Common Roots Brewing opens at former Pump Station
ALBANY — A brewpub celebrating its 10th anniversary this year is helping continue a lineage of beermaking that stretches along the Hudson River from South Glens Falls to the city of Hudson and dates back 238 years.
The Common Roots Brewing Co. Albany Outpost opens Thursday in the historic building at Quackenbush Square downtown that from 1999 to last fall was home to the Albany Pump Station, a revival of the C.H. Evans Brewing brand in Hudson from 1786 until Prohibition began in 1920.
Hours are 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Tuesday to Saturday, closed Sunday and Monday. The outpost does not take reservations.
Although the distinctive industrial interior remains superficially the same — including 40-foot ceilings, brew tanks and privateevent spaces on the mezzanine level and separate dining and bar areas — close to $1 million will have gone into renovation by the time final elements, including a new HVAC system on the roof, are installed in the spring, said Christian Weber. He cofounded Common Roots in South Glens Falls with his father, Bert, in 2014. The two are equal-share owners of the company, with Christian as its president and Bert heading up the nonprofit Common Roots Foundation, established as a thank-you to the community that rallied to help the company rebuild after a 2019 fire destroyed its original facility.
“So much went into this building in a relative short time. We’re approaching the seven-figure mark,” Christian Weber said Wednesday during a tour of
what he hopes will become known as the Common Roots Outpost, a nickname half as long as the official designation.
The company has strong local and regional pride. The outpost’s tables and bar top were made in Latham, menu items — the same in Albany as in South Glens Falls — incorporate locally sourced ingredients as often as possible, and while Common Roots’ beer was once distributed in seven states, it has stopped selling in a few to make more product available to its core constituency, Weber said. With 100 beers in its portfolio and at least 30 available at any given time, Common Roots is sold in kegs, bottles and cans at its own locations, restaurants, supermarkets and beverage centers throughout New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut and and New Jersey.
Noting the effects of tourism on beer sales, Weber said, “It’s no wonder we do so well in New Jersey: They all drink it when they come up for skiing in Vermont and summer in (the Adirondacks).”
He and his father had not intended to expand southward, at least not yet, he said. The fire was followed by the pandemic, a $5 million replacement brewing operation and pub, followed last year by the completion of a $4 million event space and cafe across the street in South Glens Falls. And they opened a Common Roots-branded coffee roastery in the fall.
“This was just not in our plans. We didn’t know that we had the bandwidth to do it,” Weber said. But Neil Evans, who reconnected with his family’s brewing past with the opening of the Pump Station in 1999, knew by early last year that he had a terminal illness and identified Common Roots as a way to continue the legacy, Weber said.
Evans died in June, six weeks after the acquisition by Common Roots was announced, though the company’s busy year meant the deal didn’t close until November. Evans had only two firm stipulations: that Common Roots buy the C.H. Evans trademark and promise to continue make some C.H. Evans beers.
Common Roots agreed, for two reasons. First, Weber said, several popular C.H. Evans beers, including its brown ale and cream ale, complement but don’t compete with what Common Roots makes.
More importantly, “To be able to be part of that Evans lineage was a wonderful opportunity,” Weber said. “To be able to continue and grow it is even better.”
To that end, C.H. Evans beer will be sold in the Albany and Glens Falls brewpubs and will become available later this year in supermarkets and beverage centers as it gets rolled out by Common Roots’ distributor, Saratoga Eagle of Saratoga Springs, Weber said.
Four members of the Common Roots Outpost’s 30-person staff are holdovers from the Pump Station, Weber said. (All employees were offered the chance to reapply.) Others transferred from South Glens Falls. Customers will order and pay for food and drink from tablets at three stations, with service staff delivering it. A retail area on one side offers beer for takeout and Common Roots-branded merchandise.
Although Albany is much more populous than South Glens Falls, and the Common Roots Outpost is bringing a brewpub back to an area already rich with dining and drinking options, Weber said his company has felt welcome over the past nine months.
He said, “We’re coming into the Albany market at a great time.”