USA, PA: Cobblehaus Brewing Co to hold grand opening on April 14

Coraopolis gets it next brewery on April 14 as Cobblehaus Brewing Co. holds its grand opening on the main drag of Fifth Avenue, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported on April 13.

Owner and brewer Scott Mills says that as a longtime home brewer, he was influenced and inspired by having worked in Europe, where he became a big fan of German and Belgian beers. His spin is “Olde World Styles, New World Twists.”

For a surprise soft opening on April 8, one beer he was serving is a German-style alt. But he also was pouring something dubbed “the X,” which was an experimental mashup of a Belgian-style triple and a farmhouse ale.

Other brews ready to pour from the eight tasting room taps are a triple, hefeweizen, Belgian-style wit, imperial stout and black IPA, with a brown ale to follow shortly.

“Basically, [I’m] taking the traditionals and trying to modernize them a bit,” says the 46-year-old Moon resident, who was looking at the western suburbs as soon as he started seriously planning this brewery two-plus years ago. Last year he signed the lease on this space, which originally was a furniture store, but had been an office for a company in the oil and gas industry. That’s the industry where he still works as a project manager for an engineering firm.

In his free time, he remodeled this space, painting the walls a deep green, lining the ceiling with repurposed wood and stringing it with antique-looking Edison-style lightbulbs. For the grand opening, he promises there will be tables that he didn’t have on Saturday. The steady crowd seemed to be enjoying themselves nonetheless.

He brews on a one-barrel system in a brewhouse visible through a window, doing double batches to fill his three fermenters, and says getting more of those is a priority as he gets going, so he can hold more brews and age them for longer.

How does Mr. Miller find his niche in the burgeoning brewery scene? “Part of my niche is focusing on some traditional styles,” he says. “There aren’t that many people who actually do that.”

To start, he’s selling beer only and only by the glass. Eventually, he’ll add growlers to go, but until he sees how much demand there is in-house, “I don’t want everything walking out the door.” Eventually, he’d like to sell his beer to other watering holes, too. And at some point, he’d like to also offer customers wine, cider and maybe spirits.

To start, Cobblehaus is open 5 to 11 p.m. Fridays, noon to 11 p.m. Saturdays, and 5 to 10 p.m. Wednesdays and Thursdays, although those hours could change. It’s located at 1021 Fifth Ave., Coraopolis, PA 15108 (412-264-7000 and cobblehaus.com).

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