Tupps President Keith Lewis along with brewery owners, investors and members of the McKinney Community Development Corp. dug shovels in a pile of grains to represent the upcoming construction of the new brewery. Construction is scheduled to begin Jan. 17, Lewis said.
The new site will be located across from the McKinney Flour Mill on East Louisiana Street. The current brewery is about a mile south on Anderson Street.
“A couple of years ago, we hit a roadblock with production and our current facility just wasn't big enough,” Lewis said to a crowd of stakeholders and community members at the ceremony. “We looked all over the North Dallas area, and it was remarkable that we were able to come across this location due to a lot of help and teaming with the city of McKinney, which was fantastic.”
Lewis added that at the end of 2020, Tupps was the 11th largest independent brewery in Texas.
The future Tupps site will be on 4 acres of land. In addition to the brewery, the location will have a full kitchen, outdoor stage and play areas for adults and children.
The brewery is scheduled to open in October, and the entire site is expected to open by November, Lewis said.
McKinney Community Development Corp. owns the land of the future brewery site. MCDC Treasurer Angela Richardson-Woods said working with the Tupps team for two years has been a “joy.”
“This is a community property,” Richardson-Woods said. “This is going to be for the community, for the residents, for everyone to come here and belong to what we know will be a long-standing partnership as we grow in this city.”
Mayor George Fuller also spoke at the ceremony, tipping his hat to Matt Hamilton, owner of Local Yocal Farm to Market, Local Yocal BBQ & Grill and LY Outfitters. Fuller called Hamilton a “trailblazer” in bringing business to the east side of SH 5.
“Here we are now with Tupps,” Fuller said. “We're continuing that trail, blazing that trail, opening up tremendous opportunities on the east side, expanding our historic footprint over here, which is necessary and it will be appreciated by this community for hundreds of years.”
