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(Greenwich, CT) – A beer industry veteran has formed a team of investors to start what promises to be a large brewing operation in Southwestern Connecticut.

Brad Hittle is heading up the operation to be called Two Roads Brewing. Hittle, who resides in Greenwich and maintains strong ties to the town where he grew up, has a track record spanning nearly two decades in the beer business. Most recently, he spent over four years at Pabst Brewing as the Chief Marketing Officer during the brand’s resurgence. Like many other executives, Hittle lasted a very short time at Pabst after its sale to Dean Metropoulos.

Prior to that, Hittle spent four years as the Director of Marketing for “Domestic Specialty Brands” at Labatt. Those brands included Rolling Rock and a number of “craft brews.” From the late 80s to the early 90s, he had stints with Labatt, InBev, Unilever, Johnson & Johnson, and American Bailey Corporation.

Hittle is joined by at least one other investor that has ‘experience’ in beer. George Wyper is one of the main investors in Narragansett Beer, based in Rhode Island. He is currently Managing Director at Royce and Associates, LLC.

Two Roads Brewing filed for an offering with the SEC in mid-October, seeking $10 million. As of the filing, Hittle had 27 investors on board and is asking for, at minimum, $25,000 from each new investor he recruits.

That’s a lot of money and they’re going to need it.

Hittle told members of the Brewers Association this week, “We’ve bought a great building, have a 100 bbl Rolec system on order and will be up and running in September 2012. We’ve developed a brewery on a scale that will enable us to grow our beers over time and at the same time provide brewing services to companies looking for a long-term home for their beers. Our brewery will have new bottling, kegging, canning and 750 ml cork/cage equipment.”

Hittle has been planning way ahead for this company, too. He has already filed several trademark applications with names that clearly convey a theme around a path or journey: Road to Ruin, Crossroads, Detour, Pathfinder, Highway to Helles and Road Less Traveled. And then there is the bewildering Rue Melange.

Two Roads bears some similarities to another startup brewery down I-95 in Pennsylvania, Susquehanna Brewing. Susquehanna management has a wealth of beer industry experience. Ownership has poured $8-$10 million into that brewery so far. Perhaps the biggest difference is that Susquehanna, which industry talking heads have posited as quite ambitious, may be somehow outdone. Two Roads’ 100-barrel system is twice the size of Susquehanna’s 50-barrel system, built by German manufacturer, BrauKon.

Between Two Roads, Susquehanna and the two breweries that Sierra Nevada and New Belgium hope to build on the East Coast, that is a lot of brewing capacity that will be open a few years down the road.

And to give you some insight into just how large a 100-barrel system is, Stone Brewing brews on a 120-barrel Rolec system. Of course, Stone turned 15 years old this past summer and has grown organically over that time.

Not to mention, William K. Busch Brewing, a Missouri-based startup that thinks it can get to two (or a few) million barrels annually…eventually.

All the while, industry trends reveal that consumers are moving away from beer toward wine and spirits.

Have we gone mad?

Hittle’s venture can go down one of two roads. He can fill up that capacity quickly and make it a regional contract brewing hub similar to what City Brewing and Stevens Point have done in the Midwest. Or… Two Roads ends up representing the “road less traveled” and all of that stainless steel sits there underutilized.

Mark this down as one to watch in 2012.