38 LONGISLANDPRESS.COM • NOVEMBER 2017 38 LONGISLANDPRESS.COM • SEPTEMBER 2017 38 LONGISLANDPRESS.CO M • SEPTEMBER 201-----------TUTU111
By BERNIE KILKELLY
Patchogue already boasts Long
Island’s oldest craft brewery, Brick-
House Brewery, founded in 1996,
and its largest brewery, Blue Point
Brewing, scheduled to open a new
60,000-barrel facility next summer.
Craft beer has helped power
the revitalization of the bustling
South Shore village, with a lively
pub and restaurant scene along
Main Street catering to visitors and
new residents in the hundreds of
apartments built downtown in the
past few years.
Now Patchogue is getting a third
brewery that hopes to fill a niche
in the craft beer market by collaborating
with other new breweries
that have opened across the Island.
The simply named Patchogue
Beer Project is the brainchild of
two well-known residents of the
North Shore: Mike Philbrick, the
founder and brewmaster of Port
Jeff Brewing Co., and restaurateur
Ryan DiSpirito, who was looking to
branch out into the growing craft
beer scene.
“I was ready for a new challenge
and a mutual friend told me about
a chef who wanted to start a new
brewery, and put me in touch with
Ryan,” Philbrick said. “I’m excited
to do something a little different
from Port Jeff Brewing and to be a
part of the great things happening
in Patchogue.”
Philbrick started out as a homebrewer
and after catching the brewing
bug received formal training
at the World Brewing Academy
at Siebel Institute in Chicago. He
did apprenticeship brewing gigs at
Iron Hill and other breweries in
his native Philadelphia area before
founding Port Jeff Brewing in 2010
and opening the brewery a year
later in a building across from the
harborfront that houses a 7-barrel
brewing system and a small tasting
room.
Port Jeff is well known for its hoppy
ales including Party Boat IPA and
Schooner Pale Ale. It was the first
brewery on LI to install a canning
line in 2014, which helped increase
distribution across the Island and
into New York City and Westchester.
Patchogue Beer Project will be
located in the former Cornell Galleries
building on West Main Street
directly across from BrickHouse
Brewery. The building will also
house a second location for Local
Burger Co., which has its original
location in Bay Shore, and a new
breakfast and lunch restaurant,
Buttermilk’s Kitchen.
Philbrick is heading up the brewing
side of operations for Patchogue
Beer Project and is installing a
5-barrel brewing system from Premier
Stainless, similar to the system
at Port Jeff Brewing. The brewery
will initially have six 10-barrel fermenters
and lots of serving tanks to
keep up with expected demand in
the tasting room and for take-away
growlers. Philbrick expects to select
a head brewer for the new brewery
in the next few weeks and be ready
to start brewing before the end of
the year.
“I want to be able to host other
brewers at Patchogue Beer Project
and collaborate on new beers, taking
advantage of the melting pot of
ideas that we have on Long Island,”
said Philbrick. “Our first beers will
be brewed with BrickHouse and
Blue Point, who I know already
know very well, and we’re looking
forward to having fun with the
brewers which will be fun for our
consumers.”
DiSpirito will oversee the brewery’s
tasting room, where visitors will be
able to see the brewing operations
through glass.
“We are licensed as a New York
State farm brewery,” said DiSpirito,
“so we’ll be able to sell other New
York State craft beer and wine in
the tasting room, along with other
farm products and merchandise.”
Philbrick is already a strong
supporter of using locally grown
ingredients in his beers and his
Fresh Hop Ale at Port Jeff Brewing
uses hops from Condzella’s Farm
in Wading River and Wesnofske
Farms in Peconic.
The new brewery is also likely
to participate in the Town of
Brookhaven’s new Brew to Moo
program that is recycling local
breweries’ tons of spent grains by
feeding it to livestock. In August,
BrickHouse Brewery and Port
Jeff Brewing became the first
two breweries to sign on to the
program, in which the Town of
Brookhaven makes regular pickups
of the spent grains and transports
them to the Double D Bar Ranch
in Manorville, a haven for abused
or unwanted farm animals. The
grains are mixed into feed for the
livestock, providing protein and
fiber that can supplement corn for
feed.
“At Port Jeff we were happy to be a
part of this program helping rescue
animals, and so we want to continue
to make it a success,” Philbrick
said.
FOOD & DRINK
Port Jeff Pours South
North Shore Brewing Co. Opening New Craft Brewery in Patchogue
Mike Philbrick, founder of Port Jeff Brewing Co., inspects one of his beers. (Press photo Bob Giglione.)