USA, NY: West Shore Brewing and 12 Gates Brewing to open in Erie County by the end of the year

12 Gates Brewing Co. is readying an 8,000-square-foot facility at 80 Earhart Drive in Williamsville in hopes of opening to the public this fall, Buffalo News reported on July 31.

The brewery will have a 2,000-square-foot tap room where it will serve its beer. It will seat 99 people.

When 12 Gates Brewing launches the facility will be capable of producing 12,000 barrels per year. 12 Gates Brewing expects to take three years to scale up to that quantity of demand. But the operation is configured in such a way that an additional 6,000-barrel capacity could be added with relatively short notice.

“We want to make a lot of great beer for a lot of people,” said Bill Campbell, one of the 10 partners behind the brewery. “We want people to be able to find this on tap in every bar in Buffalo.”

12 Gates Brewing Co. has six products on its roster: West Coast IPA, which is made with grapefruit peel and has notes of citrus; New Zealand IPA, with lime, tangelo and stonefruit flavours; Session IPA, which is described as a “day drinking” beer and has earthy notes along with lime, orange and orchard notes; Espresso Porter, which uses cold-brewed, micro-roasted coffee from Rochester’s Glen Edith Roasters; Witbier, which uses orange peel and coriander; and Summer Saison, which is described as a traditional French Saison combined with New Zealand Rakau hops and dry-hopped with Northwest Pacific Coast Citra hops.

It is also working on English, Australian and Belgian IPAs. By volume, the beers range from 4.8 percent to 7.1 percent alcohol. 12 Gates Brewing Co. plans to have a core menu of three beers, with two others rotating out each quarter.

Once the brand is established, there are also plans to can the product.

Another brewery, West Shore Brewing Co., hopes to be up and running by the end of the year.

Owner Josh Dziomba is currently looking at commercial production space in Clarence. Until he settles on a permanent facility, he will be producing beer using equipment at 12 Gates Brewing. He is working on scaling his recipes up to 30-barrel batches and will launch a Kickstarter fund next month.

“This has been my dream for so long,” Dziomba said.

Right now, Dziomba is perfecting recipes for his Historic Rail Pale Ale, Black Diamond Stout, Storm King Limited IPA and Rising Phoenix Cream Ale. It will focus on the pale ale, and then add other varieties.

West Shore Brewing is named after the West Shore Railroad, from which Dziomba’s great-grandfather retired as a senior engineer. West Shore Brewing was the main railroad serving the Central Terminal.

“I don’t think Buffalo can get enough beer,” Dziomba said.

The latest additions to the craft beer community bring the number of local microbreweries to more than a dozen.

05 August, 2015