E-Malt.com News article: USA, NY: Full Boar Craft Brewery to open in the Syracuse area soon

Eric Petranchuk and David Marchant started their partnership over barbecue. They sealed it over beer.

The two friends this month are launching Full Boar Craft Brewery and Tap Room, the latest craft brewery to open in the Syracuse area. It's a small brewery - brewing 3 barrels at a time (a barrel is 31 gallons). They will be rolling out their lineup of beers over the next few weeks, with soft opening hours - 2 to 8 p.m. Fridays and noon to 8 p.m. Saturdays - in the tasting room, Syracuse.com reported on June 28.

The brewery is in a standalone building on the south edge of the Maines Plaza, 628 S. Main St. (Route 11) in North Syracuse, just north of Taft Road. It's across the entry road from the main part of the plaza (behind the Applebees).

A grand opening is scheduled for Saturday, July 16.

In the meantime look for beers like Close Enough Ale, a beer that is bigger and stronger than a pale ale but quite as big as a an India Pale Ale.

"We made it, we liked it and it was close enough to an IPA that we decided to keep it," Marchant said. It's 6.5 percent alcohol, with a "malt forward" taste and a little hop bitterness.

Other beers ready now or coming soon include a Brown Ale (6.2 percent) a darker beer with roasted barley bitterness; Pale Ale (7 percent) with some classic American pale ale hop aromas; and Stout (4.5 percent) a dry Irish style, similar to Guinness.

More beers are in the works, including a Blonde Ale, a Red IPA and a "true" IPA.

For now, the beer is draft only and only available at the brewery, in pints or in growlers to go. "We need to make sure we can supply what we need here before we think about selling anywhere else," Petranchuk said.

Petranchuk and Marchant met while working at M&T Bank, and they forged a friendship over a love of barbecue. They've entered contests, such as the Kansas City Barbecue Society event held in Syracuse last summer, and even won a trophy (topped with a pig, of course).

Barbecue led, naturally enough, to beer. "The idea (for the brewery) popped up over a pint," Marchant said. They had homebrewed beer together, too.

Both still have day jobs (Marchant is still at the bank and Petranchuk is an investment adviser). Petranchuk is the brewer for Full Boar, while Marchant runs the tasting room.

"He's the brewer," Marchant said. "I'm more of a drinker."

The tasting room seats about 50, and has a bar and tables. It does not serve its own food, but they are working with nearby eateries to deliver: Utica Pizza in the Maines Plaza is already signed up.

Full Boar is now one of about 25 breweries, large and small, in Onondaga and surrounding counties. In a nod to that surge, the lamps hung over the tasting room bar are made using cut-up growlers from other local breweries, like Eastwood Brewing in Syracuse, WT Brews in Baldwinsville and Local 315 Brewing in Camillus.


03 July, 2016