E-Malt.com News article: USA, NY: Empire Brewing Company to expand in Cazenovia

Mother Nature has delayed the start of construction for the Empire Brewing Company's expansion. The popular downtown brewery and restaurant plans to build a bigger facility in Cazenovia, TWC News reported on April 16th.

Empire Brewing Company is a popular destination for food and beer in Syracuse's Armory Square. "Once we took Empire beer outside the walls of the brew pub which has been here about 20 years for distribution in New York City and in the Upstate. We saw there was a great market for it," said Empire Brewing Company Operations Director Nick Irvine.

That market brought them about 21 miles east to farmland in Cazenovia. That's where they will build another facility, a location that's ideal for a number of reasons.

"It is accessible to the centre of the state, to your major freeways. It's also just a wonderful community, very rich in agricultural history and it gives us the opportunity to focus on the farming aspect of brewing beer," said Irvine.

Empire wants to educate the public on how beer is made, but their confined space in the brew pub Downtown doesn't allow them to do that. Now this land in Cazenovia will not only give Empire the opportunity to tell, but also show the public how the beer is made.

"We're going to grow just under 3 acres of hops for use and also for the public to be able to come and see the process of the hops growing and being processed before they're used," said Irvine.

The extremely cold winter has prevented them from breaking ground. Irving is hopeful that as the temperature continues to rise they'll be able to tap into this resource soon.

Empire will still brew beer at their downtown location. Irvine says they will utilize it for smaller or test batches. They hope to be open in Cazenovia by fall.


17 April, 2015