By all accounts, Buffalo Brewing Company’s first year has been a success. Wait, what? Yes, you read that right – Buffalo Brewing Company have been in business for a year. Time flies right?
They’ve brewed a lot of beer, sent their beer out to retail, added an outdoor patio space and have quenched the thirst of thousands of Buffalonians. Owner John Dormes himself is even surprised by how the brewery, located at 314 Myrtle Avenue Street, has come in such a short amount of time.
“It has been an amazing first year, to say the least and we are very proud of all that we have accomplished! We have come so far in a short time,” he says. “A year ago, on July 30th, we opened with 5 beers on tap and this year for our one-year anniversary, we will have 10 beers on tap! This year we brewed 16 different styles and matured our brand, not only in the tasting room but on our wholesale business too.”
Buffalo Brewing has kept a strong core of beers throughout the past 365 days, including their best-selling 1842 Vienna Lager, 1901 IPA, which has come a long way in the last year, 1813 Porter, 1804 APA and 1910 Czech Pilsner. They also have a Farm to Pint 1868 NYS Session IPA, brewed with predominantly locally sourced ingredients, and brewed one of the best Grodziskie’s in the city not too long ago.
“A true struggle came with working a full time job and a new baby at home while trying to launch our brand in a market that already had many breweries making some great beer! Needless to say, the struggle has paid off and now we have expanded from one employee/owner to four part time employees!”
Now that the first year is officially in the books, talks of expansion are in the offing. Dormes says that they are currently planning an expansion to go from a 2 barrel to a 5 barrel system, increasing their overall production and will be packaging in 16 ounce cans by years end.
Dormes knows that he could not have done it all alone either – the success of Buffalo Brewing Company up until this point has been more of team effort, from his employees, all of his local patrons and all of the people who donated to the Kickstarter campaign that made the brewery a reality in the first place.
“It is really an exciting time at Buffalo Brewing Company and we want to thank our Kickstarter backers, customers, family, friends, & employees for all their support during our first year in business and we look forward to year two. Looking back on all our accomplishments we have come so far and yet we feel like the best is yet to be.”
In honor of the anniversary celebration, Buffalo Brewing is breaking out the big guns. For starters, they will have a specialty version of their 1901 IPA that aged 6 weeks in BFLO Distilling bourbon barrels, and will also have their 2017 Celebration Pale Ale, specially named in honor of our 1 year anniversary, and another surprise beer. Yes, we do know what beer it will be and no, we aren’t going to tell you. You’ll have to go to the brewery to find out!
At the anniversary party, Buffalo Brewing will also be running giveaways all day long. Starting at noon, there will be giveaways – 1pm – fridge magnet, 2pm – pint glass, 3pm – empty growler, 4pm – small beer cap sign, 5pm – t-shirt, 6pm – hoodie, 7pm – crowler a month for a year, 8pm – growler a month for a year (plus free growler). R&R BBQ Food Truck and Carnivorous Food Truck will also be on hand.
For more information, please visit https://www.facebook.com/Buffalo-Brewing-Company.
Brian Campbell is a co-founder/Brand Manager of the BNBA’s enthusiast arm, Buffalo Beer League, and writes the weekly Buffalo Beer Buzz column. If you have beer news that should be included in the Beer Buzz, Brian can be reached at buffalobeerleague@aol.com, on Twitter at @buffbeerleague, on Instagram at @buffalobeerleague and on Facebook at @thebuffalobeerleague.