CELEBRATED CONTRACT BREWING ADVOCATE BECOMES OFFICIAL BREWERY OWNER
Shmaltz Brewing Company Opens 50-Barrel Brewery with 20,000 Barrels of Capacity in Upstate New York Brewing Production to Begin in April/May 2013; Grand Opening on Sunday, July 7, 2013
Clifton Park, NY – Friday, March 22, 2013 – After 16 years as one of contract brewing’s loudest cheerleaders, Shmaltz Brewing Company, handcrafters of HE’BREW – The Chosen Beer® and Coney Island Craft Lagers®, is breaking with tradition and opening its own New York State production brewery. Located in Clifton Park, NY, 10 minutes north of Albany’s capital district, Shmaltz’s new home boasts a 50-barrel brewhouse with 20,000 barrels of annual capacity. With a $3.25 million dollar budget and countless hours of planning and preparation, what began as an improbable fantasy only one year ago, has blossomed into a nearly 20,000 square foot brewing reality.
The first stainless kettles were delivered this week and the inaugural brew date is targeted for late-April. Packaging should commence in May and June, and Shmaltz projects bringing 100% of its production in-house by mid-to-late summer.
The heart of Shmaltz’s new operation features a custom-made, 5-vessel manual workhorse brewhouse as well as 8 fermentation and 2 bright beer tanks manufactured in the US from Oregon’s JV Northwest. The 120-bottle-per-minute packaging line comes from the well respected Italian experts at SBC/BC International. The new Shmaltz brewery will package 12 and 22 ounce bottles and kegs of their diverse core and seasonal favorites. Several new releases and collaborations are on tap for 2013, and Shmaltz will continue their acclaimed exploration of barrel-aging with a current inventory of more than 300 bourbon, rye whiskey, and tequila barrels.
The brewery projects hiring upwards of 10 full time staff for the new operation in addition to the dozen staffers currently handling sales, marketing and contract brewing operations. The space also touts a 1,700 square foot tasting room, and roughly 800 square feet of office space.
Even with this new beginning, Shmaltz will be piloted under the watchful and experienced eyes of the same dynamic team that’s brought the craft beer world many years of delicious beer and delicious shtick, including Jeremy Cowan (Proprietor), Bob Craven (General Manager), Matt Polacheck (Art Director), Zak Davis (National Sales Manager), Jesse P. Cutler (PR Director), and Paul McErlean (Consulting Brewmaster who created every recipe in Shmaltz’s award winning family of beers).
Financing is coming from the judicious funding of loans from community-based Ballston Spa National Bank, the New York Business Development Corporation (NYBDC) using the SBA 504 program, and additional assistance from San Francisco-based Wells Fargo Bank. A limited amount of additional equity was raised from personal friends and family, many longtime supporters of Cowan and Shmaltz Brewing.
A press event and ribbon cutting ceremony will be announced shortly for late April or early May. The official, public grand opening bash will take place on Sunday, July 7, 2013. Specific details will be announced soon. Following the opening, craft beer enthusiasts will be able to enjoy the nectar of the new brewery gods at Shmaltz’s tasting room throughout the year. Brewery tours will be available to the public – times will be announced this summer.
What began in 1996 as a sincere experiment of 100 cases of beer delivered out of the back of founder Jeremy Cowan’s grandmother’s Volvo, has grown into a 200,000 case per year operation (over 12,000 barrels), grossing $3.9 million in sales in 2012, a 42% increase over 2011. The Shmaltz Tribe honors these contract brewing roots while embracing the miracle of new life in Clifton Park, NY, envisioning its expansion as a 50-barrel playground for brewing exceptional specialty beers and hosting a growing family of enthusiastic consumers at its new home. L’Chaim!
About Shmaltz Brewing Company
Ranked in 2013 as one of the “Top 100 Brewers in the World” by RateBeer.com, Shmaltz won 9 Gold and 5 Silver Medals in the Word Beer Championships in 2012. A recipient of the “Distinguished Business Award” by the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce, Shmaltz was also included in the “Top 50 Fastest Growing Bay Area Companies” by San Francisco Business Times.
Established in San Francisco in 1996 with the first batch of 100 cases of HE’BREW Beer® bottled, labeled, and delivered by hand, Shmaltz has sold more than ten million bottles of beer to date. Along with their acclaimed line of HE’BREW Beers®, Shmaltz introduced its sideshow-inspired Coney Island Craft Lagers® which celebrate the spirit of “America’s Playground”. Shmaltz offerings are available in more than 30 states through 35 wholesalers at more than 3,500 retail specialty shops across the U.S.
In 2010/11, Shmaltz proprietor Jeremy Cowan published his small business memoir, Craft Beer Bar Mitzvah: How It Took 13 Years, Extreme Jewish Brewing, and Circus Sideshow Freaks to Make Shmaltz Brewing Company an International Success. A free sampling of Chapter One and suggested beer pairings, can be viewed at www.craftbeerbarmitzvah.com.
With the opening of the “World’s Smallest Brewery” in Coney Island, NY (1-gallon at a time, since 2011), Cowan spearheaded the creation of the non-profit New York City Brewers Guild in 2012 and serves as its President.
Cowan will appear at the 2013 Craft Brewers Conference speaking about the transition from contract brewing to in house production as well as small batch brand strategies. He has also presented at the Great American Beer Festival, BevNet’s Brewbound conference, Beer Advocate’s Extreme Beer Festival, the Atlanta and the St. Louis Jewish Book Fairs, and the San Francisco and New York Jewish Museums.
Shmaltz Brewing beers have appeared in such distinguished media outlets as The New York Times, CNN Headline News, The Onion, Fox Business News, Beer Advocate Magazine, Celebrator Beer News, Ale Street News, NPR’s “Weekend Edition,” New York Magazine, Men’s Health, Playboy, Associated Press, Reuters, MSNBC, San Francisco Magazine, The Jerusalem Report, New York Jewish Week, Washington Post, MAXIM, Forbes.com, Smartmoney.com, Entrepreneur.com, Epicurious.com and BrewBound.com.
For more information, please visit:
www.shmaltzbrewing.com
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