New brewery turns trees into suds, grand opening this weekend

Central Ohio’s newest brewery will be officially entering the suds scene this weekend. Nocterra Brewing Company, located at 41 Depot St. in Powell, will hold their grand opening this Saturday, February 2, at noon.

Nocterra was first started by Bryan Duncan and Bruce Vivian who have built their experience through home brewing competitions. Nocterra’s name originates from a common love of the outdoors shared by the two brewers, and another business partner, James Knott. While Duncan was a white water rafter in West Virginia, Vivian took it to the next extreme with skydiving and backpacking.

“The name, Nocterra, is a play on words,” Duncan explained. “It’s from the land at night—being home brewers with kids, we could only brew at nighttime so we wanted to bring in that mantra. And then “terra”—from the land—it was paying homage to those outdoor activities and being outside.”

As for the beer, Duncan said Nocterra is a luxury, since he and the team are both owners and brewers. They have the freedom to dabble into any style of brew they are interested in, whether that be a sour or a stout.

And while the IPAs and porters will be out for the drinking, the brewers will also be working on a separate sour project through a sour beer wood aging program. Between the extensive production process for sour beers and wanting to have variety, Duncan said they opted out of being an exclusively sour beer brewery.

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In the taproom, Duncan said there should be 10 beers on tap—including a white pine IPA. He said this goes back to Nocterra’s mantra of the outdoors and nature.

“It’s one of our home brew recipes we’d made. We want to do a whole tree series, like a quarterly series, where we used an ingredient from a tree,” Duncan said. “Everyone thinks it’s pine so they think all these resin flavors, but it actually comes across way more citrus. White pine is a totally different flavor.”

Nocterra’s brewery and taproom features 5,800 square feet of space in addition to a large outdoor area that’s a little over a quarter acre in size, which will be used as a beer garden and outdoor event venue. For its initial opening, the patio will feature seating as well as a fire pit, but come spring, Duncan said there are plans to fully complete the outdoor space with a can release party.

Hours following the grand opening have not yet been released. For more information, visit nocterrabrewing.com.

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