SPANISH FORT, Ala. (WKRG) — A new brewery is open for business in the Eastern Shore and it’s called “Old 31”.

Meet Nick and Brittney Pronesti, originally from Oregon, who moved to Baldwin County eleven years ago and always wanted to open a brewery. They finally decided to follow that dream in 2020, drawing up plans for “Old 31” in Spanish Fort.

“Nights, weekends and blood, sweat and tears, so we’ve been doing this in the grass roots sort of motion, we’ve been swinging a hammer, we have self performed all the construction here, so every single night and every weekend we’ve been up here for two years, working, driving every nail, and that’s sort of how we were able to save on costs” said Nick Pronesti.

But as we all know, something else happened in 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic. Chad and Sandy Saxon are co-owners of the brewery and close friends with Nick and Brittney. They believe the delays that came with the pandemic actually helped them in the long run.

“I think we would have been open a month and they would have shut us down” said Chad Saxon.

“Our initial ideas of how this was going to look and be kind of changed,” said Sandy Saxon. “Blessings in disguises, every one of them and the times that it happened, we were like ugh we felt like we got the wind knocked out of us and then suddenly we were like okay this is a blessing in disguise.”

A dream that could have come to an end when COVID hit is now a reality after a long time coming. The brewery is located at 11133 Old Hwy 31 in Spanish Fort and is open from 2-10 p.m. Monday through Sunday.