E-Malt.com News article: USA, OH: Eighty-Three Brewery coming to Akron next year

A craft brewery is coming to the East End development in Akron, the Acron Beacon Journal reported on August 7.

Eighty-Three Brewery, a production brewery, tasting room and eatery, plans to open next year in the brick building that houses the Goodyear Theater along East Market Street in the city’s Middlebury neighborhood.

The building is part of Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co.’s former world headquarters.

“It’s pretty cool to go into a historic building,” said Chris Surak, 35, an Akron homebrewer who’s launching the seven-barrel brewery with his wife Stephanie, 34, and other investors.

“It’s something we’ve been working on for a long time,” he said. “Now that it’s official, we’re ready to get this going and make some awesome beer.”

The Suraks announced the brewery project last week on social media.

The East End area is home to high-end apartments, a Hilton Garden Inn and SummaCare, with plans for retail and restaurants to feed the people living and working there. A brewery fits in with the redevelopment, Surak said.

The Suraks are still in the early stages of the project.

Eighty-Three will cover about 4,500 square feet on the first floor of the building. Surak plans to brew a wide variety of styles, eventually hoping to develop barrel-aging and sour programs.

The brewery also will offer guest beers and wine.

Surak worked in graphic design and advertising before and said his creativity shines through his brewing. His wife works in accounting.

“I’ve been in the creative field which is different,” he said. “A lot of homebrewers are engineers or have a chemistry background. That’s probably why my beer styles are a little bit out of the box.”

He also designed the Eighty-Three logo, which is an abstract eight and three mashed together.

“It relates to the brewing process where you’re taking simple items and you’re combining them to make something complex,” Surak said. “On the surface, beer is just four ingredients but they’re combined into something complex and awesome. So I tried to mimic that with the logo, too.”

Eighty-Three refers to the year that Surak was born.

The Akron area has seen a boom in craft brewery openings over the last few years — as has the entire country. The Brewers Association, a Boulder, Colo.-based trade group, estimated that there were 6,655 active breweries in the United States as of June 30, up from 5,562 a year ago.

“It’s a good time for breweries in Akron,” Surak said.

The city is home to Akronym, Aqueduct, BrickOven, Hoppin’ Frog, R. Shea, Thirsty Dog and Two Monks, with Lock 15 and Missing Falls planning to open. R. Shea also is opening a large production brewery downtown.

Zac Kohl, executive director of the Well Akron Community Development Corp. in the Middlebury neighborhood, said the nonprofit is excited to see East End development growing.

“Investment and ‘new’ is really exciting,” he said. “We just want to make sure it’s done in a healthy way where we’re seeing a thriving community with flourishing individuals and we don’t see a context where some get forgotten about.”


09 August, 2018