Navigation Brewing Company and Tiny Arms Coffee each approach their craft with creative energy and discipline, handcrafting their drinks with tastes sculpted for the senses. Both businesses came to Western Avenue as startups headed by artisans with years of experience in their craft, and have found a home doing what they love to do while surrounded by a community of creatives – juicing up the art!

Navigation Brewing Co. is run by co-owners and co-brewers Bob Johnson and P.J. Mercier. While always making sure to have some favorites on tap, they are continually rotating their offerings based on the seasons or the brewers’ inspirations. The taproom is a lively meeting place where you might find musicians playing a set, an artist doing a live painting, the football game up on the screen, and kids & dogs adding their energy to the room. When the taproom is open, food trucks roll up, rounding out all that’s needed to ride the evening’s jolly conversational tides of inspiration and connection.

PJ: After roughly 6 months starting out in a tiny industrial garage bay in south Lowell we quickly to the conclusion that we were going to need a larger space to brew our beer and allow people to enjoy a locally crafted beer in the location it’s brewed. We reached out to the city for assistance where they put us in contact with Karl Frey the owner of Western Ave Studios. We setup an appointment to visit the studios and potential space. We immediately fell in love with the building and community. Karl had taken an old mill and transformed it into a community of art, craftsmanship, as well as an incubator space for small businesses. Not long after we had struck a deal with Karl and the city to renovate the old boiler room into a production and taproom space. 6 years later and we are still here.

Producing hand crafted beers is a labor of love. It requires long days, attention to detail and devotion. Supplies are ordered using as much local ingredients possible, others come from around the country as well as outside the country. We produce roughly 10bbl of craft beer weekly, that’s 320 gallons a week. We found success in constantly brewing a top quality product as well as a large variety of styles. To date we’ve brew roughly 200 different beers with about 30 of them being what we dubbed “flag ship beers” that are brewed regularly. It gives us an opportunity to be creative and allows our guests to enjoy a wide selection. We focus heavily on freshness, our beers do not last long whether by consumed by our taproom guests or in-house can sales.

Visit Navigation Brewing Company

You can find Navigation Brewing Company on the first floor of Western Avenue Studios. Their taproom is open Thursday through Saturday 4pm – 10pm, and Sunday 12pm – 5pm. Come out to enjoy the good company always gathered here or just to pick up a growler or cans to go!