USA, NY: Big aLICe Brewing plans to move into former Gael Brewing’s location in Geneva

Three weeks after announcing its closure, a Seneca Lake brewery will soon have a new occupant. Gael Brewing announced its immediate closure in Geneva on Oct. 4. And now, a much lauded New York City brewery is preparing to open its third location at the Geneva property located at 4180 state Route 14, the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle reported on October 27.

Big aLICe Brewing, which was recently named Small Brewing Company of the Year at the Great American Beer Festival, plans to open a location in the Finger Lakes, the owners confirmed in an email Monday.

Founders Kyle Hurst and Scott Berger opened the Long Island City brewery in 2013 under the state's farm brewery license as a nano-brewery. (Big aLICe was making 10 gallons of beer at a time then.)

Hurst said the brewery, which already has federal approval, could be open by the spring.

The brewery is still known for its imaginative creations using locally grown and locally sourced ingredients and materials. But it has grown up since then and now operates a barrel-aging facility in Brooklyn, as well as a 5-barrel brewhouse system in its Queens location. Both locations feature taprooms.

So how scary is it to plan an expansion during a pandemic? "Very," Hurst succinctly offered and then chuckled.

"Had we not been pursuing other properties, we might be more scared about this," Hurst said. "We looked at buying other properties, building something new in the city. We've been going down this path and we kind of had a grasp on how much it would cost."

Big aLICe nearly began negotiations on a lease on a larger property in Queens when Hurst and Berger were presented with the Gael property.

"Great location, beautiful area, and the type of equipment we've been seeking for a long time," Hurst said. "All of those things made it more palatable for us, even though it is in a pandemic. Unlike our two locations in the city, owning the property and the land and the building and not being beholden to a landlord in some ways makes it better."

Gael, which opened in the summer of 2015, closed in early October. It was the first brewery to close in the Rochester region during the pandemic. Hurst said Big aLICe already had an agreement in place to purchase the Gael building and equipment when the closure was announced.

It has a 15-barrel brewhouse system and sits on nearly 2.5 acres of property. Hurst said the location is desirable, because it sits on the western shore on Seneca Lake and is in the heart of the region's bustling wine and brewery scenes.

"We've been looking for something of that size, in terms of brewing equipment, for almost five years now," Hurst said. "Time is a blur right now. But it was around that time we bought five 15-barrel fermenters and we had plans of growing into them. We have a 5-barrel brewhouse now. We thought we would build up demand and then buy a 15-barrel brewhouse. We've been looking for space to expand for years now."

The brewery is named in honor of the "Big Allis" generator that supplied power to much of the borough of Queens in the 1960s. The generator was nicknamed "Big Allis" after its manufacturer, Allis-Chalmers. The original brewery location is in the Long Island City neighborhood, hence the stylized in "LIC" in Big aLICe.

Multiple expansion plans fell through. But Hurst and Berger became acquainted with the Finger Lakes region during a September trip to Keuka Lake.

"We spent some time up there for a week, just relaxed and got away from it all," Hurst said. "We really fell in love with the area."

Hurst said they looked at numerous locations for potential vacation homes but never looked at potential brewery locations during the trip. The Big aLICe founders saw a listing from Gael founder George Adams on an industry Facebook page the week after the trip.

"We're excited to take what he built over five or six years and give it new life and a fresh breath of air," Hurst said.

Big aLICe plans to continue brewing at its original location in Queens. Hurst said sours, small-batch offerings and barrel-aged beers will be produced there. He envisions shifting production of its flagships — Queensbridge IPA and Lemongrass Kölsch — and other rotational offerings to the Finger Lakes. The brewery has recently been relying on a contract brewing agreement to brew the two flagships.

"We're excited to bring all of our production back in house again," Hurst said.

For a devoted farm brewery, the Finger Lakes region presents a world of opportunities in terms of collaborations and available ingredients. The brewery recently gained some local attention after working with Dean Jones at the Genesee Brew House and Wayne County hop grower Chimney Bluffs on the Hop State of Mind Cream Ale, which featured all-New York ingredients.

There are plans to grow some of the ingredients for the Big aLICe specialty beers right on the property. There are plans to renovate both the interior and exterior of the building. Hurst said he also hopes to get the entire property licensed for beer consumption.

"First and foremost, we’re a farm brewery," Hurst said. "We source as much as we can locally. We try to work with New York state farmers. If stuff isn’t grown in New York state, we try to source from someone in the state or in our neighborhood. We try to have an agricultural focus on our beers.

"We’re not an IPA brewery. We’re not a sour brewery. We do both. But we try to brew all styles and capture the flavors of the area, the New York terroir, if you will."

Big aLICe has garnered a slew of honors and awards this year. The brewery earned the Governor's Cup for the best beer in the state at the New York Craft Beer Competition in May. The Many Lives of Our Lives, a stunning mixed culture blended sour made with 100% New York state ingredients, was named the best beer in the state. The beer was aged in red wine barrels and neutral oak with both cherries and blueberries.

And then the beer was entered in GABF, the country's most prestigious beer competition, and earned a gold medal in the fruited wood- and barrel-aged sour beer category. Following that honor, Big aLICe, was named small brewery of the year and the production team was selected as the best small brewing team of the year at GABF.

So while the pandemic has been a bummer for most, Big aLICe is "gaining momentum and we're thrilled for that," Hurst said.

Paul Leone, executive director of the New York State Brewers Association, said he is still bullish on the future of the beer industry here, despite the difficulties created by the pandemic and the economic pause.

"It was sad to see Gael go out of business but it’s exciting to see another brewery, not only expand, but expand into the Finger Lakes region," Leone said. "COVID has certainly taken a toll on all NYS breweries, but with continued support for local beer, we should see almost all of them make it through this pandemic."

28 October, 2020