Narragansett Brewery Marks 5 Years at Providence Waterfront Location

The most interesting thing about Narragansett Beer's 5th-anniversary party at 271 Tockwotton St. this Saturday isn't what will be pouring — it's what won't be. Rhode Island law prevents taprooms from serving any beer not brewed on premises, which means you can't drink Narragansett Lager at Narragansett's own taproom. What you get instead is a rotating cast of 12 taproom-exclusive brews that exist nowhere else: the Beavertail IPA, an East Coast IPA that carries aromas of citrus peel, pine, and a touch of sea breeze salinity, built on a foundation of locally malted barley from Stone Path; the O'Neil's Irish Red Ale, brewed to honor a beloved member of the brewery family; and collaborations like a Baltic Porter aged in Wheel Horse Bourbon barrels, where a base of specialty malts marries the barrel's vanilla, oak, and spirit notes.

That's the pitch for Saturday's celebration on the Fox Point waterfront: beers that genuinely cannot be found at a liquor store, because they were never packaged for one.

Six German immigrants in 1890 came together with $150,000 and built the first Narragansett Beer brewery building. Within ten years, Narragansett Beer became the largest-selling beer across New England and was a beverage staple for close to a century. After the brewery shut down in 1982, Rhode Island native Mark Hellendrung in 2005 rallied a group of investors to restart the Narragansett Brewing Co. A Brown University graduate from Rumford, Rhode Island, Hellendrung revived it a decade and a half before the Providence brewery opened. For most of that time, the iconic Rhode Island brand was contract-brewed in Rochester, New York. The Tockwotton Street location finally delivered on the homecoming: in late May 2021, Narragansett officially opened the doors to its long-awaited Providence, RI brewery.

The 18,000-square-foot brewery features an indoor taproom and bar, an alfresco patio and events space where visitors can soak up waterfront views of Narragansett Bay. The facility runs a 10,000-barrel annual capacity under head brewer Lee Lord and production manager Tony Barber. About 5% of the brand's beer comes out of Providence; the other 95% is produced in Rochester. That small percentage is where the most interesting work happens, and Saturday's anniversary is its best showcase.

For homebrewers, the Tockwotton Street taproom is worth a visit beyond the anniversary weekend itself. The barrel-aging collabs and hop-forward taproom releases represent the kind of small-batch experimentation that's difficult to pull off at scale but entirely achievable in a home setup: single-origin malt sourcing from regional maltsters, society collaborations like the original Pink Boots Pale Ale brewed with the Pink Boots Society, and rotating styles that respond to season rather than distribution windows.

Five years into its Providence run, 'Gansett's waterfront location opens Saturday from noon to 11 p.m. The beers you'll find there don't ship. That's the point.