PHILIPSBURG, Pa. (WTAJ) — For the first time since FDR was president, people in Phillipsburg can soon sip a cold one that was brewed in their community.

After eight decades without a brewery, Brent Baskin and Eric Kelmenson are bringing brews back to Philipsburg with The Dead Canary Brewing Company.

“The Philipsburg Brewing Co. was here,” Baskin said. “I’m not super familiar with their history whether they allowed people to drink there or if they were just production but they shut down, I believe, in 1941.”

Baskin brings eight years of brewing experience to the Philipsburg area.

“There really isn’t like a solid gathering place where everyone’s welcome to just come in, sit down, have a beer and just experience something new,” Baskin said.

Conversations of opening a nanobrewery, a smaller microbrewery, with Kelmenson began over two years ago.

“We’re really just gonna start out brewing enough for the people that are coming into the taproom,” Baskin said. “We plan to open with six taps and our plan is to have one of those taps reserved for being a historical beer style at all times.”

Even though COVID slowed down the opening process, Baskin anticipates a late summer or early fall opening with the hope of bringing more people to Philipsburg.

“The hope is that it’s gonna be a big boon to kind of revitalizing the main street through Philipsburg and getting a lot of people coming here and just being excited about what we’ve got going on,” Baskin said.

Dead Canary will offer a $100 per year “mug club” membership to any interested patrons. The taproom will preview a few of their brews on Friday, May 27, at the Philipsburg Wine Walk.