News roundup: New brewhouses, new patios, a southern craft beer acquisition and more

Nothing like staring at that blank page on a Monday morning.

While the CBB staff settled into a pre-holiday malaise, the craft brewing news cycle kept on spinning. Here’s some of the notable news from around the country that we missed.

Rohrbach Brewing gets a new brewhouse

Rochester, N.Y.’s Rohrbach Brewing has been up and running since 1995 and hasn’t made a huge overhaul to its brewing system until this month. Rohrbach is replacing it with a new and more efficient brewhouse. The new system is manufactured by ProBrew of Wisconsin and includes tanks built by Vance Metal Fabricators of Geneva in the Finger Lakes. From New York Up State:

In particular, the new system accommodates the larger malt and hopping rates needed for Rohrbach brews like Space Kitty (a double IPA) and Scotch Ale and is flexible enough to also produce smaller session beers and experimental pilot batches, according to Rohrbach director of brewing Jim McDermott. The new system brings Rohrbach to “a whole new level of quality, consistency, and safety,” McDermott said. It’s also set up to expand with the addition of a second brew kettle in the future.

You’re going to want to check out the video of its install on the brewery’s Facebook page.

New Golden Road brewery

We know Golden Road was acquired by Ab InBev, but the stuff it’s up to is still relevant to the industry. The LA Times reports that this month, Golden Road will be opening a new location loaded with bells and whistles. This space was originally acquired before the brewery the AB InBev sale and was meant to be its long-term production facility. Post-acquisition, the plans shifted a little.

Brewery co-founder Mig Gill said the “partnership” with ABI allowed GRB to expand its production capabilities without investing in an all-new brewing facility, and the Anaheim location was instead re-envisioned as a playground for both drinkers and brewers. After years in development, and a major pivot in design, phase one of the expansion opens this month with a pub featuring 40 taps of GRB brews, a kitchen offering beer-friendly bites, and a patio that’s just a fraction of the planned outdoor drinking space across from Angel Stadium.

The article also notes that the brewery says its corporate parents aren’t preventing the brewers from prioritizing flavor over profit.

Distraction Brewing to open in Boston

Reviving an historic building with a craft brewery is one of our favorite things. Out in Massachusetts’ Rosindale Village, Distraction Brewing is getting its start. Details are sparse at the moment, the owners taking the leap from the homebrewing world on a small, 2-barrel system with plans to work up to a 10-barrel system in the flatiron building’s basement, according to Boston.com.

“At first, it’s going to be our test system,” [brewer Mike] Estey says. “It will be kind of like a fish bowl in the public space. Everyone can look in and see the brewing process.”

Catawba Brewing acquires Palmetto

We support these small craft beer acquisitions.

Check out this new Southern brewing partnership: Catawba Brewing Co., a N.C. brewery with two Asheville taprooms, is taking full ownership over Charleston-based Palmetto Brewing Co., South Carolina’s oldest brewery. The plans for the combined efforts look to maximize both brands and the existing assets. From the Citizen-Times:

Asheville, the site of the smallest of the string of Pyatt-owned brewery locations, will act as a laboratory of sorts, performing development work for both brands, with Palmetto beers brewed in any of Catawba’s manufacturing facilities, and vice versa.

The majority of the breweries’ canned products will come from Catawba’s Morganton facility, which now has the ability to run cans at the rate of about 100 per minute.

Boiler Brewing

Patios are the best. Even if your brewery is in a state like ours (Ohio), and it’s only nice out maybe 10 percent of the year, a patio is all but guaranteed to be filled at those times. According to the Lincoln Journal Star, Nebraska-based Boiler Brewing believes this as well and has submitted plans for a patio expansion that sounds pretty cool.

Plans submitted to the commission show a sunken patio area with wooden benches, tables and chairs as well as a window through which outdoor customers could be served.