Business & Tech

News Nearby: Grabbing Growlers at East End Brewing

Mt. Lebanon resident Scott Smith is growing his company with beers that have big flavor.

Behind a small red door with growler hours scribbled in Sharpie under an East End Brewing Company stencil, Scott Smith is creating big flavor with local brews.

“We are coming up on seven years of operation which shocks me,” Smith said. “In brewery years, that is like 110.”

A small business that started with Smith and his wife, Julie, has expanded into an operation that provides local beer to that operative number of 110 restaurants and bars throughout western Pennsylvania—while the majority of sales come from growlers that are picked up from the 4,000 square foot operation after the work day.

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For Smith, East End Brewing Company was a major career change.

“My background is in mechanical engineering and I worked for a Fortune 500 company for 14 years before jumping ship to move back home to Pittsburgh and try something different, and this definitely falls into the something different category,” he said.

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Originally from Regent Square, Smith and his wife now live in Mt. Lebanon. They decided to establish the business in the East End while living on East End Avenue in Regent Square upon returning to his hometown.

After seven years of growth, East End Brewing Company is preparing to move about a half a mile away from its current location to a more than 17,000 square foot space on Frankstown Avenue.

“We are operating at maximum capacity here and there’s not much room to do much more, let alone produce more beer than we are doing now,” Smith said. “We are starting from scratch and building a new brewery at the new location.”

The move won’t happen for another year or so, Smith said, reassuring his regular growler customers.

Smith was brewing his own beer for about nine years before deciding to make it a business. While he noticed a lot of good, local beer on tap from Penn Brewery and Church Brew Works, he wanted to do something different.

“A lot of that was locally focused but in Pittsburgh at the time, there were no breweries doing what we were excited about—American style IPA’s, stouts and that kind of thing,” he said. “Nobody was really being a local brewer that would have beer on tap around town.”

The business plan was simple—low overhead and shipping the beer, in the beginning, delivering it himself.

When people started knocking on the door, they checked their liquor license and began to sell the growlers.

“Now, we have a steady flow of growler customers that has allowed us to do a lot of things—small batch beers—and a lot of those beers only leave the brewery in growler form—you have to come here to find them,” he said.

Well known for the summer seasonal beer, Pedal Pale Ale, East End Brewery’s most popular beer is Big Hop, which was an original from the start.

Another beer currently on tap is made with honey from the apiary across the street from the brewery, offering a subtle sweetness. The special brews on tap is exactly what East End Brewery fans want.

“Our steady customers are always looking for something different,” he said. “If you come in once every two weeks, you will see something new on tap every time you come in.”

Monkey Boy is sold year round with stouts selling around St. Patty’s Day.

 nearby in Bridgeville currently has Fat Gary on draught.

In Regent Square,  has five or six taps of East End beers, he said, while  also has an East End option at times.  also has had the beer on tap.

Most recently,  started offering East End beers, as well.

On Saturdays, some people are turned away for growlers because the wait is a long one. A larger space will allow East End Brewing to continue to grow, all the while offering even more growlers to the Pittsburgh masses. Looking toward the future, he said he is definitely excited about another aspect of that move.

“I am looking forward to it being done,” he said with a laugh.

For information on growler hours and more, visit http://www.eastendbrewing.com/. The brewery is located at 6923 Susquehanna St.

This story originally appeared on Forest Hills-Regent Square Patch.


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