Big Water Brewery owner and brewmaster Ben Jones with samples of his nanobrewery’s current product line.

A guided tour of the Andover area’s only “nanobrewery” will be offered on Saturday morning, November 12, beginning at 10 AM, at the facilities of the Big Water Brewery, hidden on a back road in Salisbury. Offered by the Andover Institute as part of its continuing series of “space explorations,” the tour is open to the public at no charge.

Participants who wish to car-pool (or follow a lead vehicle) to the brewery can meet in the parking lot behind the Andover Town Hall on Main Street at 9: 30 AM.  Others who wish to self-transport should take U.S. Route 4 from Andover to Salisbury, turn onto Center Street (the first left turn east of Salisbury Center), then follow the signs to the brewery, which is at 24 Robie Road in Salisbury.

Tour participants will hear a presentation by the brewery owner on how different varieties of beer are crafted, and will  have an opportunity to sample and purchase a variety of locally made products.

In commercial operation for 18 months, the facility is currently a one-man operation run full time by ex-math teacher Ben Jones, who lives on the property. The brewery is currently offering seven varieties of beer, which are sold in 31 locations around the state.

Licensed as a “nanobrewery” by the state of New Hampshire, Jones’s operation is legally able to produce and sell up to 62,000 gallons of beer per year – a “drop in the bucket” when compared to major breweries. The Big Water Brewery’s motto is “Making Great Beer, One Batch at a Time.” For additional information, go to bigwaterbrewery.net.

The Andover Institute, an arm of the Andover Community Association, is offering a continuing series of “space explorations,” designed to introduce local residents to venues more or less “off the beaten path” for many. Begun in 2015, explorations have included the Proctor Academy campus, a now-shuttered summer camp for girls, the City of Franklin, a local heron rookery, a guided telescopic viewing of the moon, an introduction to geocaching, the Ice House Museum of Automobilia in New London, overviews of Mount Kearsarge, the Northern Rail Trail, the Sunapee-Ragged Kearsarge Greenway, the hiking trails on the property of Proctor Academy, a Hopkins Pond walkabout in Andover, and Muster Field Farm in North Sutton.