Mount Pleasant’s first brewery is making beer.

Westbrook Brewing Co. began a test run today at its new $2.25 million plant off Long Point Road, next to Interstate 526, founder Edward Westbrook told The Post and Courier. The newspaper reported in May that the brewery would be the town’s first.

“We had to buy a couple of parts, but so far everything is going well,” said Westbrook, 25.

He hopes to have Westbrook beer on tap in local businesses by Dec. 13. Bottles and cans will come later. A tasting room with a circular bar in the lobby is set to open in January.

Three beers to start

Westbrook plans to open with three beers, the newspaper reported. White Thai is a Belgian-style wheat beer spiced with ginger and lemon grass. The Belgian pale ale is copper-colored and made with European malts. The India pale ale is lighter in color than the pale ale, a bit stronger and hoppier.

“I’ve brewed a ton of different recipes,” Westbrook said.

His head brewer is Smith Mathews of Statesboro, Ga., a Georgia Tech graduate who started as a part-time worker at Sweetwater Brewing Co. in Atlanta while in college. Mathews spent four months at the Siebel Institute of Technology, a brewing school in Chicago, before returning to Sweetwater. He heard about the Mount Pleasant project while in Atlanta, toured the brewery this fall and had the job within about two weeks.

“I just fell in love with it,” Mathews said of brewing.

From college closets to a two-story plant

Westbrook started brewing as a senior at Furman University, after studying in Europe during his junior year in 2005 got him interested in beer. He later earned a master’s degree in business administration at Clemson University.

“I took over all of their closets, but they didn’t seem to mind too much as they got to sample the results,” he said of his college roommates.

He began planning the brewery in the summer of 2009 with help from his father, Charleston attorney Ed Westbrook, the Post and Courier reported in May. Crews cleared the 1-acre site in April and poured the foundations in May. Westbrook said he sprinkled malted barley and hops into the cement as it was poured, for luck.

RC Building Co. of Mount Pleasant built the 18,500-square-foot, two-story brewery. Company President Coty Cuttino put the building’s cost at about $1.75 million in May, and Westbrook said the equipment would cost another $350,000. The brewing vessels were to be shipped from China.

Solar panels help heat the water used in brewing, and skylights light the brewhouse. Offices on the second floor overlook the brewing floor, with storage space waiting for future bottles and cans.

Town incentives and a new state law

Mount Pleasant offered help early. In October 2009, a Town Council economic development committee gave preliminary approval to reimbursing Westbrook $12,244 in development impact fees, with the final decision left to the full council, the Post and Courier reported at the time.

Westbrook told that committee the brewery would hire about five people to start and could employ up to 25 within three to five years.

“I want to start an exciting new microbrewery. People possibly all over the county are going to be hearing about this,” he said then.

He also said he hoped lawmakers would allow retail sales at breweries. They did. A state law that took effect in June lets South Carolina breweries offer limited tastings and sell their beer directly to customers in conjunction with tours, the Post and Courier reported. Before the change, breweries could not host tastings at all.

Westbrook built the circular lobby bar in anticipation of that law passing, according to the newspaper.

Joining a small field

Westbrook Brewing joins Coast Brewing Co. in North Charleston and Palmetto Brewing Co. in Charleston as the Lowcountry’s three main beer brewers. Palmetto started on the Charleston peninsula in 1994, and Coast started on the former Charleston Naval Base in 2007, according to the Post and Courier.

Westbrook said in May that he would first target South Carolina bars that carry craft beer, then move into neighboring states and Tennessee.

“Charleston could use another good brewery. That’s why I decided to get started in the business,” he said then.

With the brewhouse running, his verdict was short.

“I’m glad that it worked out,” Westbrook said. “I think this is very cool.”