USA, PA: CoStar Brewing breaks ground on Etna brew pub

For more than a decade, the crew that owns CoStar Brewing had looked for a place in the area to open a brew pub, but they weren’t able to find anything suitable. Then, the borough of Etna reached out to CoStar co-founders Dominic Cincotta and Jeff and Caitlyn Hanna, TribLIVE.com reported on March 17.

On Feb. 28, they began construction on a brew pub in the 300 block of Butler Street, next to The Shiny Bean Coffee & Tea.

“It’s kind of a generic story these days. At the time we (started), the only microbreweries in town pretty much were East End (Brewing Company), Church Brew Works and Penn (Brewery). We were home brewing and people wanted to buy the beer, so we kind of stumbled through the process and opened in a garage,” Cincotta said.

After home brewing a variety of successful beers in that garage in Highland Park — including a classic pale ale called Hopland; a dark aromatic brew called Coffee Stout; and a light colored beer with a wheat body called Strawberry Blonde — CoStar Brewing bought two adjacent lots in Etna. At its February meeting, Etna council approved a conditional use permit for CoStar to break ground on the facility. Cincotta said the plan is to open later this year.

“Financially, there were things we didn’t want to compromise on,” Cincotta said. “We didn’t want to sell the business. We wanted to maintain ownership, so raising money in that way is not easy. It took us about 12 years to put together the financial plan to make it work. It’s not a common way to do it.”

Cincotta said he’s excited about opening a brew pub in Etna. It will include the same offerings that CoStar sells to other bars and restaurants throughout the area, but on a larger scale.

“I think our excitement is just being a part of the community and owning a small business there. Being a part of the growth that’s started there is going to be a very good thing. They actually found us. We looked for some property over there, and when we got turned down on a couple of them, (the Borough of Etna) called us with an opportunity for the land there,” Cincotta said. “For years we’ve been looking for a place and just didn’t find anything suitable, so that’s why we’re doing new construction.”

As for food, Cincotta’s hope is to partner with food trucks and local restaurants.

Etna borough manager Mary Ellen Ramage said she’s optimistic about the potential of CoStar Brewing’s new pub.

“We’re very happy to have a brewery — that’s obviously a very popular place for a lot of young people,” Ramage said. “(The owners) have been absolutely wonderful throughout this whole process. They’ve come to a lot of our community events, they’ve just been very engaged with the community.”

Cincotta said they wanted to have a good relationship with the borough.

“We didn’t want to just move in and open up without the community working with us and it’s been all positive so far,” he said.

20 March, 2023