SOUTHINGTON — A Triano Drive brewery is taking a break from making beer while undergoing an ownership and name change.
The two founding partners of Skygazer Brewing — Taylor Pilewski, of Wallingford, and Erik Tynik, of Bristol — have parted ways.
On Tuesday, Tynik got approval from the Zoning Board of Appeals to have the alcohol sales permit transferred to his name only. He’ll be running the brewery as Transcend.
Tynik didn’t return calls for comment.
The brewery offers small batch brews and sells cans at the Triano Drive location. A post on the company’s Facebook page from June 19 said production would be halted “briefly.”
“Part of our challenge has always been making enough beer to meet demand in a way that could be sustained by our team,” the company wrote. “We have options in the pipeline for how we plan to move Skygazer forward, options that would allow Skygazer to produce much higher volumes of beer, meeting the demand of our customers and in ways that are more easily scalable and sustainable on our extremely small team.”
Before the pandemic, the brewery had been selling beer on Thursdays and Saturdays. It transitioned to online only sales with pickup at the Triano Drive location more recently.
Alicia Novi, chairwoman of the zoning appeals board, said Tynik’s reapproval includes being able to open from Thursday to Sunday. He told board members that the brewery might add Friday to its lineup.
“He’s got permission to be open more days than he is,” Novi said.
Andy Meade owns the building at 36 Triano Drive, which houses the brewery along with other businesses. He said there would be a “little lull” in beer production while Tynik transitioned the name and ownership to himself.
“He’s the one who’s made the beer all these years,” Meade said.
The brewery had been popular with craft beer aficionados, according to Meade.
“They’re doing quite well. He usually sells out every Saturday,” he said.
Skygazer, the third brewery in town, opened last year.
Witchdoctor Brewing Co. is located at 168 Center St. and Kinsmen Brewing Co. operates in the former Clark Brothers Bolt factory building at 409 Canal St.
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