A Beer For Whatever Ales You

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Slide show courtesy of Paradox Brewery: The new tasting room under construction

While the brew master and the team at Paradox Brewery anxiously await the testing of their water system, getting phase three power and some last minute state permits approved, work continues on building out the bar in the tasting room above the brewery.

I asked founder Paul Mrocka what he hopes will be a typical experience for Northbound vacationers on a hot summer day, who pull off at exit 27 and see the new Paradox Brewery.

“You’d walk up stairs, sample our brews, fill up your growler or a 2.5 gallon plastic insulated keg, perfect for the boat because you don’t have to refrigerate it, and be on your way,” Paul told us.

For the uninitiated, a growler is an amber colored glass jug that holds around a half gallon of beer (almost a 6 pack.). They are commonly sold at breweries and brew pubs as a means to sell take out craft beer.

A properly sealed growler will hold carbonation indefinitely and will store beer like any other sanitized bottle. The brewery will also offer a boat friendly 2.5 gallon plastic refrigerated mini keg. (Each would require a deposit and are returnable.).

And what will be in those containers?

“Hopefully we are going to have four different types of beer. To start we are doing a Pils (pilsner) and an IPA (India Pale Ale – a very hoppy beer).

“The water here is so great for pilsner. The water is very soft. It’s just like in the Czech Republic (the birth place of pilsner).

“Both of these beers are two extremes on the taste palette. Hopefully we will do two specialty beers, mainly for local consumption and for the growlers. I think we can sell a fair amount of it".

Paul estimates the alcohol content of the Pils will be around 5 per cent and the IPA around 6 per cent.

“We are just kegging initially. We have a bottler to use in the future, but initially we just don’t have the space”.

Locally, the beer will be on tap at several area restaurants.

“The Timberwolf will be our premier pub for whatever we have  -- all four beers. Joe (from the ‘Wolf) said whatever we have he will put on. If we are closed, just head on down to The Timberwolf  and get your growlers filled there.

“Bill over at Witherbees is interested  in carrying  our beer and so is this new Sticks and Stones Restaurant. Steve and Gary (S&S owners)  want to do beer pairings with their menu".

The beer will also be on tap at Basil and Wick, in North Creek.

The brewery plans to do all of their distribution locally.

“I don’t think the beer will go further than 100 miles away. That’s only 100 clients. After that we would have to go to a distributor”.

“The one great thing is we have no debt, we don’t have to be out their touting our beer because we need money to pay the bills. We don’t want to rush out there.”

As for projected production, Paul is not sure what his numbers will be.

“I think everybody I have talked to in the industry – I told them I was aiming for 500 barrels a year and they have told me, I will blow that number away”.

Our first goal is hitting the summer market here. Toward the fall we will stat moving our beer towards the Glens Falls, Queensberry and Saratoga regions.

“Then we will be able to ramp up and maintain that market and the market here and then when we expand we will probably  do some bottling during the winter months to get our bottles in local stores (That’s once the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms approves the labels).

"We are very, very excited about being here in Schroon and about the future."

Got a favorite style of beer you’d like to see brewed? Tell us in comments, where you can also eave your questions for Paul.

 

 

Brewing A Business: The Story Behind Schroon's Paradox Brewery

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Photo Slideshow: Schroon Laker Collection/Paradox Brewery

Paul Mrocka, the founder of the Paradox Brewery in Schroon Lake, is hopping mad (pun intended) that he can’t get his first batch of beer brewed.

He is at the mercy of the weather, National Grid and some last minute paperwork  -- not necessarily in that order --  before he and his team can start filling barrels, glasses, growlers and the bellies of a thirsty crowd of craft beer lovers in this part of the North Country.

“We need Phase Three power, which got delayed because Hurricane Sandy tied up National Grid. Then the winter came. Now we have to wait for the ice to melt and the ground to thaw out before we get the power,” Paul told Schroon Laker.

The brewery, housed in the building next door to Frank’s Wood Sculptures on Route 9, is right near exit 27 off the Northway.

