With more than 40 breweries in the Pittsburgh region, it’s clear we’re living in the Golden Age of craft beer.
And the growth keeps coming this week. Pete Kurzweg, owner of Independent Brewing Company, Hidden Harbor and Lorelei, is opening Golden Age Beer Company in the former Enix Brewing Company building in Homestead on Friday, Nov. 19.
Customers can get a taste of the new business in the outdoor beer garden, which is equipped with a stage and fire pits, from 4 to 9 p.m. with live music from Truth and Rights. On Saturday, Nov. 20, from noon to 7 p.m., DJ MB and DJ Mary Mack will spin tunes.
Kurzweg and his team will pour Golden Age Pale Ale and Golden Age Kolsch, along with some local and international brews. Hidden Harbor will supply the tiki cocktails and tacos.
Can’t make it to the warm-up party? The two beers will also be on tap at Independent Brewing in Squirrel Hill and Lorelei in East Liberty.
Kurzweg says the brewery’s focus will be on lagers, which, he believes is the most approachable style of beer. There are three currently fermenting in the tanks.
Head brewer Aaron Dahl, who most recently handled beer-making operations at Chicago’s Alarmist Brewing, will be in charge of the Bavarian-made, 15-barrel BrauKon system that the team inherited from the building’s former occupant.
Enix opened in August 2018 in the former Levine Brothers Hardware building at 337 E. 8th Ave. and went on the market in January 2020.
Eventually, the eight-lane bowling alley on the second floor will reopen as well.
Kurzweg says Independent Hospitality Group — the umbrella name for the four establishments — wasn’t planning to open its own brewing facility, but the idea quickly evolved from a dream to a reality in about six months.
“There’s really something exciting happening in Homestead, a community we’ve always admired for its history and heritage and for its resilience during really difficult times,” he explains. “The timing was right, the people were right and the neighborhood was right. It was fate.”
Golden Age will make the large, industrial-style building its own by brightening the space with different paint colors and adding wood from the alleys of Squirrel Hill’s old Forward Lanes to the bar and tabletops.
The brewery will serve draft beer only to start and offer a wine program curated by Maddie Burton that centers on European varieties. Details on food are forthcoming. In the meantime, Golden Age will rely on Hidden Harbor to provide the grub.
“We want people to come here to enjoy beer together,” Kurzweg says.