Tagged: beer

Roc Brewing Co. got off to an auspicious start.

Last October, the then four-month-old Rochester microbrewery became the first of two beermakers in the country to win mentorship and funding from Boston Beer Co. - the craft beer behemoth behind Samuel Adams.

Boston Beer's $10,000 loan helped Roc Brewing buy a keg cleaner.

Now co-founders Chris Spinelli and Jon Mervine have just returned from their first mentorship session with the company that helped launch the craft beer movement.

"It's great to hear from the big guys and how they did it," says Spinelli. "We got to really learn things that could help us improve and move forward and become successful ourselves."

Craft beer has proven recession-proof. Its sales have accelerated while the overall beer market remains flat.

So in 2010, when two college friends from RIT decided to make a home brewing hobby into a full-fledged business, it wasn't actually that far-fetched of an idea.

After all, they did have the strong support of their earliest investor.

"She told me, 'Don't drink cheap beer'," Roc Brewing Co. co-founder Chris Spinelli says of his mom, Patty. "So we stick to that motto, and we work on building off of some of the things she taught us."

So far it's going pretty well. Roc Brewing Co. is already winning national attention - just five months after opening its sleek new downtown microbrewery.

The good news: Rochester's Genesee Brewery is spending $2.6 million to transform an old packaging building into a brew pub and visitor center.

The bad news: It's also proposing a $600,000 demolition of two historic buildings, including one that's at the center of a nascent online campaign. (Saturday 11:05 a.m. UPDATE: There is now an online petition.)

Company officials say the "Genesee Brew House" should be open by late April 2012. Rich Lozyniak, CEO of Genesee parent company North American Breweries, says the adjacent buildings will be razed to make room for parking, pending proper approval.

"We don't want to make an investment in this facility and have a deteriorating building right next door," Lozyniak said at Friday's announcement.

Senator Charles Schumer resumed his statewide tour of New York breweries today. His stop at Rochester's Genesee Brewery was the latest sudsy venue in which Schumer stumped for the Brewers Excise and Economic Relief Act.

In a political environment where a bill can often be only as good as the catchiness of its name, this bipartisan piece of legislation is surefire winner: it's known as the BEER Act.

Genesee says the proposed tax break would save them about $4 million a year.

Enjoying Syracuse history doesn't have to come from stuffy museums or books. A couple new ventures show that history can be found in a glass or at a local eatery.