USA, PA: Cool Daddy Brewing Inc. opens as the only brewery between Greensburg and West Newton

A longtime home brewer in New Stanton is taking the plunge into the beer business and opening a brewery in the borough, the only one between Greensburg and West Newton, the Trib Live reported on June 15.

“This has always been my dream. I had a five-gallon batch system in my kitchen, then a 20-gallon system in my garage,” providing family and friends with the home brew, said Todd Bartlow, who with his wife, Joy, is opening Cool Daddy Brewing Inc. on June 15 in a storefront along Bridge Street in New Stanton.

Joy Bartlow, listed as the brewery’s manager on LCB records, explained that her husband, who teaches a powerline course at Central Westmoreland Career and Technology Center in New Stanton, had been talking for years about wanting to open a brewery to sell the beer he has been brewing for 27 years.

“We either do it or don’t talk about it,” is what Joy Bartlow, a teaching assistant at Central Westmoreland CTC, said she told her husband.

They started planning in earnest about 18 months ago, Bartlow said he searched for a discounted fermenter, boiling kettle and mashtun to buy to brew his product for a seven- barrel system, a journey which took him to West Virginia, Michigan and as far away as North Carolina.

They rented space at a building owned by a friend, Rex Zerbe, and expanded it by 1,200 square feet. The extra space holds the brewing system and more room for 80 patrons, with additional area for LCB-approved space for seating outside the building.

Bartlow said they have invested about $100,000 into the start-up venture, which includes buying all of the brewing equipment, the hops, barley and yeast to make the beer, converting the storefront into an attractive bar and expanding the building. They were able to self-finance the venture by selling a rental property they owned, Joy Bartlow said.

The Bartlows said their market study showed people will travel to go to a locally-owned brewery. They worked with the Small Business Development Center at Saint Vincent College in forming a business plan for the brewery.

The biggest challenge to making his dream a reality was not acquiring the equipment or supplies, but obtaining all of the necessary state and local permits, Todd Bartlow said. Bartlow, a member of New Stanton Borough council, said he had to present to the borough a land development plan for its approval, a process not unlike SunCap Property Group of Charlotte, N.C., had to do for the 1-million-square-foot Amazon warehouse it built, albeit on a much smaller scale.

The Bartlows will have just one of 21 active breweries in Westmoreland County, according to the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board. Most of those have taprooms where the brewery sells its product on the premises.

“The other breweries have been fantastic,” Todd Bartlow said of the brewery who he has talked to about the business.

”It’s not a competition. Everybody’s different,” Todd Bartlow said.

Cool Daddy Brewing will not have a kitchen, which is not a requirement for a brewery selling on premises. The LCB only requires that breweries offer snacks such as pretzels and potato chips to fulfill their requirement for selling food. By contrast, there are only three licensed brewpubs in Westmoreland County, which gives those businesses the opportunity to sell their product in an off-site catering venue, said Shawn Kelly, a LCB spokesman.

With its seven-to-10-barrel brewing system, Cool Daddy Brewing easily falls under what the trade group Brewers Association of Boulder, Colo., classifies as a small, independent craft brewer with an annual capacity capped at six million barrels. With what Bartlow said could be a two-week turnaround on beer production, his brewing system may be able to turn out about 180 barrels a year.

The Bartlows are opening a brewery at a time when the number of breweries in Pennsylvania dipped slightly, from 531 in 2022 to 530 in 2023, according to statistics compiled by the Brewers Association. Pennsylvania is still right behind California as the state with the most craft breweries, but it’s the first time in 12 years that the Pennsylvania’s brewery count dropped, according to the Breweries in PA, which tracks the Brewers Association data.

The good news for the Bartlows and other craft brewers is that beer drinkers in Pennsylvania consumed more beer last year — about 5,816 barrels more — which pushed production to 3.1 million barrels in 2023, according to the Brewers Association. The flip side of that statistic that might give brewery owners a reason to pause pouring the suds is that beer production in the Keystone State has fallen almost 590,000 barrels from 2018 to 2023.

The Bartlows will open with six beers on tap for customers. It has a 16-tap system that will allow it to expand its offerings, including selling another producer’s hard cider, Todd Bartlow said.

“You can tell the love for beer. It shines through. We’ll have something for everybody,” Todd Bartlow said.

16 June, 2024