Brooklyn’s Other Half Brewing Co finds second home with upstate brewery
The rumor was false at first, but it wound up coming true. Every few weeks the partners who own Brooklyn’s Other Half Brewing Co. head upstate, where they sell beer by the can to their thirsty fan base in the region. Quite a lot of beer. During a “mobile can sale” in March in Rochester, 400 people lined up starting at 5 a.m., lured by fresh batches of India Pale Ale (IPA), according to local reports. The brewers were sold out of 400 cases by noon.
Naturally, people who stand in line get to talking. “There was a rumor going around that we were buying a brewery,” Andrew Burman, Other Half’s director of operations, told The Bridge. “We actually weren’t looking for anything.” But then the partners started talking about it too, deciding “maybe we should look into this,” says Burman. Their eventual verdict: “Oh, this is a good idea.”
Last week, Empire State Development (ESD) announced that Other Half has bought a nearly-new brewery in East Bloomfield, about a half-hour drive southeast of Rochester in the Finger Lakes region. The ESD, the state’s economic-development agency, said it had offered up to $400,000 in tax credits to support the purchase. The reaction upstate, which already has plenty of its own breweries, was jubilant. “We are thrilled,” said town supervisor Frederick Wille. “This is a very big deal for us.”