Lizzy Alfs

USA TODAY NETWORK – Tennessee

New Heights Brewing Co. has officially entered the Nashville craft beer scene.

The brewery years in the making will debut its first four brews starting Monday with a week of launch events at Nashville craft beer bars and stores.

New Heights is the brainchild of Jeff Fountain, who most recently lived in San Diego until relocating to Nashville with his wife, Tracey, to pursue a new brewery in January 2014. Fountain worked at the award-winning Mission Brewery in San Diego.

New Heights, at 928 Fifth Ave. S. near downtown, includes 5,000 square feet of production space and a 2,500-square-foot tasting room. The brewery is launching as distribution-only until construction is completed on the taproom later this year.

"New Heights is a dream that’s been years in the making. I started out with a brew kit that my wife gave me, lots of backyard batches, and hundreds of hours of training and research. It’s coming true, and I’m just excited to show Nashville our approach to craft brewing and the unique tastes we’ve got up our sleeves,” Fountain said in a statement.

The brewery’s first four beers are: New Heights IPA, Bitter Serenity Session IPA, Nothing Fancy Cream Ale and Batch #1 Coffee IPA.

Dustin DeWinter, a former bartender at Nashville’s Merchants, is joining Fountain as sales manager and assistant brewer at New Heights.

The brewery plans to team up with other local businesses on its brews, such as a collaboration with CREMA on the coffee-infused IPA.

“We had a blast creating the Coffee IPA with CREMA, and we’re thankful for the opportunity to work with (CREMA’s Rachel Lehman), whose level of expertise is unmatched. We’re looking forward to more collaborations like that, and can’t wait to share our kickoff brews with everyone in Nashville,” Fountain said. “Even though our tasting room isn’t quite finished, we’re committed to getting to know our community first — their opinions will weigh heavily on what we create next.”

New Heights Brewing Co.’s launch events this week will be held at Craft Brewed, both locations of The Filling Station, The Hop Stop and Homegrown Taproom & Marketplace. Visit newheightsbrewing.com for more information.

New Heights Brewing Co. is one of several new breweries in Middle Tennessee, which is home to roughly one-third of all breweries in the state, according to the Brewers Association. Other newcomers include Mill Creek Brewing Co., Southern Grist Brewing Co. and Smith & Lentz. Meanwhile, East Nashville Beer Works is in development.

Reach Lizzy Alfs at 615-726-5948 and on Twitter @lizzyalfs.