Popular Paso Robles brewery expands to airplane hangar. Here’s what’s in store

Paso Robles-based brewery BarrelHouse Brewing Co. is expanding its California craft beer empire with a new state-of-the-art production facility based in a former airplane hangar.

Located at the corner of Niblick and Creston roads, The Hangar will consist of 100,000 square feet of conditioned space on 10 acres of property that was once part of the Sherwood Air Field, according to a company news release.

Jason Carvalho and Kevin Nickell, cousins and co-owners of BarrelHouse Brewing Co., bought the land on Dec. 28 from wholesale printing manufacturer Ennis, which set up shop there in 1959.

The facility will “house a larger brewhouse, new packaging equipment and will allow for the much-needed expansion of production,” the release said.

Carvalho said the massive structure will also include a comfortable indoor taproom and a large seating area for community gatherings.

To encourage a family-friendly atmosphere, he said, the facility will have TVs and activities including cornhole, shuffleboard and ping pong.

There will also be low-key live entertainment, Carvalho said, the sort that “if you want to listen to it, fine, but if you want to talk, you can do that easily, too. It’ll be an added layer.”

“It won’t be like an amphitheater with huge speakers,” he explained.

Once BarrelHouse Brewing completes the permit process with the city of Paso Robles and updates the facility, the brewery will move its brewing, packaging and production operations there.

Carvalho said he expects it will take from one to two years before the move is complete and the new facility is ready to open, adding that the city “has been great to work with” so far.

“Paso’s been very good to work with, very proactive,” he said.

Paso Robles brewery expands to former air hanger

According to the BarrelHouse Brewing website, Carvalho, Nickell and co-founder Chris Vaughn launched the brewery in 2013. Vaughn is now the company’s marketing manager.

Since then, the company, which markets itself as “the largest American family-owned brewery on the Central Coast,” has expanded across Central California — opening taprooms in San Luis Obispo, Fresno and Visalia.

BarrelHouse Brewing’s newest acquisition is located about seven miles away from its original location at 3055 Limestone Way in Paso Robles’ Tin City industrial park.

“We are bringing the ‘good people, good times and great beer’ that started in Tin City and expanding it to this amazing new location,” Cavalho said in the release, quoting the brewery’s slogan.

Carvalho declined to say how much the partners paid for the eastern Paso Robles property.

History of property dates back to ‘golden age of aviation’

According to the release, the history of the Hangar property dates back to “the golden age of aviation.”

According to Estrella Warbirds Museum in Paso Robles, the airfield began in the late 1920s or early 1930s, and originally was a small, private airport owned by T.A. Osborne.

Reports prepared by Al Davis for Estrella Warbirds Museum and the state Military Museum say that airfield originally offered two dirt strips with tiedowns for a few locally-owned aircraft. Barnstormers would visit, and Goodyear blimps used it as a stopover.

In October 1940, the city leased the 161-acre airport to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

The Corps built the hangar, which became “the Central Coast base of operations for the U.S. Army Air Force and Navy during World War II,” the release said.

Scenes from the 1940 movie “Flight Command,” starring Robert Taylor as a cocksure Air Corps cadet, reportedly were filmed there.

Ennis Business Forms, Inc., bought the property after the war and owned it for 64 years.

BarrelHouse’s design vision for The Hangar will showcase the property’s history with vintage aircraft and printer presses on display. There are even plans to hang an antique plane from the hangar’s high rafters, according to an architectural rendering.

What’s next for BarrelHouse Brewing?

The first phase of the Hangar project involves converting the hangar structure.

The building already features lots of good industrial infrastructure and some offices, Carvalho said, although the latter need some cosmetic upgrades.

Barrelhouse Brewing will also need to add water and wastewater infrastructure, as well as extra structural support for the beer tanks, which can each weigh about 10,000 pounds when full.

“This updated brewing facility will be even more efficient, utilizing state-of-the-art equipment and eco-friendly solar, water and CO2 technology,” the release said.

According to the release, the five-year vision for The Hanger “includes an open market concept utilizing the 1940s hangar and surrounding grounds to service the growing population on Paso Robles’s east side.”

“The dream is to partner with the very best local purveyors and artisans, showcasing the premium foods, beverages, and services the area has to offer,” the release said.

Carvalho said the Tin City site will eventually have an enlarged taproom with air conditioning and heating added, as well as offices and a concert venue.

According to Carvalho, BarrelHouse Brewing currently employs close to 70 people. Once the Hanger project is complete, he expects that number will double.

“We want the community to understand how thankful we are for all their support, and that we wouldn’t have been able to do this without them,” Carvalho said.

He and his partners want to provide more entertainment and dining opportunities for people in the East Paso Robles area, he said, “creating a common, communal area for the whole family.”