Platform Beer Co. opening a brewery in Garfield

Ohio- based Platform Beer Co. still plans to open a sizable brewery and restaurant in Pittsburgh’s Garfield neighborhood.

The Cleveland- based brewery made news last week by being purchased by Anheuser- Busch InBev’s Brewers Collective, which owns a dozen other craft breweries.

That gave Platform co- founder Paul Benner a lot of questions to answer, but it was easy for him to answer the one about whether Platform is going ahead with plans, announced at the beginning of this year, to open a 10- barrel brewery and restaurant at 4805 Penn Ave.

“It’s definitely moving forward,” he said Thursday afternoon. His spin on joining the world’s largest brewer is that the additional resources will be better for everything from employees to the beer itself to new projects like the Pittsburgh one.

“The partnership now is going to allow us to make it a more creative, interesting space than we would have pre- announcement” of the purchase by A- B. Platform now has more resources to open the space with “the highest quality of everything — equipment, finishes, entertainment,” he said. “Now we can really let our creative juices go nuts in there.”

He said as soon as the final zoning wrinkles are worked out with the city, construction should begin this summer with the aim of opening in the first quarter of next year.

Opening this year is Platform’s latest space, “Phunkenship” sour brewery and tasting room, which joins its Cleveland brewery and tasting room, as well as tasting rooms in Cincinnati and Columbus.

Neither A- B nor Platform released details of the sale of “Ohio’s fastest- growing craft brewery,” which caused a stir among many craft beer fans. Mr. Benner stressed that Platform will keep its independence, and that was seconded by Brewers Collective President Marcelo “Mika” Michaelis. He said in a news release, “We are inspired by their experiential mindset, and we look forward to supporting their growth plans as they continue to push boundaries through their intrinsic craft values of education, connection and collaboration. It’s this growth that will give beer drinkers access to even more choices in today’s competitive and dynamic beer market.”