Albany Commission eyes another draft at downtown brewery

ALBANY – It’s back to the drawing board, again, as Albany elected officials look to figure out what to do with the brewery and taproom they purchased last year.

The 120 Pine Ave. site that housed the Pretoria Fields Brewery has been vacant since the brewing operation and taproom were closed in November 2024. Now the Albany City Commission is looking for a new company to step in and take over the operation.

The commission approved purchasing the building and equipment, a sale that went through in late 2025. An initial hope of bringing another brewing company has fallen through, as the Socius Beer Collective has pulled out of expanding its operation into Albany.

“They decided they did not want to proceed,” City Manager Terrell Jacobs said. “They have three other breweries, and that is a sizable undertaking.”

Size is the operative word in Jacobs’ remarks: The Pretoria Fields Brewery was set up to make large batches of beer for distribution to retailers, along with serving in the taproom. Those quantities are much greater than what would be needed to just supply the brew pub for customers in Albany.

Socius was the only brewer to respond to the city’s request for proposals to take over the brewing operation, and its departure leaves the city with no current candidates.

City commissioners have expressed a desire to return the portion of the building where the brewing equipment still sits unused to use for beer-making.

“First off, for downtown and the hotels coming to fruition, we need a brewery,” Commissioner Willie Weaver told an Albany Herald reporter during a Wednesday telephone interview.

The commissioner was referring to the opening earlier this year of the renovated St. Nicholas Hotel and plans to bring a hotel to the former Water, Gas & LIght and former Davis Brothers Department Store/Albany Herald buildings.

“The first option is a solid proposal that can use the brewery and other space,” Weaver said. “The second option is (having a separate) brewery and other things. That’s a lot of space. The No. 2 option is to have a brewery and something else. The brewery is the first priority.”

Downtown Albany needs something that brings people to the area, and that is something that a brewery operation and taproom would be able to provide, Commissioner Diana Brown said. 

When in operation, Pretoria Fields hosted events like trivia and Bingo nights, held community market events and provided a watering hole in the evenings. With the closing of the brewery, that evening crowd is no longer present.

“You’ve got to have foot traffic,” Brown said. “We’ve got to be strategic about what we do downtown. Where’s the events? Where’s the people? I’m going to push for a brewery.”

Next for the city is seeking other potential operators for the brewery in a new request for proposals. 

The last time the city advertised for interested parties it did not own the building, Mayor Bo Dorough said. That may have made potentially interested parties hesitate before trying to deal with the city on operating a facility the city did not even own, he said.

“There might be somebody else in the Southeast that needs to increase production and they would operate the brewery pub secondarily,” the mayor said. “I suggested in the past that we get somebody in the industry to help us draft a proposal.”

Like Brown and Weaver, Dorough said his support is for bringing a beer-brewing operation back to the site.