When I stepped into the building that now holds Community Beer Works for the first time in November of 2010, it was a far cry from the scene I witnessed there earlier this week. In what used to be a quiet, bare space waiting to be renovated now lies a fully-functioning nano-brewery, buzzing with the sounds of active brewing equipment: a dream finally realized after a long journey of planning, fundraising, acquiring permits, remodeling and, finally, producing beer.
It all became official on the evening of Friday, April 20, when CBW put their two current brews on tap for the first time at Cole’s and Mister Goodbar. Earlier that day, the crew dropped off six (sixth barrel) kegs of each beer to Cole’s and four of each to Mister Goodbar. But apparently that wasn’t enough for Buffalo’s craft-beer enthusiasts. “We sold every drop that we had,” said Ethan Cox, president of CBW. “They put them on at around 5 p.m. and by 8:30 p.m. we had to run back down here to get the rest of what we had.”
The first beer that they debuted, called “Frank,” is an American Pale Ale with a 4.7 percent alcohol content and a good hoppy bitterness. “I think this is a beer that straddles the line between a pale ale and an India pale ale,” said Cox. “Kind of bitter for an APA, but not over the top. Hopefully the bitterness is good enough to really express aroma and hop flavor.”
Why the name Frank, you ask? “Everybody knows a Frank,” Cox said. “Frank is the guy that you’re talking about when you know a guy who does landscaping–‘Oh, I got a guy! It’s Frank.’ He’s sort of a Jack-of-all-trades and a master of some. We think of him as sort of a quintessential Buffalonian. We also like the play on words–he’s honest. He’s frank, and we are, too.”
The second beer on tap was an American brown ale with a 5.5 percent alcohol content known as “The Whale.” According to Cox, this beer could be mistaken for the milder of the two because it has very little bitterness. “The malt is really the key player in this one, it’s not really about the hops,” said Cox. “We use a little bit of brown malt, a little bit of chocolate malt, and a whole lot of pale malt.” He added that this beer’s appeal lies in its element of surprise. “With a lot of beers you get the aroma and then the flavor, and they complement each other. I like it when the beer plays a little bit of a trick on you,” he said. “In the case of The Whale, when you smell it you’re expecting something a lot roastier and sharper than it is. Those flavors are in there, but they’re more subtle.” Simply put, this one’s “a whale of an ale.”
For the time being, CBW will be sticking to producing these two beers and keeping them on tap at Cole’s and Mister Goodbar. Once they get a good feel for their real rate of depletion and capacity to keep these two bars well-stocked, they’ll be looking into supplying other locations. “We want to make sure we’ve got the production of these two down cold and we can hold on to every handle we’ve got,” Cox said. Next on their list of potential clients will be the Blue Monk, the Village Beer Merchant and Black Rock Kitchen and Bar. Once their construction is completed and they gain approval on their retail permit, CBW will also be able to sell growlers direct from the brewery. They’re looking forward to giving folks a chance to tour the brewery and check out the production process when that time comes as well.
Next on the list of CBW offerings? According to Cox, the crew is most interested in producing a Saison, a French-style beer with a more upscale presentation. The production process for this beer will be a little more labor intensive as it will be bottled, corked and labeled by hand. “It’s the kind of beer that presents itself really well,” Cox said. “It’s a style that does so well with so many different kinds of foods, so it will be one we would sell to restaurants.” The brewers have also nailed down a good recipe for a porter, which may also be on the horizon for CBW.
“We know that we don’t have a lot of production volume, so we don’t want to promise things we can’t keep. We need some time for that to get to a more standard level, so we think it will be at least a month before we expand too much,” Cox said. Their current projections have them producing around 400 barrels per year, which Cox undoubtedly sees as an underestimate. If their growth follows suit with the introduction of their first two beers, CBW will obviously be seeing an increase in their capacity.
When asked if their launch measured up to his initial expectations, Cox said that it far exceeded them. “We’re really quite humbled by the response that we’ve gotten, and it’s encouraging to us in two ways. First, it makes us feel confident about the potential for growth of our own, but it also means that this larger idea for “embeering” Buffalo has potential, too.” Cox added that it was a little over a hundred years ago that our city was at its beer-producing peak with the largest number of active breweries. “Given that the population then was about the same that is now, that tells me that there is a lot of market potential,” he said. “Why can’t we have 15 breweries by 2015? That’s three a year from where we’re at. I want to see Buffalo on the craft beer map.”
Becoming the first nano-brewery in the city turned out to be no small feat for the seven owners, or their wives and families, who Cox credited as being their greatest supporters throughout the whole process. “There have been a bunch of guys who have been here a lot of really late nights,” he said. In addition, he expressed a great deal of gratitude to the owners of the two bars who agreed to debut CBW’s beers, as well as their fellow professionals in the local brewing business, Tim Herzog of Flying Bison and Phil Internicola of Pearl Street Brewery, who helped guide them along the way.
For those interested in joining the brewers of CBW for dinner and trying out their new ales, the Blue Monk will be hosting a Meet the Brewers Dinner, which will feature a five-course meal with beer pairings. Guests can also learn more about CBW’s story, their influences and their greater plan to “Embeer Buffalo.” The event will be hosted on Tuesday, May 1 at 6:30 p.m. at the Blue Monk. For more information on ticket prices and menu updates, visit the Facebook event page. To learn more about Community Beer Works, visit their website. Also see Beerology IV.