If two Connecticut men can reach their dream, beer drinkers throughout the central region will have another choice when it comes to locally brewed ales.
Cousins Tony Karlowicz and Edward Fabrycki Jr. hope their Back East Brewing Co. proves as successful as their ability to home brew ale in Fabrycki’s Southington garage.
The pair has raised approximately 75 percent of the funding needed to transform Back East Brewing Co. from Fabrycki’s garage into a full-scale craft brewery eventually based in Bloomfield.
“We have a distributor lined up and we have several restaurants and package stores lined up and they are excited about getting [some new ale options],” Karlowicz said.
Initial plans call for launching the business this fall and having product in stores before year end. Meanwhile, both will continue with their current careers — Karlowicz is an accountant and Fabrycki an engineer — until they can join the business full-time.
“We do want it to be a career and we’re going to give it the attention it needs,” Karlowicz said. “The goal is to have a successful brewery, to create jobs … not to do this as a hobby.”
Back East, they say, would join Thomas Hooker and Olde Burnside as the only craft breweries in Hartford County.
According to the Brewers Association, the craft brewing industry has seen solid growth in recent years. Craft brewing jumped 11 percent in volume and 12 percent in sales in 2010 from a year earlier, while overall U.S. beer sales declined 1 percent by volume in 2010. Craft brewing made up 4.9 percent of all U.S. beer sales by volume in 2010, representing an estimated $7.6 billion.
Karlowicz and Fabrycki hope to tap into that market in Connecticut.
“I’m comfortable that we’ve done our homework, our market research,” Fabrycki said. “I had always wanted to brew beer, but knowing I needed that business side, which is not what I wanted to do, it was fortunate that Tony came along.”
In fact, the two took separate paths to their shared dream. A family gathering served as the impetus to Back East Brewing Co.
“We hadn’t seen each other for some years,” Fabrycki said. “We reconnected at a family function in 2005 and discovered we had the same passion for brewing beer.”
Upon graduation from the University of Connecticut, Fabrycki moved to San Diego, Calif., where his interest in home brewing grew. After moving back to Connecticut in 2000, Fabrycki pursued it.
At about the same time, Karlowicz developed his interest in craft brewing while attending college in Vermont. After reconnecting, the two bought a home brewing unit and began testing and developing different blends. Several of the recipes have been inspired by the rich taste and character of West Coast ales, Fabrycki said.
The Back East website details the four year-round products that will be offered. The company’s flagship will be its Back East Ale, a medium-bodied amber. According to the company’s website, the ale offers a “subtle fruity aroma with hints of vanilla and peach.”
There is also an IPA with a “great hoppy aroma, crisp hop bite, and smooth medium body.” The Porter is a “full-bodied chestnut brown porter with notes of chocolate and caramel,” and the Golden Ale, a “deep golden, light-bodied American-style ale … [with] a smooth, crisp taste,” rounds out the regular lineup.
Karlowicz said the company will also produce a couple of seasonal offerings and a few “Imperial-style” beers. There will probably be six to eight offerings within a year, he said.
“Generally, craft beers sell for more than the big domestic brands,” Karlowicz said, “but we plan to be priced consistently with other craft beers in the market.”
The two have their eyes on a 4,500-square-foot location in Bloomfield, near the Windsor town line. Once all the financing is lined up, they will trade in their home brewing unit for a commercial 10-barrel brewhouse and a couple of 20-barrel fermentors. Each barrel holds 31 gallons. The plan is to produce 1,000 barrels tge first year.
Initially, a brewer and a salesperson will join Fabrycki and Karlowicz in building the business. Both admit a bit of uncertainty as the official launch date moves closer.
“We’d be foolish to not have any trepidation,” Fabrycki said, “but the craft beer industry [is growing.]”
“We’ve talked to our investors and they understand the risk, but I think they realize there is a lot of potential to craft brewing,” Karlowicz said.
Anyone interested in following the growth of the business, updates and information on the company are available both on the Back East website (www.backeastbrewing.com) and its Facebook page (Facebook.com/backeastbrewing).
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