By Mark Tichenor and Bruce Lish

Custom Brewcrafters of Honeoye Falls has been a staple area brewery since 1997. During their decade of existence, Custom’s beers and business model of brewing house beers for bars has been embraced by pub owner and thirsty patron alike. Today, the brewery serves well over a hundred accounts in Rochester, Buffalo, and the Finger Lakes.

In addition to that, Custom formulates and brews its own line of craft beers, such as the delicious, onyx-colored Double Dark Cream Porter and Wee Heavy, both of which issue forth from numerous taps across the region.

As the business grew, shoehorning all that beer through CB’s original Brewhouse on Paper Mill Street became something of a challenge. Fortunately one thing Honeoye Falls has in abundance is available land. Currently, the company is building a new brewhouse and retail area that will afford substantially more space for brewing, in-house sales, and expansion.

“We want to have room to do signature beers and one-offs,” explains Jason Fox, Custom’s Head Brewer. “We’ll also want to be bottling, which requires a lot of space.” The brewery will also offer many more taps for walk-in retail business and a function room for conferences and events.

The future bottle availability of two of the brewery’s flagship beers, English Pale Ale and CB’s Double Dark Cream Porter, will do much to increase regional availability. It will also demonstrate that Custom Brewcrafters is a true craft brewery, not just a third-party producer of vanity beers.

Once the new brewhouse is up and running (planned for this coming April), Fox wants to use the extra capacity to push the envelope with respect to beer. “I like beer to be balanced, but within the balance I like to play around.” That yen for experimentations shows up in several CB’s beers, from the coffee-infused Canaltown Brown Ale, to the five-spiced Christmas Ale.

Fox also speaks of his interest in historical brewing methods, and his desire to implement them with authenticity. In 2006, a number of breweries across the country celebrated the 300^th anniversary of Ben Franklin’s birth by brewing beer using one of the statesman’s old recipes. In his quest for authenticity, Fox hooked up with the brewing school at the University of Sunderland in the UK to make sure his methods, ingredients, and conditions were representative of Franklin’s times.

Fox plans to continue that awareness of today’s beer as a descendant of brewing tradition. While CB’s continues to create popular specialty beers for the areas eating and drinking establishments, it’s in their own beer line where the great potential for discovery lies.

In other beers

Join Joe McBane, owner of Rochester’s Tap and Mallet, and Steve Hodos of the Great Lakes Brewing News, for an IPA tasting session Wednesday, January 30, at the Tap and Mallet, 381 Gregory Street, Rochester, NY.

As you quaff your way through both English and American versions of the style, McBane and Hodos will explain the colonial seafaring history of this rugged beer, as well as how IPA has evolved in America. Oh, and they’ll give you cheese and stuff.

The tasting costs $9.Originally, tickets were going to be sold but now it’s on a first-come, first-serve basis.

This is the first in a series of monthly tastings at the Tap. McBane is planning one for the final Wednesday of every month. More than just a gulpfest, the Tap & Mallet’s tastings are meant to inform, educate, and draw participants deeper into the nature of beer and how it intertwines with our culture.

Bruce is a certified beer judge and commercial brewer. Mark owns a laptop and likes beer. For more on beer, check out the beercraft blog, updated regularly, at http:://www.beercraftsite.com. Send your questions, suggestions, or comments to beercraft@rochester.rr.com.