Another new regional brewery, and the third one in the Westmoreland County township of North Huntingdon, holds its grand opening this weekend with several brews with interesting names.
Nuts of Fury is a brown ale that has notes of nuts in its flavor. Sid's 1K is an India pale ale that honors Sidney Crosby scoring his 1,000th point this season. Carson Street Kolsch is “the perfect light and refreshing beer on a hot summer day.”
Other opening brews include a B.I.G., strong bitter named Notorious ESB, a stout named Stealth, and an Irish-style red ale called Craic, which is an Irish term for fun and enjoyment.
While some new breweries specialize in a certain style or styles of brews, Fury aims to offer something for everybody in a welcoming tap room it has created from a shell of a storefront on Route 30.
“We pretty much are going to go against the grain,” says Tom Jenkins, the president and director of operations in the new business that he runs with his vice president — and best friend — Stephan Hoffer and their friend Ryan Slicker. Mr. Slicker is the head brewer, but the other two guys brew, too. That’s how they met each other, when they all worked for Verizon.
Aside: What is it about Verizon and craft beer? Several other breweries are co-owned or staffed by former Verizon employees, including Shubrew, Butler Brew Works and Hitchhiker.
Mr. Jenkins — who’s 35 and lives in Elrama, Washington County — now works for FedEx, but he traces Fury’s beginnings to when he worked Downtown with his almost-brother, Mr. Hoffer, with whom he home brewed. “I was more into the flavorful, richer variety — not so hoppy,” says Mr. Jenkins, “where he was into big IPAs.”
They were pouring for an early charity event when they brought in another Verizon brewer, Mr. Slicker, who’d won some awards. The reaction at the event was great. Mr. Jenkins says they started to think, “Hey, maybe we have something the public likes that we can sell.”
That was at least two long years ago, at the start of a journey that had a lot of downs (they lost a fourth partner) and ups (they found a landlord they love). While Mr. Jenkins and Mr. Hoffer (who lives in Penn Hills) are keeping their day jobs, Mr. Slicker (of the city neighborhood of Westwood) quit his so he could focus full time on brewing — on their automated 3-barrel system — and the brewery, which soft-opened last weekend and now is open daily.
The “Fury” name — it comes from a nickname Mr. Jenkins adapted from the Furious Import Development car club he once was ran — is spelled out on one of the massive steel beams over the wood-topped bar. The corrugated metal of its base is reprised under the long bar that runs down one sidewall, which is paneled with repurposed pallets. The brewhouse, behind the cooler behind the bar, is open, so customers can watch the production process.
They’re serving their brews in pints to drink there and custom powder-coated insulated growlers to go, as well as other local drinks, such as Apis mead (from Carnegie), a Dark and Stormy cocktail from Maggie’s Farm rum (Strip District) and Greenhouse wine (Irwin). They don’t do their own food, but they’re next door to Inferno Pizza, Pasta & Wings Restaurant and have set it up so their customers can order food from the tasting room and Inferno servers carry it over.
“We want to focus on the beer,” says Mr. Jenkins, who notes pizza customers can also take growlers into Inferno.
Interestingly, it’s the third brewery in North Huntingdon after Full Pint Brewing Co., which opened on the line with North Versailles (about 2 miles away) in 2010, and Quinn Brewing Co., which opened (about 4 miles away) at the end of 2016.
The guys believe they’ll find their niche. They’re already planning on brewing a special beer — a stout — and aging it in a barrel and releasing some of it as bottles around their first anniversary.
Friday’s grand opening hours are 4 p.m. to midnight; other hours have yet to be set. Fury Brewing Co. is located at 13380 U.S. Route 30, North Huntingdon, PA 15642. For more, visit furybrewing.com.
Bob Batz Jr.: bbatz@post-gazette.com, 412-263-1930 and on Twitter @bobbatzjr.
Corrections: This story originally had the wrong neighborhood for Mr. Slicker and also was wrong about the brewery’s name originating at a car-restoration company.
First Published: March 22, 2017, 4:00 a.m.
