Kingston’s food and drink scene has been abuzz with changes—closures, new openings. The latest piece of gossip is the sale of Great Life Brewing, Midtown Kingston’s much-loved and out-of-the-way brewery. Since opening at its taproom six years ago in a warehouse in an industrial section of Clarendon Avenue, Great Life has amassed a crowd of faithful regulars, who happily find their way through the chain link fence and past the auto garage to drink award-winning beers with other Kingstonians.
When we profiled the brewery last November, owner Patrick Clancy was already looking to wind down his involvement. “I’ve been trying to sell it for a couple years, it was just getting beyond my capability,” he says. He found the solution close to home in his West Park neighbor Gary Stone, owner of Red Maple Vineyard.
Primarily a wedding venue, the 143-acre property alongside Route 9W has set itself apart with its farm-to-table culinary offerings, estate wines, and ciders. The land encompasses two lots that straddle Burroughs Drive, one of which has a conservation easement that prevents new construction. The other lot is where Stone built his family’s house, and where the Great Life Brewing taproom will be built over the coming year. “Gary’s wine and cider making set-up was getting really cramped on the south side of the road and he wanted to build a tasting room,” Clancy says. “We got to talking, and he said, ‘Oh, I could have a brewery too.’ So I said, ‘Well I just happen to be selling one.’”
Great Life’s current taproom manager and brewer Cody Lynch will stay on as the head brewer, with Clancy adopting what he calls “brewer emeritus” status. “That’s a fancy way of saying that I get to sit around and make snide remarks and not do much work,” he says.
But Clancy’s selling himself short. The trained engineer has a love of problem solving and the restless energy of a kid. “I enjoy brewing, but I am really a project guy,” Clancy says. “I honestly don't care what they are, I just love having projects to work on. And this is going to be one big, gigantic project for the next year—designing it, figuring shit out, and then actually doing it all.”
Relocating
The idea for the taproom at Red Maple Vineyard grew out of a pandemic initiative. In the summer of 2020, with all their weddings postponed and no revenue on the horizon, the Stone family came up with the idea for Taste of RMV. Every weekend, they opened up the property to the public for wine, cider, Great Life beers, farm-fresh eats, and live music. The event series was such a success that when weddings started back up, they moved the event to Wednesday evenings.
“My wife and I have gone every single Wednesday except when we’re out of town,” Clancy says. “It’s really wonderful, it’s more like a community thing than a bunch of people coming to drink. There’s kids and dogs and corny ’60s music in the corner.” The future taproom looks to be a permanent-public facing home for this community vibe.
Collaboration between the neighbors is not new. Red Maple’s signature wedding beer is Great Life Brewing’s Sapsucker, brewed with maple sap from the farm. This beer will be on offer alongside other brewery’s classics like witbier, cream ale, milk stout, and a West Coast-style IPA, plus crowd-favorite the Juicy Joy, a hazy, New England-style IPA, and seasonal specials.
In addition to kegs for the taproom and bar and restaurant accounts, at Red Maple, Great Life will also have the opportunity to start canning beers for retail sale.
Farm to Taproom
The taproom, like the food and drink program, will very much be of the land. “Gary is really into managing his land and using all of his resources sustainably to make things that are beautiful,” Clancy says. “He’s already gone out on his property, located six or eight trees that were big enough, cut them down, and had them milled onsite to make 12-by-12-by-40-foot wooden beams that will be the rafters for the tasting room.” The wood siding for the building will also come from lumber milled on the property.
“It’s still in the design stage, but Gary’s plans are beautiful,” Clancy says. The building will include production spaces for the wine, cider, and beer operations, cold storage, a workshop for farm equipment, and the tasting room itself with a large outdoor space.
“I am happy as can be,” Clancy says. “I'm up to my ears in fun. And I’m doing it all with great people—nice and well-intended and smart and funny and helpful. What could be better than that?”
Great Life Brewing at Red Maple Vineyard is slated to open in summer 2023. In the meantime, the brewery will be throwing a blowout goodbye party at their Kingston taproom on April 2.
