WEST POINT — When West Point native Robert Bell was working at a Costco in Ridgeland in 2020, he started brewing his own beer and mixing craft cocktail beverages as a hobby.
After gaining more interest in the drinks, he turned his homemade beverages into a craft cocktail business, Point City Brewing Company, and he plans to open a brewery and pub in West Point in 2025.
“Peach and strawberry blondes were my favorite to make, and I just enjoyed the process of making beer,” Bell said. “When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, craft cocktails became a trending product. People would come into Costco and just stock up on the craft cocktails. So after doing research, I also noticed the trend that (ready-to-drink canned) craft cocktails are growing in the market.”
Bell plans to convert his father’s former mechanic shop at 865 Bugg St., a 50,000-square-foot space, into a three to five-barrel brew system, a restaurant space and distribution area. He said he plans to invest $250,000 to build it and hire 20 employees to help run the entire operation. He expects the project to take about a year to complete.
After agreeing to kickstart the company with about $40,000 he and his wife, Angel, had saved, Bell approached a brewer in California to develop the recipe and several drinks with which to launch.
From there, Bell agreed earlier this year with a third-party brewery in Nashville to make his cocktails, which include Island Vibe, NOLA Vibe, inspired by a common New Orleans drink, Purple Hurricane and Swinging Texas Margarita.
While the drinks are being made and shipped to distributors, Bell said he is drawing up plans to build a facility to house the brewery.
“We are doing that collaboration with Nation’s Brewery so we can ship our products straight out to the distributors in 2024 … and we can use our space in West Point for storage until we build out the entire facility,” Bell said.
In the meantime, Bell said he intends to begin shipping his product to convenience stores and grocers across Mississippi in early 2024 and is working to secure a deal with an area distributor to sell his craft cocktails in the Golden Triangle.
“Central Mississippi and the coast is already covered,” he said. “We’re going to be coming home soon to try to talk to Clark Beverage and cover our homebase area.”
Once Bell has the brewery set up and producing, he plans to add different styles of beer such as ales, blondes and pilsners, among others.
Bell said he also wants to give people the chance to tour the brewery and will even add a see-through window for patrons to watch the brewing process. He hopes that others will also gain an interest in the industry.
“My other goal is to create jobs in West Point,” he said. “I grew up in West Point. My background is in West Point, and I have family there. I just want to bring it back to West Point, I believe it might even spark the interest of younger people and minorities.”
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