Bring us your cold brewed beer.

That’s the thirsty pitch City Council is making.

Council members introduced legislation Tuesday aimed at enticing a California craft beer company to build its first East Coast in Fulton, the East End sector where the city traces the beginnings of English settlement.

The papers, to be taken up in early September, call for rezoning 12.5 acres of land at Williamsburg Avenue and Nicholson Street near the James River to allow brewing of more than 100,000 barrels of beer.

That’s where the city hopes to bring a proposed operation of Stone Brewing Co. of San Diego, which has seen demand for it its suds skyrocket.

For Richmond, the arrival of the brewery could bring at least 100 new jobs to the city and 300 over time and boost Richmond’s reputation as a craft beer hub.

“The company’s plan is to create a destination site that would include a restaurant and retail store,” according to one City Hall official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “This is site would be ideal. It’s near Shockoe Bottom and the festivals there and close to highways.”

The vacant tract is largely owned by the Richmond Redevelopment and Housing Authority, which acquired the land as part of the Fulton urban renewal.

The official indicated that Richmond is considered a front-runner among several competing cities, which reportedly include Norfolk and Columbus, Ohio. “We’ve built trust,” he said.

The company expects to make its final choice by early fall and could have the first phase under construction within months, according to Stone Brewing.

According to city documents, the company is proposing to invest $47 million over several years. It would initially start with a 130,000-square-foot plant that could employ about 100 people and add more people as it expands.

It would seek to produce 120,000 barrels initially, with room to expand to 500,000 barrels. That’s tiny by the standards of a Budweiser plant that churns out eight million barrels a year, but huge for a craft brewer.

Aside from the brewing and packaging center, the company would seek to create farm-to-table restaurant, visitor center and retail space at its chosen site, according to Sabrina LoPiccolo, a Stone spokesperson.

Stone projects revenue at its East Coast site would exceed $100 million by the fourth year and eventually reach hundreds of millions annually.