USA, OH: Gypsy Brewing completing renovation work on their contract brewing facility in Cleveland
Gypsy Brewing, a startup launched last year by Justin Carson and Paul Benner of Platform Beer Co., is now set to move into its permanent home. The partners are completing renovation work on a 10,000-square-foot portion of the former Leisy Brewing Co. on Cleveland’s West Side, where they’ll perform contract brewing for other small brewers and expand their own production, The Cleveland Business reported on December 20.
The new space will allow Platform to dramatically expand the amount of beer they’re making. Carson and Benner plan to brew up to 20,000 barrels here next year, a big jump from just 2,500 barrels in 2015. Gypsy’s contract brewing clients will include brewers that don’t have their own equipment and restaurants that want to create private label beers.
The partners behind Gypsy bought the long-vacant, 90,000-square-foot Leisy building last year for $125,000. Over the next five years, they plan to renovate more of the building and create 100 new jobs. The project will allow Platform the opportunity to expand while helping other brewers, too — a collaborative approach that has been at the heart of their business model from the start.
“How often do you see manufacturing jobs coming back to Cleveland?” Carson said. He added, “Our objective is to make good beer and as much beer as possible.”
“From the beginning, we’ve been giving back to the home brew community and creating a collaborative brand,” said Benner, citing partnerships with B Spot, Melt Bar and Grilled, and Cleveland Clothing Co.
“People are excited about that.”
The first startup brewery that has signed on to work with Gypsy is actually considered the oldest craft brewery in the United States. New Albion Brewing Company was only around from 1976-1982, but it had a big impact on the craft beer industry. It was founded by Jack McAuliffe, whose daughter Renee DeLuca decided to revive the brand a few years ago to much fanfare. Gypsy will brew McAuliffe’s original recipes and handle packaging and distribution. Carson and Benner are in talks with others about contract brewing, but are not ready to announce any names yet.
“My father traveled in the Navy in the late ’60s, and for a while he was stationed in Scotland, where he learned about brewing and these great European ales,” DeLuca said. “Then he came back home and said, ‘Gee, I can’t find these wonderful beers I used to drink, so I guess I’ll just have to make them myself.’ ”
New Albion set up shop in Sonoma County, Calif., but when McAuliffe found it difficult to get a loan to expand, he closed the business. DeLuca believes he was ahead of his time.
“Still to this day, he has a very big following,” she said. “Everything we’ve been doing has been selling out like crazy.”
By spring of next year, the partners said, Platform beer will be in more Ohio markets. The company already self-distributes beer across Northeast Ohio, but they’re entering Columbus and other cities soon.
Self-distribution has been key to their success. “When we send someone in, they’re representing just one brand, and there’s a very high level of customer service,” said Carson.
“Most of the time the demand is so high that the beer is dropped off the same day it’s brewed,” added Benner, citing the local beer’s freshness as a competitive advantage. “We don’t have a huge warehouse of beer sitting around.”
Platform will offer four seasonal beers in addition to their year-round staples, the New Cleveland Palesner and Speed Merchant White IPA. The seasonals will include the Yamma Jamma Sweet Potato Ale in the fall, the Lawlessness Porter in the winter, and a to-be-named radler or shandy that will be brewed with Old City Soda Co. in the summer. The spring seasonal will be a collaboration with another rapidly expanding Ohio brewery and will also be announced soon, said Benner.
The company will also release a special fruit pale ale series called the Cherimoya project. They’ll be using exotic fruits like bergamot oranges on top of a base beer to create fresh new concoctions.
The partners behind Gypsy bought the behemoth Leisy property, which is located at 3506 Vega Ave. just south of I-90, because its stout brick walls and concrete floors offered almost unlimited opportunities for expansion. They also liked the poetic quality of brewing beer on the site of what was once Cleveland’s largest brewery. Leisy pumped out 600,000 barrels of beer a year in its heyday, or three times the current output of Great Lakes Brewing Co.
Founded by Isaac Leisy and two of his brothers in 1873, Leisy Brewing Co. was forced to close during Prohibition, but subsequently reopened and continued to make beer until 1959. The building was then occupied by Downing Exhibits, a company that makes trade show displays, before changing hands a number of times. The most recent owners were mostly interested in soaking up revenues from the billboard next to the building. When Gypsy bought the building last year, they allowed the previous owner to retain ownership of the lucrative billboard.
Carson and Benner say that when they first walked through it, every surface was covered with graffiti and the place had been picked clean. “The scrappers had a field day with this place,” Carson said.
Yet the building survived looters, brutal winters and the wrecking ball because of its rock solid construction. “The first time we walked in here I was like, ‘Wow, there’s not a stick of wood in this place,’ ” said Benner.
Gypsy Brewing spent more than a million dollars renovating the place. They added all new HVAC and mechanicals, replaced a portion of the roof, and added new drain spouts, among other improvements.
Carson loves the idea of bringing craft beer back to Cleveland, which was once home to more than 30 breweries before Prohibition and is now seeing a fresh wave of brewery startups. “It really feels like it’s coming full circle,” he said.
23 December, 2015
