KELLEYVILLE — When Tim Fraser, Tony Grasso and Adam Bray opened Protectworth Brewing last May, they had a goal beyond producing craft beer.

They wanted to build a community.

From live music on Thursdays and trivia on Mondays, to a paint-and-sip and other events coordinated through area chambers of commerce, Protectworth is fulfilling the owners’ mission.

Last fall, Protectworth teamed up with the Sugar River Region initiative for a Sugar River Rail Trail Rendezvous that drew walkers, bicyclists and ATV riders along the 10-mile trail connecting Claremont and Newport with a post-ride celebration at the brewery, pub and restaurant, which sits a stone’s throw from the trail.

“Community events are what do the best job of introducing people to us,” Grasso said during an interview at Protectworth with Fraser. “It is a place where people have built friendships. Our expectations are in line with what we are doing.”

The seed for a beer brewing business was planted about eight years ago when Bray, 44, and Fraser, 52, met by chance at a Lebanon restaurant.

“I overheard a guy talking about growing hops,” Fraser recalled. “I sidled up to him and told him, ‘You should grow hops.’ I was growing hops at the time. We kind of hit it off.”

Not long after, Fraser shared some Jalapeno Porter that he made in his Springfield, N.H., garage. The two sampled the brew while they watched a Patriots game at Bray’s house, a half-mile away.

“Adam said, ‘Wow, you should sell that’ and I said, ‘Yeah, I’m thinking of it.’ A couple of weeks later we were brewing our first batch together,” said Fraser, who was struck by the idea of a business partnership with Bray and thought he could use his expertise as a beer distributor.

“He knew the ins and outs of selling,” Fraser said. “I thought this could make a good partnership.”

They next looked into forming an LLC and getting the required licenses. They obtained some personal loans and bought equipment. By late 2019 Protectworth, the original name of Springfield before the American Revolution, was in business but on a small scale.

“Then COVID hit,” Fraser said, a common refrain from many whose business plans were either put on hold or ended completely during the pandemic.

Proctorworth survived. A few years later, a couple of business owners approached them about building a brewery, Fraser said. After that fell through, a Realtor contacted Bray about leasing the former Crazy Ed’s on John Stark Highway. Around this time, Fraser reached out to Grasso, who lives in Ascutney, because of his years of experience in brewing.

“He is knowledgeable, a hard worker, he is my cousin and the building is halfway between us,” Fraser recalled. “It sounded perfect so we formed an alliance and kind of went for it.”

They were handed the keys on Feb. 15, 2024, and went to work on a “whole tear down,” Fraser said, noting that the ceiling was falling in when they began working.

The renovated interior includes a “cold room” in the back that was bought from a business in Lebanon and reassembled at Protectworth with a reconditioned condenser. The beer is kept in kegs at a temperature in the high 30s and the keg lines are connected to 17 taps on the other side of the wall, just steps from the bar. All the beer is brewed on the premises with two, 120 gallon batches each week.

“We have 17 beers on tap and about 30 to 40 (beer) recipes,” Grasso said. “Every season we do different styles and we are always adding more.”

For the non-beer drinker, Protectworth brews four different hard seltzers. The brewer also sells its beer at Jake’s Markets, and at some area bars and restaurants.

In the parking lot is the Pizza Hero, a converted solar-powered bus, offering wood-fired pizza, wings, pretzels and more. In warm weather, people can walk over and pick up their food but when it is cold, owner and chef Christopher Beaucher will deliver to the table.

A long way from Kelleyville

Fraser began teaching himself the brewing process around 2011 while living in San Francisco.

“I just continued to learn and experiment,” said Fraser, who met his wife, a Meriden native, on the West Coast and then moved back east, where he is from, in 2013.

Grasso’s story is similar with some variations. He also started brewing on the West Coast and apprenticed at breweries on the weekend.

“That is how I learned,” Grasso said.

He continued working at breweries and building infrastructure for local farms while attending graduate school in Austin, Texas, where he lived for 15 years. Grasso moved to Ascutney in search of land seven years ago and now farms at the base of Mount Ascutney. Some of what he grows, including berries, will be used in the brewing process.

“It all converged into brewing and farming in Vermont,” Grasso said.

Grasso recited a formula familiar to most small businesses owners when asked about the success.

“There is a lot of sacrifice and hard work to make this place happen and also spending time here to build community and doing it for the people that come in here,” Grasso said.

Equally important, said Fraser, who still works some in IT, is they work well together.

“We work as a team and each of us can do all the different things,” he said. “These guys make a living from it and I am close to that. And the other thing is the people have embraced us in the community. People are meeting each other here and making friends and making relationships.”

On a recent warm mid-March weekend afternoon with families and a young couple on the front deck and others inside enjoying a beer at the bar, that sense of community was on full display.

“We just love coming here with our dog,” said Corrie Holtz, who was with her partner, Henry Chrislip, on the deck finishing up their pizza and beer. “The owners are great, super casual. It is just a nice environment with friendly people.”

Thinking back to his start in brewing, Fraser said he had a different idea at the time of where it would lead.

“I thought when I retired I would make some extra pocket change. I did not think it would get to this point so quickly.”

Patrick O’Grady can be reached at pogclmt@gmail.com.