East Lyme — Another brewery may be in the works for Niantic.

Old Saybrook resident Michael Lincoln Jr. hopes to open up a brewery and serving area for Noble Jay Brewing Company in a light industrial zone near Rocky Neck State Park in early to mid-2016.

The proposed establishment at 11 Freedom Way would include a brewery, as well as an area where customers can take out growlers or sit down for a pint, Lincoln said.

Customers can bring their own food, and the establishment may partner with a local restaurant to serve food.

The Zoning Commission opened a public hearing Thursday on a regulation to operate a brew pub within a light industrial zone.

Attorney Theodore Harris, who is representing Lincoln, told the commission the brew pub's primary use will be manufacturing, while serving alcoholic beverages or food would be secondary to that.

The commission members discussed prohibiting the establishment from serving alcoholic liquor, so it would only serve beer and wine.

They also discussed that the definition for a brew pub should include how much of the establishment's space will be used for manufacturing and how much will be used for the serving area.

The commission decided to continue Thursday's public hearing until the following meeting to allow for a revised definition of a brew pub from the applicant.

In addition to local approval, Lincoln also will seek state and federal permitting.

Lincoln said, in a phone interview before the meeting, that he began home brewing while in college in Maine, where local beers were plentiful, but found relatively few breweries when he returned to Connecticut.

He later decided to plan to open up his own brewery to sell local beers.

"I would really like it if there were more breweries in this area," he said about his decision.

The company name, Noble Jay Brewing Company, pays homage to Lincoln's late mother, Patricia Jay, who died of cancer when Lincoln was young.

Her first name, Patricia, derives from a Latin word and means noble.

Lincoln said he plans to primarily sell craft lagers and ales at his establishment.

Lincoln said he didn't know while planning his establishment about Todd Sakowski's plan to open up the Niantic Public House and Brewery in downtown Niantic, but he said he was in favor of having two breweries in town. 

The Zoning Commission recently approved Sakowski's application for a taproom brewery in a commercial zone.

"I think having two breweries in the town will make people come down to Niantic," Lincoln said.

k.drelich@theday.com

Twitter: @KimberlyDrelich