E-Malt.com News article: USA, NY: Gun Hill Brewery to become first Bronx-based beermaking operation in five decades

The Gun Hill Brewery will begin crafting ales, stouts and seasonal beers next week in Williamsbridge — the first beer manufacturer out of the Bronx in nearly five decades, New York Daily News reported on January 23.

“I felt there was a need to bring that brewing tradition back to the Bronx,” said Kieran Farrell, 44, Gun Hill Brewery’s managing partner.

The 5,000-square-foot brewery is drawing on local lore to promote its brand. Farrell and his partner Dave Lopez named their company for the Gun Hill — a mound ensconced in what is now Woodlawn Cemetery, where Colonial residents stored their guns and ammo during the Revolutionary War. They also used the perch to fire down on British soldiers as they approached.
“Our logo and our branding is in homage to that,” Lopez said.

Farrell, who left his job as an IT consultant to operate the brewery, and Lopez, 29, who works in finance, met as teammates on the New York Thunderdogs, a semipro baseball team based out of Manhattan.

The would-be entrepreneurs concocted their business plan in 2012, and turned to friends and colleagues to raise the start-up money.

The brewers-to-be both have Bronx roots: Lopez’ grandfather was a football standout at Evander Childs High School, and Farrell spent his early years in the Woodlawn area.

“We felt that it was important for us to bring something back to the Bronx because it had all of this significance to us,” Lopez said.

Their beer will be sold by the keg — mostly to bars and restaurants — and they will have a public tasting room and retail operation on site.

The last company that brewed in the Bronx was Brooklyn-based Rheingold, which closed up shop in the 1960s.

The borough’s burgeoning craft beer scene includes other brews like City Island Beer, the Bronx Brewery and the Jonas Bronck Beer Co. — but they all currently brew outside the borough.

The Bronx Brewery makes its suds in Connecticut; its owners have said they aim to begin making beer in Port Morris later this year.

Beer-loving entrepreneurs have been setting up shop in growing numbers across the boroughs.

Queens is home to seven breweries, all of which have opened in recent years, and there are at least a dozen beermakers citywide.

“I think it’s a great sign of just how far the craft beer scene has come here,” Chris O’Leary, the editor of a website that covers the region’s craft beer scene. “We’ve just seen explosive growth in the last three years.”

The owners said they hope their farm-to-table approach, their celebration of the area’s Revolutionary War past — and their beers’ taste — will set them apart.

“We’re confident,” Farrell said. “Once we start making the beer, the product will speak for itself.”


24 January, 2014