ENFIELD — Plans for a brewery in the former laundromat in downtown Enfield are back on tap after the business owners purchased the building, which the previous owner put up for sale due to his frustrations with the town’s planning and zoning process.

Bow Mills Brewing LLC, bought the former laundromat building located at 59 Main St., from previous owner Brian Degnan in late January. The LLC is owned by Dan Thomas, with his wife, Kelly. The couple also co-owns Hoptimystic Brewing, which plans to operate in the space.

The building was originally listed for $500,000 but sold for $350,000, according to a real estate listing posted on the website for Enfield-based Vanessa Stone Realty, which handled the sale.

“We’re making progress,” Thomas said in a Thursday phone interview.

Renovations on the building, which include reconfiguring the building’s drainage to support brewing equipment, are underway. The goal is to start brewing beer this spring and open the tasting room in the summer.

“Our focus is on getting the brewing side up and running so we have beer to sell,” Thomas said.

Currently, Hoptimystic brews its beer in Springfield, N.H., in a facility that is closed to the public. Thomas plans to move brewing operations to Enfield, where he will also be able to bottle the beer to sell it.

This summer, Hoptimystic will return to Sunapee with a pop-up tasting room in the Prospect Hill Antiques and Art Gallery building in Sunapee Harbor. The business also continues work to establish a location in Bow.

When the Enfield tasting room opens customers will have 12 taps to choose from.

“We’re not just IPAs, we’re not just whatever the flavor of the month is,” Thomas said. Blonde ales, scotch ales, porters and stouts are among the varieties. The brewery’s strawberry jalapeno blonde ale, in particular, has proven popular. “What we appreciate is keeping a diverse portfolio of options.”

Plans for the Enfield brewery began last summer after town officials connected Thomas with Degnan, who was looking for a new tenant to run a business in that spot.

Degnan, an Enfield resident, purchased the laundromat in 2017. He operated it as a laundromat for about a year until a dryer fire caused extensive damage.

Last July, while Degnan still owned the building, the Enfield Planning Board approved the proposal for the brewery.

Degnan decided to sell the building after a contentious Zoning Board of Adjust meeting last October about a pair of variances the board refused to grant at the time. In an October interview, he attributed his decision to sell the building to “the bureaucracy that exists and the amount of effort it takes to invest money in Enfield.”

The project has continued to face scrutiny from Enfield officials. Thomas appeared before the Enfield Zoning Board of Adjustment Tuesday night to ask for three variances, two of which were approved and one which was delayed.

Thomas’ asked the ZBA for permission to have three signs of up to 32 square feet each on the building, which would exceed the 40 square feet for one sign attached to buildings located in the community business district.

The sign on the front of the building would be allowed under the town’s zoning ordinance. Thomas also wants to put a sign on the side of the building facing the Northern Rail Trail, as well as another on the side of the building facing the brewery’s parking lot.

“We want people to know where we are,” Thomas said during the meeting.

The majority of the Zoning Board members were open to the idea, but alternate board member Cecilia Aufiero pushed back.

“This is a little town. We don’t need a big sign,” she said.

Other members, including Madeleine Johnson, noted that while a sign might seem big up close, it would not necessarily have the same effect once it’s on the building.

“People have to be able to see it from far away,” Johnson said.

After more than 40 minutes of discussion, the ZBA agreed to the request with one adjustment: That the sign on the western side of the building be no larger than 24 square feet.

Thomas’ second variance request was for a setback relief to allow him to place an outdoor beer cooler on the eastern side of the building within four feet of the property line.

Some board members expressed concern about how loud the cooler would be, with board members worried it would drown out the sound of the nearby Mascoma River or that customers eating outside at Kitchen 56 across the street would be able to hear it. Members suggested putting a decibel limit on the cooler.

“I think that protects neighbors down the road,” member Dan Regan said about the decibel limit.

The ZBA unanimously approved the variance with a few caveats: The cooler cannot be larger than 320 square feet and cannot exceed 68 decibels measured at 10 feet from the cooler’s compressor.

The variance approval also comes with the condition that the New Hampshire Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Rail and Transit — which has purview over the Northern Rail Trail and was inadvertently left off the abutter notification list in advance of the ZBA meeting — “not object” to the variance.

The cooler approval will also involve a boundary line adjustment, also known as a land swap, with the town of Enfield. The new brewery was a railroad depot in the early 1900s and the lot includes a long skinny rectangle along the rail trail. The plan, which is still being worked out, would involve Thomas trading part of that rectangle to the town in exchange for the land where the cooler will sit.

The ZBA shelved Thomas’ request to add a modified shipping container to the brewery to create a “trailside cafe” where he plans to serve ice cream and hot dogs. Board members asked him to come back in the future when he has a design that would better blend the container with the brewery building.

In spite of that delay, the brewery now has all the approvals it needs to operate in Enfield, Thomas said in the Thursday interview .

Liz Sauchelli can be reached at esauchelli@vnews.com or 603-727-3221.