The most common response Merrimack Ales founder Adam Pearson gets when he tells people about his brewery is a question.

“They say, ‘There’s a brewery in Lowell?’?’’ says Pearson, who opened Merrimack just before Thanksgiving.

There’s actually more than one, although Lowell is far from a craft-beer hotbed. Navigation Brewing is a nanobrewery that opened in the summer of 2014. Also in town is the Lowell Beer Works, part of the Boston Beer Works chain. (The Do Can Brewery closed last February after the death of its founder.)

“It’s sort of in its infancy,’’ Pearson said of the local beer scene. “We’re all trying to prop it up.’’

Pearson is a longtime homebrewer and an engineer by trade. When considering whether he could start a brewery, he was methodical, using a visit to a brewers’ conference as a chance to interview others who had done it.

“My wife’s advice was, ‘Go soak up as much as you possibly can,’?’’ says Pearson.

Merrimack is small but built to scale up. Pearson bought a 10-barrel system and installed it in a big industrial warehouse. This year, he plans to brew 1,000 barrels, but there’s capacity for more. Originally, Pearson wanted to find a business partner, but he hasn’t. For now, it’s just him and one brewer. His wife, who has a full-time job, gives marketing advice.

The beers are built around “drinkability,’’ Pearson’s word, and named in the vein of experimentation. There’s Alt Hypothesis, a take on a German altbier. It pours chestnut-colored with notes of brown bread in the nose, and finishes slightly bitter. More bitter still is First Article, a rye IPA that is decidedly old-school (no soft passion fruit here). On the label of each, inspired by Pearson’s own drawings, is a scientist standing over a workbench littered with test tubes.

“There’s kind of a steampunk bend,’’ says Pearson.

Of Merrimack’s two bigger beers, one is a miss. Vigor Chocolate Oatmeal Stout is a well-balanced example of the style, but Maple Cream Porter has an unwelcome, granular sweetness.

Pearson says he is constantly taking feedback from people who stop by, adding, “The education level of the customer is up higher than it has ever been.’’

Merrimack Ales (92 Bolt St., Lowell, 978-701-7225) is open Monday through Saturday for tours and growler sales (for hours, go to facebook.com/merrimackales). The beer is currently in 26 retail locations around the state, including Redstone Liquors, Stoneham (781-428-9265), and Berman’s Fine Wines & Spirits, Lexington (781-862-0515, bermansfinewines.com).

GARY DZEN