Commonhouse Aleworks, a brewery started by two home brewers, holds its grand opening today in North Charleston’s Park Circle neighborhood.

The party at 4831 O’Hear Ave. runs from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., The Post and Courier reported. The founders timed it to coincide with the finish of the Charleston Marathon.

“We decided to take advantage of the crowds,” co-founder Hank Hanna told the newspaper. “And it would give us the opportunity to own that weekend in the future as our birthday.”

The brewery is already selling beer. Commonhouse received its license to sell alcohol on Tuesday, and Hanna and co-founder Pearce Fleming invited the neighborhood in on Wednesday with a post on a Park Circle neighborhood Facebook page, Hanna said. People came in a steady stream from 4 to 8 p.m.

“The Park Circle community is really tight and loyal to small businesses,” Hanna said. “We felt the love of this community even before opening.”

From homebrew to a 5,000-barrel brewery

Hanna and Fleming took up home brewing a few years ago and competed under the name Octohops Homebrew. In 2016 they entered the Great American Beer Festival in a partnership with Charleston’s Revelry Brewing Co., and their Hefeweizen-style wheat beer, Wise One, made it to the final judging table, the Post and Courier reported last April.

That month, Commonhouse bought the land for its building. Financial terms were not immediately available. The founders said the brewery would be able to produce 5,000 barrels, or 155,000 gallons, of beer a year, and that they expected to sell most of it on site.

“What we’re looking to add to the neighborhood is a communal gathering place through our tap house. That will be the primary place we’re brewing our beer for,” Fleming said then. “We’re hoping people will be able to ride bikes, walk, etc.”

Wise One is one of four Commonhouse beers on tap for the grand opening. The others are Park Circle Pale Ale, a year-round beer; Oleander Pale; and Pearce the Knife, an American stout, according to the Post and Courier. Two guest taps honor Two Blokes Brewing and Revelry, which supported the startup.

In September, Commonhouse named Shane Cummings, a former lead brewer at Westbrook Brewing, as its head brewer, according to a company announcement.

Built around the community table

The building covers 7,200 square feet. Inside is a 1,100-square-foot taphouse, with about as much gathering space outside. The bar is a service bar with no seating, Hanna said.

“People get their beer and then go sit down at a community table,” he said. “We want to push people to hang out with people they might not know. Seeing what happened Wednesday, it’s proven to be a great model and everyone is really enjoying the atmosphere.”

Today’s lineup includes live music from Derek Cribb, Danny Madison and Tumbleweed, and Danielle Howle. Food trucks Brunch Holiday, Short Grain, BKeD SHoP and Dough Boyz Pizza are scheduled, along with treats from Wich Cream.

A longer build than planned

When they bought the land, the founders said construction would finish in the fall of 2017. It took longer.

Even getting to the land purchase was slow. Days before the closing, the third installment of a series on the brewery’s website titled “What’s Taking So Long” said the first construction bids had come back almost double the budget, forcing a redesign, and that the bank had required a long checklist before it would close. “New construction here is currently out of control,” the post said.

The real estate firm that sold Commonhouse its land was also managing construction last April, the Post and Courier reported. Jeff Baxter, a partner in the firm, said then that new projects were pushing Park Circle’s business district beyond the three-block stretch of East Montague Avenue it has been built around.

“As more and more energy has built up around the East Montague district, this represents a shift a block north,” Baxter said.

A growing field

Commonhouse enters a craft beer industry that has grown quickly across South Carolina. The state had 36 craft breweries in 2015, more than double the number in 2011, according to Brewers Association figures cited by the Post and Courier last April. At that point, the trade group counted 76 craft breweries operating or under development in the state.

One expected neighbor will not arrive. Palmetto Brewing Co., the state’s oldest craft brewery, had planned to move to a site a block up O’Hear Avenue. Last May, it said it had dropped that plan and bought the Huger Street building on the Charleston peninsula that it had rented for 23 years for $2.9 million, and that it would expand there instead, the Post and Courier reported.

The area around the brewery is still changing. The Beach Co. is developing Garco Park, a mixed-use project on the 40-acre former General Asbestos and Rubber Co. site that is planned to include more than 270 apartments, the newspaper reported last April.

Hanna has asked today’s visitors for patience, the Post and Courier reported, because he expects the brewery to be swamped on its first big day.