Acrospire Brewing - Eric Truscott
”He understands how things react together.” That’s the quote that’s sticking with me after speaking with Eric Truscott, co-owner of Acrospire Brewing Co., one of Pittsburgh’s newest breweries, located in Glenshaw.
Eric was talking about chemist and brewmaster Greg Long, one of his partners at Acrospire. Eric, Greg and Ron D’Alessandro are friends that met through their church choir. With Eric’s IT skills and penchant for serving customers, Ron’s business acumen, and Greg’s brewing skills, there was definitely a positive reaction when these three guys got together.
The result was a small, unassuming “buildng within a building” where the guys are… well, building… their brewing empire. Albeit, kinda quietly and methodically. I asked Eric about how they got started, how they market their new brewery, and what the future holds.
Your website says you started in 2017. Let’s start there.
Well. Greg had been homebrewing for like, 25 years or so, and Ron and I knew his beer was really good. I was homebrewing too, as a hobby, and Ron was interested in brewing as well. We had been talking at church and knew we had this common interest. We decided to give it a go. But it took about 18 months to renovate the building and get it ready. We didn’t borrow money, we wanted to do this ourselves. So we framed the warehouse, jackhammered floors, did whatever we had to do to get it to come together. We made a building within a building.
Making some adjustments to Acrospire’s beer lines
What made you pick Glenshaw?
That was a result of practicality and necessity. First off, Ron owned the building, so that was a big part of course. But when we looked at a map of breweries in the area - at least at that time - there was a void in the North Hills area. Plus, we all lived here! So the combination of those things made it an easy choice.
How do you choose which beers to brew?
You brew what you like. Some places brew sours, some focus on IPAs. We’re more traditional, so we like brewing beers like porters and Hefeweizens. That’s actually our niche. We’re adding our own spin to traditional recipes.
So how long does it take to come up with a new beer?
Once we know the flavors we want to pull out and come up with the ingredients, it’s a 2 to 3 week process. The brewing itself only takes about a day, then 10 to 14 days to ferment, and maybe a day or so to carbonate.
And what's been the most popular?
Our Caramel Porter is really popular. Porters aren’t typically summer beers and we weren’t planning on keeping it on, but it’s done really well all summer long. We also make a Honeycomb Oat Honey Ale that does very well, it’s made with honey and orange peel. It goes great with an ornage slice! And our No Evil Hefeweizen is a strong seller.
Those sound delicious. So how did you start getting the word about them?
Mostly word-of-mouth, at least in the beginning. We talked it up to our friends and family and they spread the word. I guess people liked that they “knew someone” starting a brewery! But on opening day, we still weren’t sure what to expect. We didn’t want to make too much and have all of this extra beer on hand, but we ended up selling out. That opening day blew us away!
What happened next? I mean, have you had to do much outreach since then?
[Post-Gazette writer] Bob Batz happened. He had been following our progress from the very beginning, when we were still framing walls. He’d check in with us occassionally to see how we were doing. His article came out in February and that was the springboard.
We also joined the Brewer’s Guild. We were hesitant to join at first, we were still concerned about incurring extra costs. But that turned out to be a fantastic decision. They were so supportive, we connected with other brewers and we had other Pittsburgh brewers stopping in all the time. They’ve been great.
“We get new followers
every week and
so we get
new customerS
every week.”
The Pittsburgh beer community is very welcoming. And I saw you have a Facebook page. Has social media helped at all?
Definitely. Recently it’s been all social media and our website. We’re on Facebook and Instagram.
That’s been the best. We get new followers every week and so we get new customers every week.
I also send some email blasts, but need to be more consistent.
Sounds like you’re doing a lot of things right!
We’re doing OK. We have a physical sign going up, so now people can find us!
So what’s next for Acrospire Brewing?
Our 2020 goal was to open, get some growlers out, and see what it takes to scale. We’ll brew what we can. We all still have our day jobs. It was growing a lot faster than we had anticpated, but then COVID hit. But we’re weathering this OK, we still have plans for a taproom. That’s our short term plan. The long term plan is to be in a league with the big boys, with a brewery that can house hundreds of people, host events, and distribute and circulate a bunch of beers.
But for now, well, if you’re a Seinfeld fan you might remember George saying, “it eased into the water like an old man into a nice warm bath.” That’s what we’re doing, easing into it.
Get Your Fill:
Acrospire website: https://www.acrospirebrewingco.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/acrospirebrewing
Instagram: @acrospirebrewing
Email: info@acrospirebrewingco.com
Phone: 412-453-6266