October 2017 Est. 1985 Your Community Newspapper
The Northside Chronicle
Volume 33 Issue 10 - FREE -
Northside’s Five Best Coffee Shops Page 16
Meet Northside’s Brewmasters, Page 1
Marketplace Feature: Allegheny City Brewing Page 22
Brewmasters: Meet Northside’s local harvesters of hop By Neil Strebig Greg Kamerdze greets construction workers as he steps onto the naked, untreated wooden floors of his soon-to-be-completed taproom. He continues past the unfinished bar, vortexes of dust swirl up into the sunlight dispersing themselves atop power tools and cords littered about the floor, alerting passersby there is still a lot of work to be done before the former Workingmen’s Beneficial Union (WBU) building is back operating as the neighborhood’s watering hole once again. For Kamerdze turning the former neighborhood destination into a city-wide one is exactly the plan. “In general what I’ve seen in other cities and other parts of town are the craft breweries tend to move
in at first and a lot of stuff [follows] in after the fact,” said Kamerdze, co-owner of Spring Hill Brewing. In addition to Spring Hill Brewing, the Northside is home to four other craft breweries within a threemile radius including Penn Brewery in Troy Hill, Allegheny City Brewing in Deutschtown, War Streets Brewery in Allegheny West, and Southern Tier Brewing Co. on the North Shore. To Kamerdze each has the potential to become a focal point in their respective neighborhoods, a catalyst of sorts for both commerce and community. “I think people are going to be surprised coming up here because there is not really a reason to come up to Spring Hill unless you live up here. And this place used to be such a cornerstone of the community,”
said Kamerdze. “When it was the WBU this is where everyone went.” Spring Hill Brewing is the brainchild of Kamerdze and Mike Seamans, it will operate as a nanobrewery producing about five barrels a week. The taproom will feature 8 taps and a “limited supply” of bottles and cans will also be available for patrons. He plans on featuring Saisonstyled beers, low-alcoholic brews (a majority of the beers will hover at or around 5% ABV) with Belgian and farmhouse ale flavors. To him, the selling point of the Saison-styled is their drinkability as “session” beers. “I always envisioned when I opened a place like this it would be a meeting place, where people can sit down and relax for a while,” Kamerdze said. “[They] can have a couple beers over
the course of a couple hours and have a nice, relaxing evening.” For Kamerdze the location is everything. Not just being able to rejuvenate the near-derelict WBU building but also having the chance to collaborate with Rescue Street Farms, an urban farm that also operates off the Varley St. property. Working with Rescue Street Farms allows Kamerdze valuable flexibility with his ingredient list. The implementation of fresh components embodies the sentiments that resonate with Kamerdze, Rescue Street Farms, and the craft brewing culture as a whole; they are creating an identity through local innovation. Even for larger breweries like Southern Tier and Penn Brewery, there is an allure in establishing a See Microbrews, Page 13