Montauk Brewing signs lease for new Long Island taproom and brewery

Montauk Brewing Company has staked its Long Island expansion on a familiar beer address, signing a six-year lease for the former Port Jefferson Brewing Company space at 22 Mill Creek Road in Chandler Square. The roughly 800-square-foot site is expected to open in July as a new brewing facility and taproom, giving Montauk its second brewing location and its first satellite taproom outside Montauk.

The move is small in footprint but big in signal. On Long Island, where brewery identity often rises or falls with neighborhood fit, Montauk is not just adding another taproom. It is stepping into a proven piece of beer real estate and planting its flag closer to the central and western parts of the island, with a location that sits across from the Port Jeff-Bridgeport ferry and already carries built-in foot traffic and local recognition.

That local identity matters for Montauk, which has grown far beyond its original Brew Barn roots since launching in 2012. Tilray Brands acquired Montauk in November 2022 and described it at the time as the No. 1 craft brewer in Metro New York, with distribution across more than 6,400 points of distribution. Tilray later said its 2023 acquisition of Blue Point Brewing Company and seven other beer and beverage brands would make it the fifth-largest craft beer business in the United States by expected sales volume, putting Montauk inside a much larger portfolio even as the brand keeps leaning on its East End image.

The address Montauk is taking over has its own place in Long Island beer history. Port Jefferson Brewing Company was founded in October 2011 by Michael Philbrick and operated from the same Chandler Square location for nearly 15 years before announcing in November 2025 that it was closing. Public listings described its system as a 7-barrel brewhouse capable of producing about 217 gallons per batch, with beer that reached Long Island, New York City and beyond.

Montauk co-founder Vaughan Cutillo has framed the Port Jefferson opening as a continuation of the brand’s coastal, community-minded sensibility, but the lease also shows something more practical: strong regional brewery brands are moving quickly to claim spaces that already have beer credentials, customer traffic and a location story. In that sense, 22 Mill Creek Road is not just changing tenants. It is getting a new life as Montauk’s next outpost, in a town where the waterfront and the beer scene have always fed each other.