The Beaver County town of Ambridge is getting a brewery.
The three families behind Altered Genius Brewing have begun remodeling a Merchant Street building that previously housed a barber school and, before that, a Brighton Hot Dog Shoppe.
By summer, they hope to open it to the public as a new brewery and tasting room with a big patio, right on the main drag.
“Hopefully we’ll be part of the revitalization there,” says Michael Haas. He and his wife, Shannon, are partners in the project with his friend and co-brewer Donnie Cardone and his wife, Becky, as well as Kerri and Ken Jaram, who own the building.
Mr. Haas of Pine and Mr. Cardone of Upper St. Clair are longtime homebrewers who both are teachers in alternative education — hence, the “ALT” “ED” embedded in the logo they designed. Mr. Jaram of Robinson is the native of Ambridge. While watching football with mutual friends, he got a taste of Mr. Cardone’s India pale ale and loved it so much, he said, “You need to open a brewery.” He owns the building where that’s going to happen.
They wound up purchasing a 2-barrel brewing system and brewery license that was Brixton Brewing’s in Rochester, Pa., which made beer for Hollywood Gardens Bar upstairs. They’re continuing to practice and make pilot batches on that system. They also practiced at Lavery Brewing in Erie on a 10-barrel brewhouse that they purchased and picked up this past weekend. But first, earlier this month, they brewed on it a collaboration beer named Dusk Til Dawn, a New England-style IPA (6.1 percent alcohol by volume) “bursting with citrus flavor.” Lavery will be selling it up there.
Altered Genius is using the beer to announce their brewery, the details of which they’ll dole out as it comes together. As the three families have among them seven children, “We’re gearing it towards a family-friendly environment.” They may give away some Dusk Til Dawn at a friends-and-family event at their building, as well as perhaps at a fundraiser they’re planning to do for a nonprofit with the forthcoming Lincoln Avenue Brewery in Bellevue.
Other brews will include their flagship IPA that started this journey (6.6 percent ABV); Just Wright Pale (5 percent ABV); Lenore chocolate fudge coffee stout (5 percent ABV); and a saison, a style Mr. Haas much likes.
The plan to move their 2-barrel system and set it up beside their 10-barrel one so they have flexibility to make seasonals and other small batches.
They’re not going to be a restaurant, but they do plan to offer some food, including a nod to the building’s past: gourmet hot dogs.
Altered Genius Brewing Co. will be located at 413 Merchant St., Ambridge, PA 15003 and the website is alteredgeniusbrewing.com. We’ll write more about it later.
In the meantime, you can explore the region’s breweries as well as wineries and distilleries at the Post-Gazette’s interactive drink maps at https://newsinteractive.post-gazette.com/drink-map.
Just added last week: A new one in Export that we hadn’t even heard of. Devout Brewing Co. opened at the end of December. It’s one corner of a Brewmuda Triangle bus route taking people from Helltown Taproom in Export to Yellow Bridge Brewing in Delmont to Devout and back to Helltown, from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. on March 16. Get the details on the Facebook events page. Learn more about Devout, a 7-barrel brewery and taproom just off Route 22 (at 1301 Pontiac Court, Suite 101, Export) at devoutbrewingco.com. We look forward to getting out there when we can.
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From 4 to 9 p.m. Thursday at its taproom at the Street at the Meadows in Washington County, Whitehorse Brewing will pour the “latest test batch run of Snyder’s potato chip beers.” This one is a pineapple-y IPA flavored with Hot & Spicy Jalapeno seasoning.
Bob Batz Jr.: bbatz@post-gazette.com, 412-263-1930 and on Twitter @bobbatzjr.
First Published: February 21, 2019, 5:00 a.m.