Our Brewery:

If you don’t already know, let me say right up front that we are a microbrewery in the true sense of the word, and not a brewpub. We leave the serving to the experts at the fine establishments who pour our brews around town. So please, don’t take it personally if we don’t ask you to come on over for a beer. It’s not you, or that shirt you’re wearing that puts us off. It’s because there’s really no place inside our brewery for you to sit down, have a sandwich and enjoy a fresh pint of tasty brew – though, I personally have been known to do this very thing from time to time. When you have your own brewery, maybe you can do this too.

That said, for those that want to get a closer look, you can always come out during our "Growler Hours" . We can show you around the place a bit, and you can even take some beer home with you. Here's a map to help you find the place.

We are a very small staff. And by saying “we”, I really mean “me”. It’s my equipment, I did the layout, the reassembly and the installation, I design the beers, I do the graphics, I do the brewing, I do the books, I wash the kegs, I clean the floors, and when I’m not doing those things, I answer the only phone. If you like the beer, it’s my fault. If you don’t, it’s my fault too. Yes, it can be a little lonely, but at least the meetings go quickly… and the beer keeps me company.

*January 2007: A long overdue revision here: For anyone who has been to Growler Hours some time in the last year, you know that I'm not flying solo here anymore. Richard (pictured here ) has become an integral part of the Growler Hour experience - not to mention countless off-hours behind the scenes washing kegs, unloading grain, cleaning, fixing, and generally making my life a whole lot easier... and in the process, managing to offer almost as much wit, as he takes home in growlers! So really, that means you can blame him too if you don't like the beers.

While seeing beer being made is pretty neat, reading about the equipment it’s made on isn’t for everybody. So, for those of you who are really only interested in enjoying the RESULT of the brewing process, I completely understand. In fact, I won’t be at all offended if you want to head back over to "The Beers” page about now – if only to build up your thirst a bit.

For those that are interested in the more technical aspects of our setup, please read on…

The heart and soul of East End Brewing’s setup is a gas-fired 10 barrel single step infusion brewhouse built in 1996 by New World Brewing Systems. It spent most of its adult beverage-making life down at what was once the Foundry Ale Works in Pittsburgh’s Strip district. This system can make some great beers, and its basic single step infusion design consumes as much as 20-50% less energy than other mashing sytems*– another big plus in the sustainability category. It’s also great for making ales and stouts.

Fermentation capacity consists of two 7 barrel fermenters and a 15 barrel fermenter… (As of May 2006, you can add another 20 barrel fermenter to this list!) As our bottleneck, these tanks limit our annual capacity to somewhere between 600 and 750 barrels if we were to run the brewery flat out. That’s 1200-1500 kegs, so drink up, we’re not there yet.

There’s also a bunch of other supporting equipment: Tanks, pumps, chillers, compressors, and other stuff that… well, quite frankly, if you’ve come this far, you really need to go sign up for the newsletter and then come out for a tour and a Growler. See you here soon!

Special thanks to Doug Kosydar for providing the photographs appearing on this page. 

* Cited from Ted Goldammer’s “The Brewers’ Handbook – the complete book to brewing beer” p175.