Founder Mark Costa has devoted a decade of his life to the art of brewing, and Varitage Brew Works is a result of that passion. He left his job in digital advertising to hone his craft, and his homebrew has become a winning recipe that has been featured at several breweries nationwide.
Located in the historic St. John the Baptist Roman Catholic Church, a former place of worship that served Jonesboro for 91 years, Varitage is one of the most unusual places to get your beer. The building has been transformed into a modern brewery with its original altar still in place, and liturgical remnants scattered around the bar and restaurant.
The Brewery
Dedicated to the art of brewing, Varitage will primarily brew and serve ales and lagers, but it also plans to offer hard seltzer and non-alcoholic craft sodas as well. It will also have gluten-reduced beers on tap to help cater to those with allergies or intolerances.
The Craft of Brewing
For Mark Costa, the path to becoming a brewer began with his first win in a home brewing competition. It led to a commercial collaboration and ultimately made him realize that he needed to quit his job in digital advertising to pursue his dreams of opening a craft brewery.
It’s a journey that has led him to become the owner of Bloomfield’s first microbrewery, Varitage Brew Works, which will be located at 58 Washington Street. Mark is working with his family friend Neil Levine, who has 30 years of experience in finance and marketing, to develop the brewery.
He has spent long hours in his garage homebrewery and at the fermentation cellar of a brewery, where he has learned the art of making good beer. These experiences, combined with his love of beer, have inspired him to open Varitage Brew Works.
His dream is to create a community of beer lovers and to make Varitage Brew Works a fixture in the town of Bloomfield. He wants to give Bloomfieldans a place to meet and drink great beer while sharing in the American dream.
He hopes to attract beer aficionados from all over, and to bring them back to the city that has always been his home. He believes that Varitage Brew Works will be a destination for beer and food, and an important cultural and economic center of the city.
