Beer here: Necromancer to open in Ross, introduce new brews
Necromancer Brewing Co. in Ross will debut this weekend.
Cans of two of the four core beers the brewery will offer will be available for takeout only.
Two styles will be announced via social media at 9 a.m. Friday.
The other two will be released next week, according to Ben Butler, who with business partner Aaron Easler, own the establishment.
An additional dozen brews will be released throughout the year.
Butler and Easler are leasing the 14,400-square feet of space which is one of the top 10 largest craft breweries by square footage in Pittsburgh, Butler said. It’s located at 2257 Babcock Blvd. in the former Spirit Halloween store and USA Baby location.
“This building is perfect,” Butler said. “It is rock solid with cinderblock walls. It has 14-foot ceilings. It was easy to convert it to a brewery.”
The brewery will be open from 4 to 8 p.m. Fridays and noon to 4 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays.
With the recent indoor capacity restrictions loosening, the plan for Necromancer is to expand hours and offer seating for 49 people in the front bar area sometime in June. A future phase includes opening a 330-person taproom. It will be a large beer hall with activities and various food trucks in a rotation – within the next two years, Butler said.
The beer is canned using a cask canning system. Brews which are created by head brewer Lauren Hughes, a Miami Fla. native, who lives in Greenfield. She’s worked locally as assistant head brewer at Penn Brewery, assistant brewer at Rock Bottom Brewery, bar manager at Hitchhiker Brewing and bartender at Hop Farm Brewing. She was also tasting room manager at Sun King Brewery in Indianapolis.
“We’ve been at work every day for the last year to get this place open,” Hughes said.
Butler, a Ross native, said people have asked why he and Easler, of Gibsonia, are opening a brewery during a pandemic with so many other choices for craft beer. He said the Pittsburgh beer community supports each other.
“It’s beneficial to have competition,” Butler said. “Beer is trending right now. People love to try different beers, and we have a large market to choose from –anyone 21 or older can be our customer.”
Butler describes the definition of the Necromancer name as “a fictional character that resurrects dead things like we do with beer.”
The purple, black and white colored cans will be consistent on all beers. Each will have unique artwork. Packaging is a way to differentiate a brand. His other company, Top Hat ,is a Pittsburgh-based creative branding agency known for collaborating with the craft beer industry., is handling getting the word out about Necromancer. Easler is the creative director and partner in Top Hat.
Butler, a certified cicerone, the beer industry equivalent of a wine sommelier, said normally brewers start with a tap room and kegs, and then add canning. They started with canning. Butler said in a previous Tribune-Review story.
“What’s better than sitting around drinking a beer after a long day of work or on the weekend?” Butler said. “We are excited to open and soon be able to have people come in and sit down and try one of our beers.”
JoAnne Klimovich Harrop is a TribLive reporter covering the region's diverse culinary scene and unique homes. She writes features about interesting people. The Edward R. Murrow award-winning journalist began her career as a sports reporter. She has been with the Trib for 26 years and is the author of "A Daughter's Promise." She can be reached at jharrop@triblive.com.
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