Downtown Wilmington could welcome its latest brewery by the end of this year as New Anthem Brewing is beginning to remodel a location on Dock Street.
 
New Anthem Brewing is co-owned by Aaron Skiles and his business partner William Hunter.
 
Skiles, a longtime homebrewer, said that the timing kind of just worked out for the two beer lovers to open New Anthem, and that it will allow him to work at a skill he is both passionate about and has a good feel for.
 
“Downtown was kind of scary for us in terms of rent,” Skiles said, “but our broker found a place that worked for us.”
 
The now-gutted space, located on 116 Dock St., is a circa-1920s construction with high ceilings and enough space for the large equipment necessary for brewing. When finished the location will also include a taproom.
 
Though there isn’t a tight deadline for completion of the space, New Anthem could open by the end of 2015 or the beginning of 2016, Skiles said.
 
Downtown Wilmington has seen a number of microbreweries open in recent years, including breweries such as Ironclad Brewery and Flytrap Brewing — and Skiles said he wants New Anthem to be another attractive brewing location downtown.
 
“We think having a lot of microbreweries downtown would bring even more people down there,” he said. “I don’t know if Wilmington can turn into the beach version of Asheville, but I think we could support a similar number of breweries that they do.”
 
Skiles said he is interested in experimenting with a lot of different styles at New Anthem, such as farmhouse ales, saisons and sour ales, though he added it would be silly not to have an India Pale Ale option.