USA, NY: Stump City Brewing submits application for federal brewers notice to produce beer

Stump City Brewing has submitted its application for a federal brewers notice to produce beer, and is hoping to begin brewing by the end of the summer, company owners said to Gloversville Leader-Herald.

Matthew Sherman, who owns Stump City Brewing along with Nicholas Sherman, Jerry Sherman and Casey Oare, said the group has nearly completed its 1,200-square- foot farm brewery at 521 W. Fulton St. Ext. in Gloversville.

"Our building is pretty almost complete; we're just waiting to hear from the federal government now. We've submitted for our federal licensing. That was the biggest piece," Sherman said. "We had to have a lot of the building done before we could even do that. They are saying the building needs to be totally complete, so we've got to send them pictures and all of that fun stuff."

Sherman said his business also had to qualify for what is known as a "brewers bond," a form of insurance required by the federal government.

Stump City Brewing, named after Gloversville's early nickname of "stump city," from all the trees cut down to create it, is an idea the Shermans and Oare have been working on for five years. Matthew Sherman said the brewery, which is technically in the town of Johnstown, has received a use variance to operate an agricultural process center.

The business is expected to produce cream and pale ales, sold retail in "growlers," a pitcher of beer modeled after the fresh beer produced in the 1800s and 1900s, which was sold in galvanized pails.

Although some attempts to create a local beer brewery have failed in recent years, Matthew Sherman said his business is trying to buck the trend. He said Stump City Brewing's strategy is modeled after Wolf's Hollow Brewing Co. in Glenville, which has managed to grow in the competitive craft beer space.

"Our plan is to open one night a week, and when the beer is gone, it's gone. And then we'll reopen the next week with whatever we are able to produce. We'll just be retail to start. Our goal is to increase the size of our system to meet the sales that we will be making and to really prove a market in this area, because the closest brewery is Wolf Hollow [in Glenville], which is just outside of Amsterdam, and Saranac [Brewery] outside of Utica," he said. "We can actually self-distribute. We'll be able to sell growlers in-house and we'll be able to go to a bar and sell them a keg."

Sherman said Stump City Brewing plans to operate under the New York State Farm Brewery Law. The law allows microbreweries in the state to produce, retail and distribute their own beer, as well as wines, provided the holder of the license only sells beer made with at least 20 percent of the hops and 20 percent of the other ingredients grown in New York state. The law requires a farm brewery to gradually increase the amount of New York state-grown ingredients used for the beer to 60 percent after 2018 and to 90 percent by 2024.

Sherman said his company is also hoping to raise $15,000 from its indiegogo.com fundraising project. He explained that Indiegogo, a crowdfunding website similar to kickstarter.com, allows companies to keep the money they raise even if they don't meet their funding goals. As of July 1, 44 supporters of Stump City Brewery have donated $6,182 - 41 percent of the company's goal, in exchange for company merchandise such as T-shirts, hoodies, bottle openers and pint glasses. Stump City's indiegogo campaign has 16 days left before it closes.

Sherman said Stump City Brewing will open after getting its federal brewers notice with or without meeting its indiegogo campaign goal of $15,000.

"We're trying to get some funding to make our job a little bit easier to help get beer to people a little quicker," he said.

03 July, 2016