Canton will give a craft brewer a break on sewer rates, but not sell it water at wholesale rates, the City Council has decided.
Reformation Brewery is moving its beer-making operation from Woodstock to The Mill on Etowah at 141 Railroad St., Canton, and requested the breaks.
In a letter to the city, brewmaster and co-founder Nicholas Downs said Reformation expects to produce 155,000 gallons (5,000 barrels) of beer, using less than 930,000 gallons of water, in 2019; 217,000 gallons (7,000 barrels), using no more than 1.3 million gallons of water, in 2020; and 10 percent annual growth thereafter.
He noted that the brewer currently is billed wholesale rates for its water and deducts packaged beer volume from its sewer fees each quarter.
Canton, however, does not sell its water wholesale to private entities, only to other cities, staff told the council. But it can grant a sewer credit based on Reformation’s production and the amount of water shipped offsite as beer, rather than sent to the sewers. The council voted to approve that credit.
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