Demand for pints and growlers of fresh, locally produced draft beer spurred Strong Brewing Co. to add a beer garden and pub in time for this summer. New microbrews are being offered and BBQ served up Friday and Saturday night

The Sedgwick brewery, operated by Al and Mia Strong, produces Localmotive, Soulpatch Porter and The Maineiac as well as special edition beers.

Strong Brewing uses regionally grown malt and hops and organic ingredients whenever possible.

“They just keep clamoring for more so we have to supply the demand,” said Al.

The Strongs partnered with restaurateur Matt Haskell, who owns Blaze in Bangor and Blaze and Finback Whalehouse in Bar Harbor. Blaze Catering Co. is doing the BBQ too including grilled lobster.

“Synchronicity is what I’d call it,” added Mia.

Strong Brewing standbys include Localmotive, The Mainiac and Soulpatch Porter. Through the summer, a couple of special brews are on tap for a total of five.

Incidentally, Al has been brewing Soulpatch since he began making beer for himself at home in New Jersey in the 1990s.

If you want to sample before ordering a pint, 1-ounce samples are free. Or, the best solution, order a flight of four 4-ounce beers for $6.

In keeping with tradition, 32-ounce or 64-ounce growlers are available to take home.

The brewery really makes a beer for every taste.

The Strongs describe Soulpatch as a “robust porter deep and rich with roasted malt and chocolate notes.” Caution: the porter is 10 percent alcohol.

The brewery’s flagship brew, Localmotive, is billed as a “California common style beer.”

Localmotive is described as a “pale and hoppy thirst quencher with Maine grown pale malt and generous additions of hops.”

The Mainiac is a “big, bold beer” in production year-round.

“…It will please hop lovers, but being well balanced it will also turn the ‘I don’t like hops people to converts,’” the brewery states.

A new beer called We’re Bock, a maibock, a strong, German lager, has been added to celebrate the reopening,

Incidentally, Al Strong had been a wine drinker for years before he got into artisanal beers.

The couple discovered micro-breweries while vacationing in Maine before they relocated to Sedgwick in 2003.

Strong Brewing opened in 2013.

Initial funding came from operating the brewery as a CSB, community support brewery with patrons buying “shares” of beer like a Community Supported Agriculture share or farm share. The CSB program is still available.

 Strong Brewing Co.

The microbrewery (359-8722, www.strongbrewing.com) is located at 7 Rope Ferry Road in Sedgwick. For the month of June, the brewery is open from 1 to 6 p.m. Thursday-Saturday. Hours will expand for July and August to Tuesday-Thursday 1 to 6 p.m. and Fridays-Saturdays 1 to 8 p.m.