USA, NY: Young Lion Brewing scheduled to launch in Canandaigua on June 19

During the early days of the Erie Canal, Rochester became a boomtown. It was known as the "Young Lion of the West."

The Rochester region, like much of the country, is overflowing with craft beer.

A new Canandaigua brewery, the second largest to open in this area, nods to the past, appreciates the present, and keeps a keen eye on the future. Young Lion Brewing, 24 Lakeshore Dr., opens in the new Pinnacle North development on the north shore of Canandaigua Lake on June 29, the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle reported on June 19.

"We ended up here because of our shared passion," said Alicia Wolk, one of five Young Lion co-owners. "Rochester was known as a boomtown. It just felt so fitting for us. It was strong, it was impactful, we all identified with the name. It was a natural fit."

Young Lion, a multi-million dollar investment, is the shared vision of Jen Newman (who is overseeing the project as CEO), Wolk (responsible for branding and taproom design), Robyn, Kevin, and Todd Morgan. Wolk's husband Tyler is a partner with Joshua Miles at some of Rochester's best restaurants, including Branca (now with locations in Bushnell's Basin and Midtown) and The Revelry.

The brewery is housed in Morgan-LeChase Development's $120 million Pinnacle North mixed-use development. The space was designed specifically for the 9,172-square-foot brewery and taproom. The taproom is just over 1,000 square feet.

The ownership quintet is a bit of a local dream team, combining years of experience in business, development, construction, hospitality, and related fields with relationships across all disciplines and nearly unlimited resources. "We were lucky enough to have the means to do what we wanted to do right," Newman said.

The one area where the team didn't have expertise is brewing.

So Newman commenced a nationwide search for a brewer that resulted in the hiring of head brewer Phil Platz, a graduate of the University of California Davis, one of the leading beer schools in the country.

Newman interviewed brewers from Allagash, Sierra Nevada, Brooklyn, New Belgium, and many others. She wanted a brewer with big-system experience and what she calls "grain-to-glass" experience. She also sought someone with "brewpub moxie" and who is hungry to try new things.

Platz, 35, worked for nine years, three as a brewing shift supervisor and six in quality assurance (chemistry, microbiology, yeast propagation, instrumentation), at the former Miller Brewing plant in Eden, North Carolina. He followed that up with a stint at well-respected Trim Tab Brewing in Birmingham, Alabama.

“It was a great opportunity to start at something with the right business minds involved," Platz said, "and the appropriate amount of capital, where you’re not going to be struggling hand-to-mouth every minute of the day.”

Assistant brewer Bill Miller, a Binghamton native, recently completed his master brewer certification, including a German apprenticeship, through the prestigious Siebel Institute in Chicago.

Taproom manager David Diehl came from Brooklyn. Diehl, a Hobart grad, managed 200 Fifth, a well-known Brooklyn sports bar.

The brewery required more than two years of planning. The interior buildout and equipment installation started in January. YLBC features a 35-barrel brewhouse with multiple 90-barrel fermenters and an oversized lauter tun for higher gravity beers.

The brewery is designed for statewide distribution immediately and has already signed a distribution agreement with Guilderland-based Remarkable Liquids. (The brewery has already sent out a pallet of kegs of the first IPA batch through Remarkable.)

"I like approachable beers that can sell," Platz said, "but I also want a certain amount of experimental stuff, like sours and whatnot. My experience with Miller translates well into more traditional styles."

Platz said YLBC will experiment with sours, mixed fermentations, and barrel-aging.

A Wild Goose canning line will be installed this fall. Newman envisions YLBC offering its beers in four packs of 16-ounce cans. Until then, YLBC will use a mobile canner.

Outside of Three Heads Brewing, no other craft brewery has opened on this scale. But 3HB built equity in its brand for five years through a contract brewer before opening its own $4 million space in Rochester's Neighborhood of the Arts.

YLBC is that big and dynamic right at opening. The brewery could produce as many as 11,000 barrels of beer in its first year.

"One of the biggest problem for a lot of breweries is that they hit capacity and they can't make enough to supply the market," Newman said. "We wanted to go as big as we can in a smart way."

"Taking this leap, the only way we could do it, was to go big," Wolk added. "Get the best equipment; hire the most incredible, educated, talented brewer we could get. We tried to create this collaborative environment where everyone has a strength they bring to this team. The result is going to be really great beer."

Canandaigua, a city of roughly 10,000 people, now has five craft breweries. Rochester has seven.

YLBC invested millions in its brewing system, including a Westfalia centrifuge. The company also has a grain silo and a malt-handling system.

The centrifuge allows the brewers to clarify and filter in a more efficient manner. A three-week brew cycle might now be finished in two. "We had some of this stuff when I was at Miller, just because it was a giant company," Platz said. "It's a luxury to have."

The taproom is just over 1,000 square feet and features a patio and gorgeous views of Canandaigua Lake. Newman said the taproom will feature breads from Fairport's Amazing Grains, gourmet Hot Pocket-style treats, and charcuterie boards.

Young Lion is opening with four beers: an IPA, a double IPA, a Czech-style Pilsner, and New England-style IPA. YLBC will soon have a tropical (or foreign export) stout brewed with molasses and a citrus gose (a sour German wheat beer with sea salt and coriander). The Pilsner is impeccably crafted, showcasing the skill of Platz and Miller. The IPAs show real potential.

“We want this to be a place of community,” Newman said. “We’ll always have other people’s beers on tap."

"I love how people come together in taprooms," Wolk added.

YLBC’s relationship with Remarkable will allow the brewery to showcase a lot of interesting and rare beers. Newman said it will also be a place to debut taproom-only YLBC exclusives.

“We’re about continuing to push ourselves to put out the best beer we can,” Newman finished.

19 June, 2017