“We have some details to take care of with the State Licensing Board and the APA (Adirondack Park Authority) We hope to be open in June, before the big summer rush.”

So is the opening of Paradox Brewery the realization of a long held dream of a home brewer?

“That’s exactly what happened. I home brewed for 27 years. I made my last batch in November,” Paul said with a laugh.

“I have been brewing up there at the lake (Paradox) for the last ten years and was taking it very serious".

Paul --  a pilot for Honeywell out of Morristown, NJ,  when he is not concocting his next wort --  got the brewing bug in the motherland of beer -- in the 80s when he was stationed in Germany.

“When I went back to college I  started brewing in New Hampshire, so I was just huffing around with it. Then 12 years ago I started taking it seriously.

“I bought the lake house and started brewing beer and everyone was drinking it and people started saying: ‘Why don’t you do this for a business?’

“I said yeah, yeah, yeah. Finally at work, one of the guys said: ‘Either you do it now, otherwise you are going to get way too old to do it'”.

That’s when he joined forces with fellow Laker David Bruce.  “I said: ‘Should we do it?’ And then I asked my friend who owns the building, Vaughn Clark – who doesn’t  even drink.

“Vaughn is a master welder, a draftsman and is very mechanically inclined and loves a good project. So we said, ‘All right, let’s see if we can do this. So we got some investors”

That initial idea was hatched back in October of 2011.  Since then practically every waking moment -- when he’s not flying Gulfstream jets --  has gone into thinking about every aspect about the brewery.

Knowing about beer and what he wanted to brew came easy for Paul. Learning the business side has required a lot of study -- often times in the cockpit while waiting to take off.

“I was brewing 300 gallons a year at the lake . (For the non beer drinker – that’s one heck of a load of suds).

“We threw parties on the island, I’d supply beer for that. People would come up in boats, we’d have beer for them. It just kept getting bigger and bigger and bigger”.

And the home beer brewing operation was the real deal. “My father, my brother and I built  an electric brewery, which we might use for a pilot brew”.

The more Paul brewed “the consistency got really great, actually it got too good because the beer became a lot stronger. That got going pretty well”.

Besides studying the business side of opening a brewery, there has been plenty of elbow grease  and sweat equity put into refurbishing the brew house – which in its former life has been a general store, a gas station and a bait and tackle shop.

“We have done all the work ourselves. We’ve had a few people helping us, but other than that we have done everything, from modifying the building to every possible thing you could imagine. We blew foam in there, we put new sheet rock in there. It’s a new polymer floor. You can bang it with a hammer and light it on fire. It’s indestructible!

"We wanted to make sure it’s a showcase, that when you look inside you’l ll see how nice it is. And if it looks that good, then we thought people might say: "Well they must make pretty good beer!.

“We are just trying to do it all right. We could never afford to have done it any other way so that's why we did all the work ourselves.  We are not rich guys.”

But they are smart. They have decided to hire a professional brew master.

“I’m not an idiot. This is a business”.

Paul said most of the brewing equipment came from China. His team in Schroon made a lot of modifications to the equipment. He was unsuccessful at sourcing what he needed locally. The high cost of new and used equipment was prohibitive because of the strong demand for brewing equipment as a result of the resurgence in  the craft beer movement. Also, the equipment had to fit perfectly into the space and finding the exact sizes state side was also another barrier to getting what they needed here.

As a result of their efforts, they will open without a penny of debt.

“What we are doing is bringing jobs to the area and having fun. We really thought it would be a fun thing to do.”

So what beer is Paul and his crew planning on brewing and where can you get it? And why is the water in Schroon so perfect for brewing beer?  Find out that --  and a whole lot more -- in Part Two of our series, published on Thursday.

Sticks and Stones Calls Schroon Home

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When Steve Holmes and Gary Tromblee walked into the showroom of world famous wood working artist Barry Gregson on Route 9, they knew immediately they’d found the home of their new restaurant.

And for Steve, he also knew in that instant what he would be calling their new venture: “Sticks and Stones” an homage to the incredible creations that were on display in the showroom and the towering stone fireplace that takes center stage.

