8,000 barrels of beer a year to 50,000.

“I don’t like to say we’re behind schedule though,” he told us then, announcing plans to open in October. “We got out over our skis and announced ourselves too early.”

The brewery will begin with a limited sneak-peek menu from its restaurant, run by former Beaver's executive chef Arash Kharat. The 200-seat restaurant will roll out its full menu soon, according to the brewery. All three floors are also open this weekend, though the elevator hasn't yet been certified.

Buffalo Bayou is one of the oldest breweries in the city, with a seven-year track record and more than 75 beers under its belt. With the added space for experimentation, Zarinfar told the Chronicle that he believes this new mega-location, just a stone's throw from other breweries like Holler and Platypus, will allow Buffalo Bayou to test out new flavors and double down on its marketing tagline, of "Houston's Most Creative Brewery." In total, there will be between 70 and 75 taps at the space.

The new location opens Friday at 4 p.m. The full hours are: Thursdays and Fridays from 4 p.m. to 2 a.m.; Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 2 a.m.; Sundays from 11 a.m. to 12 a.m.; and Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 4 p.m. to 12 a.m.

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