Plans for Good Creature Brewing underway

There are still several unknowns at this point — like whether it will open downtown Greensboro or instead in Jamestown — but plans for another local brewery are taking shape.

Good Creature Brewing recently launched a couple social media accounts and is in the process of pulling together details for a brewery and small farm-to-table restaurant. A father and son team partnering with a friend — much like the setup at the newly opened Joymongers in Greensboro — are still working other jobs in the restaurant and beer industries, and so asked to remain unnamed. But James, the son, did provide some information about their intentions.

Good Creature Brewing hopes to open in about 18 months, and they’re currently looking at a location without a kitchen at the corner of Market and Davie in downtown Greensboro, James said. They’re also considering a spot along Spring Garden Street not too far outside the center city, but James said it’s possible they’ll wind up at a specific building in Jamestown instead.

The downtown Greensboro location would place Good Creature between Joymongers and Preyer to the north and Natty Greene’s and Gibb’s Hundred to the south, which would make walking between breweries a more Ashevillean experience, James said.

He’s been in the restaurant industry for a decade and his dad for three, and actually has some beer industry experience under his belt, too. His friend, who will serve as head brewer, has worked in brewing for about seven years, he said.

Good Creature takes its name from a Susan Cheever quote: “The Pilgrims believed beer was an unalloyed good, a ‘good creature of God.’ People who did not drink were suspect and ‘crank-brained.”

James said they plan to keep the operation small with possible eventual limited distribution for the beer. It’s unclear which local farms Good Creature will pair with at this point, but James said they will aim to be as close to 100 percent sustainable and local as possible. They hope to be brewing in a year, he said, but that too remains to be seen.

There are currently five breweries in Greensboro — the above named as well as Pig Pounder just outside the bounds of downtown. It’s been more than a year since Triad City Beat broke the news about plans for another, Mansfield Brewing on Oakland Avenue off of Spring Garden Street, but Mansfield has been quiet since.

Wise Man Brewing, which initially planned to open in downtown Greensboro, is now nearing completion on the north side of downtown Winston-Salem, making it the fourth brewery in the Camel City. Brown Truck Brewery opened earlier this year in High Point, becoming the city’s second while plans for XII Tribes in the Third City aren’t moving forward quickly.