“We are very excited to be here,” Steve told Schroon Laker.

The target date for restaurant’s opening is Thursday May 24th, just before Schroon’s Official start to Summer and the Town's Opening Weekend Memorial Day activities.

The menu will feature pizzas made in a wood fired brick oven as well as casual American Fare. “It’s going to be a reasonable priced, casual place, with a great bar,” said Steve.

“And We want to try and source local produce as much as possible,” Gary said.

For the two friends, (although at one point in our interview Gary laughingly joked that he and Steve were not that close), opening up the restaurant has been three decades in the making.

“I have been in the restaurant business for most of my adult life,” Steve said. “I started out at a pizza parlor in the Albany area and got the taste for the business there.

Since then he has held multiple restaurants jobs, in both the front and the back of the house. Steve met Gary 20 years ago, when Steve was managing a TGIF’s and was Gary’s “boss”.

“You were never my boss,“ quipped Gary, as the two broke into another round of laughter.

In fact the lads bring more than 50 years of industry experience with them to Schroon.

Steve most recently was a partner with Wheatfield’s Restaurants in Saratoga and Clifton Park, a private restaurant consultant and Franchise Director of Operations with Carlson Restaurant Group.

Gary recently opened Joe's Crab Shack in Latham as the General Manager before spending 20 years with TGIF-Carlson Restaurant Group.

The two say they make a great team because they play off each other’s strengths. And both business partners share similar backgrounds and have strong North Country roots.  Steve grew up near Friend’s Lake and Gary near the Great Sacandaga Lake.

That’s why they wanted a location in The Adirondacks, a place their consider very special. “We both love the Adirondacks and we wanted to be here,” Steve said.

(Steve and his wife have climbed 23 of the 46 peaks. It appears Gary is getting a late start.)

The pair got serious about their idea of opening their own place in December and began the search for a location.

“We knew immediately when we saw Barry’s place this would be our restaurant. It’s got everything. It’s a great space with great ambiance and a great location”.

Before it was a furniture show room, the space was a restaurant twice before, recalled Rosemarie Ritson, from the Schroon lake Chamber of Commerce.

“At one time it was a French place called Guys and another time it was called the Adventure Inn,” she said.  

But there is no kitchen in the current building, a prospect that is both challenging and daunting as the two try and get the place ready to open before Memorial Day Weekend.

“We have seven weeks to get everything into place,” said Gary. Their contractor will use both new and reconditioned kitchen equipment.

Right now they are in the process of getting a wood fired brick oven from the famous Italian manufacturer, the Marra Forni company.

“We want the oven to be the focal point behind the bar,” said Gary.

The owners hope to have an outside patio area to the left side of the entrance ready for the summer. Inside there will be seating for about 100 guests, between 17 tables and the bar area.

Steve and Gary want the restaurant to be a year ‘round business. “We will be open every day until Christmas, when we plan to reassess our hours.

”We want to be open year around for the locals. We want to be there for the community so if they want to go out on a Wednesday night, we will be here for them,” Steve said.

Steve said the process of purchasing the building was easy. “The moment we met Barry he ‘got‘ what we were about. We have all become good friends.”

The partners have made a couple of trips to Barry’s workshop to see first hand where a lot of the furniture that will be in their restaurant, is created.

Three of Barry's tables, a rocker, a hang your hat chair, and rocking settee will be in the restaurant, according to Kylen Kline, who is helping Steve and Gary with marketing.

“Additionally we want to keep the theme of a gallery so all of our pieces will be available to purchase, as well the artwork displayed will be from local artists and photographers".

The partners hope to feature acoustic music in the restaurant and they already have booked their first act for opening night.

“Part of the deal with Barry is that he gets to play on opening night,” said Steve. We will be following the adventures of Steve and Gary in the coming weeks.  What type of brick oven fired pizza are you looking forward to eating? Tell us in comments.

Where and When: Sticks and Stones Bar and Grill.  769 Route 9, Schroon Lake, 12870. (518) 269-1536