Paradox Brewery was recently recognized for its efforts to bring new jobs to our area with a grant for a new canning line from the Essex County Industrial Development Agency (IDA).

The Italian made line will soon be installed at Paradox’s new brewery and tasting room in North Hudson, Paradox President Paul Mrocka told told Schroon Laker today.

“I can’t thank enough the efforts of Jody Olcott and Carol Calabrese from the IDA who helped with the grant. They see our commitment to bringing jobs to Essex County and have embraced our vision. They have been invaluable in their support.”

The IDA began working with Paradox in 2017. The IDA devotes a significant amount of time reaching out to existing Essex County businesses (as most of the economic growth comes from existing businesses) to ensure they are aware of the multiple services available through the IDA as well as their partnering agencies.

We caught up with Paul after he returned from Denver, where he attended the biggest craft-brewing conference and trade show in the United States.

Paul and Paradox brewer Dalton Wilson were part of the 14,000 plus brewing-industry pros from around the world in attendance.

“Dalton, aka ‘Quattro’, is a prime example of how Paradox is offering jobs to locals. Dalton, is from Pottersville. He started washing tanks and doing all of the entry level jobs. He worked his way up to brewer and is now a full-time employee”.

Paul and Dalton took advantage of all the annual Craft Brewers Conference had to offer: panels, lectures, seminars and a massive trade show with 1,000 vendors, from hops growers to manufacturers to software makers.

At the conference Paul got a first-hand look at the canning line from CFT in Italy that will soon be on its way to the North Country.

“It’s an amazing high-tech piece of machinery. It can 100, 16 ounce can per minute. Our current system does 35 cans a minute.”

Paul also met with reps from GEA, the German manufacturer of Paradox’s new brewhouse. Engineers for Germany will be in North Hudson for the install.

Weather and construction delays have pushed back the new brewery’s opening date, but it will be up and running sometime this summer, Paul said.