BREAKING: Mansfield Brewery planned in Greensboro

A banner hanging inside of 1316 Oakland Avenue in Greensboro says it all; a new brew brewery is planned in the city, which would bring Greensboro’s total count to six.

Triad City Beat Senior Editor Jordan Green saw the banner inside the warehouse during a UNCG senior thesis performance on March 28 (read this week’s “Citizen Green” column for more details), and brewery equipment was already visible inside the building. Mansfield Brewing was thanked from the stage during the performance, and Mansfield owner Bill Tyndall told Green that it is still down the road a ways.

This morning, Tyndall said the brewery will start small and take a while to open because he’s doing it himself with two other guys. He plans to start with a 15-gallon system, churning out small batches and initially focusing on “simple stuff” like ales and porters and then producing some “off the wall stuff.”

“I think brewing should be about fun, not science,” he said. “We’re going to be kind of freaky.”

Tyndall already has 90 percent of the equipment for a 20-barrel system, he said, it’s just a matter of assembling it. But he emphasized that the brewery will champion experimentation and small production runs, later thinking about self distribution.

“As much as I can, everything in this place is recycled and reused equipment,” he said, adding that he acquired the hardware from other operating companies. “I know I’m not going to be the greenest brewery in the world, but I’ll be real close.”

Reusing materials will help him keep costs down too, he said, and he hopes to prove that a brewery can be built for about $150,000 rather than a figure closer to $1 million.

Tyndall has been in the bottling and food industry for 34 years and runs a chemical manufacturing company that puts him in and out of breweries and food plants almost daily, he said.

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Tyndall is already in the Oakland Avenue space with his existing business, and he is transitioning the 12,000 square foot warehouse (owned by Greensboro resident Kathleen Clark) into the brewery. It’s an ideal building for a brewing operation even though it isn’t the most prime location, but Tyndall said he likes the idea of being on a patio and drinking a beer near the train tracks.

Mansfield Brewery will have a tasting room on site and will start small in the space rather than taking up the entire area, he said.

“I’ve got enough room where I can do a lot,” Tyndall said. “We plan at sometime to have music in the facility and I’m interested in community arts theater in the building again.”

Tyndall’ son Brian is the bassist for local band the Mantras, which is one of the reasons he would like to host music in the warehouse.

The brewery, which is named for Tyndall’s wife’s father, will be called G. Mansfield Brewery on paper because there used to be a Mansfield Brewery in England, he said, adding that it will be a family-owned business.

Tyndall’s son Allen used to operate Sessions bar two blocks away from the planned brewery site, which is also one block from Jake’s Billiards and close to the Blind Tiger music venue and the relatively new 913 Whiskey Bar.

There are currently three breweries open in Greensboro — Natty Greene’s, Pig Pounder and Gibb’s Hundred — with Preyer Brewing opening shortly and Wise Man Brewing announced in January.

Tyndall said he has been working on Mansfield Brewery for five years already, acquiring equipment as it became available. He is looking forward to the project becoming a reality, but emphasizes it will be a slow process.

“My wife and I are in our sixties,” Tyndall said. “This is my last hurrah. I’ve built three companies already in my life, and this is the final one.”