You're invited to the party with Jeni's and Land Grant Brewing Co. this weekend for their Brewsic Beer+Music Festival. Check it out!

Opening a brewery can take a very long time, as Adam Benner and Walt Keys would attest. The two co-owners (along with other partners) of the new Land Grant Brewing Company started their journey nearly three years ago with a successful Kickstarter campaign to launch what was then called the Oval Brewing Company. After a name change from Oval to Land Grant, and a location change from Grandview to Franklinton, the team is finally ready to swing open their doors this weekend for a sneak preview during Independents’ Day.

Visitors will be welcomed by a 3,000 square foot bar in the front of the building at 424 West Town Street, with large windows that face out toward the parking lot at 400 West Rich Street. The room is filled with locally made beer-hall-style communal tables and a long bar with countertops made next door at the Idea Foundry.

“We installed a lot of reclaimed wood from a barn that came down near Marietta,” explains Keys on the decor. “And the back wall is the brick facade from the original building, which we restored from under a bunch of plaster and wood paneling and wallpaper.”

Beyond the bar is a small “Kickstarter Room” where a mural will thank original donors, and guests can reserve for small parties or beer tastings that overlook the warehouse operations through large glass windows.

The warehouse itself clocks in at 9000 square feet and is home to Land Grant’s 20-barrel brewing system, 45-barrel fermenters, a smaller pilot system for testing recipes, kegging and canning equipment, a cold-storage room and a loading dock for deliveries.

“For the first couple of weeks, we’ll just be serving our beer at the bar, and then we’ll start putting it in kegs to deliver to other venues,” says Benner. “The canning operation is still a few months away.”

The starting lineup of beers at Land Grant includes the 1862 Kolsch Ale, Stiff-Arm Imperial IPA, Son of a Mudder Brown Ale and Greenskeeper Pale Ale. Keys says that seasonal beers will also be offered, though they haven’t decided which ones will appear in the lineup first.

Land Grant will also boast a small temporary patio on the side of the building, which will be fully built out this coming spring, and will provide dining options via local food trucks, which will rotate on a regular basis.

“In the future we’re thinking about expanding our private room space, and eventually adding a window from our second floor office to look down into the brewery,” says Keys.

The brewery is scheduled to host the EDM/dance stage for Independents Day this weekend, with a soft-opening planned for next weekend and an official grant opening the first week in October.

For more information, visit www.landgrantbrewing.com.