E-Malt.com News article: USA, NY: Double Barrel Brewing Company to open in East Syracuse

For years, Pete Kirkgasser of East Syracuse has been one of the most prolific and edge -pushing members of Syracuse’s home brewers’ group, according to Syracuse.com.

Now he is the brewmaster at his own brewery. His Double Barrel Brewing Co., located in the rear of Eastwood’s Sacred Melody Plaza on James Street, is starting up this month.

“I’ve always made beer,” Kirkgasser said. “Now I get to try making money at it.”

The brewery should have beers ready to sample and purchase in the tasting room on November 23 and 24, the weekend before Thanksgiving.

Since receiving his state license last week, Kirkgasser has been busy, producing an India Pale Ale (IPA), a Porter, a Stout, a Scottish “Heavy,” a Pale Ale, a Brown Ale, a Belgian Golden Ale and a Belgian Golden Strong Ale.

That covers a lot of beer bases. Kirkgasser can and will brew almost any kind of beer, but his preference has always been for highly hopped brews.

Double Barrel is a nano-brewery, meaning it is even smaller than a microbrewery and most brewpubs. For a comparison, the Empire Brewing Co. brewpub in Armory Square has a 7-barrel brewing system, while Middle Ages Brewing Co. a microbrewery on the city’s west side, has a 30-barrel system.

Despite its size, the brewery has a full array of equipment, from a mash tun, to a brew kettle, to fermenters and a holding tank, or bright tank. One of his fermenters is 3 barrels, so he can produce a triple-sized batch of one beer when he wants to. Based on his homebrew experience, he expects the IPA to be the most popular.

“I’ll always have the IPA, but beyond that there will be a lot of experimentation,” Kirkgasser said.

The opening of Double Barrel comes at a time when the number of craft breweries is surging across the country, in New York state and locally. It is the fourth brewery in the city of Syracuse.

Onondaga County also has the giant Anheuser-Busch InBev brewery near Baldwinsville, and several smaller craft breweries are in the works. Breweries are also open or planned in Madison County and other parts of Central New York.

One new brewery, Red Hawk Brewing Company, is expected to open in the town of Onondaga next year.

The state now has more than 100 breweries, double the number that existed 10 years ago. Another few dozen are in the works, according to Paul Leone, director of the New York State Brewers Association.

Nationwide, there are more than 2,300 breweries, of which more than 400 opened in 2012, according the national Brewers Association, based in Boulder, Colo.

Craft brewing sales are growing at about 15 percent per year, compared to about 1 percent for overall beer sales, the Brewers Association reports. In 2012, craft brewing represented 6.5 percent of beer sales by volume and 10.2 percent by dollars.


13 November, 2013