Stormbreaker Brewing opened a second location last week in St. Johns, in an impressively large space that formerly housed Plew’s Brews and an adjoining dentist’s office. The new Stormbreaker is poised to become a focal point of the neighborhood, with a spacious, covered patio directly facing the street, further sidewalk seating, a large and handsome wooden bar, and a cavernous empty space in the rear that will house a new brewing facility at some point in the future. For now, the beers are still being brewed at Stormbreaker’s original location on North Mississippi, and there is room for as many as 20 different beers on tap at the new spot.
During a soft opening last week, there was more than enough good Stormbreaker beer to be had, and an Extra Special Bitter brewed in collaboration with Laurelwood was especially tasty. Beer flights come in trays that are small wooden replicas of the St. Johns Bridge, iconography that indicates Stormbreaker hopes to fully connect with a neighborhood that’s seen so much change in recent years.
To Stormbreaker’s credit, their new joint doesn’t feel as though a buffed, polished, merch-flogging brewpub has been dumped fully formed into St. Johns like so many stacks of condos.