By Marissa Dechant – Staff writer
For six area businessmen, opening a brewery in Franklin is all about keeping things local.
Trails to Ales brew pub, to be located at 1270 and 1272 Liberty St., is the brainchild of management team members Dave Ballard, Lorin DeGroat, Bernie Nerlich, Craig Smith, Jim Paulson and Jasen Fry.
“We’d like to get the community as involved in it as we can,” said Ballard, president of the brewery’s management team and owner of Franklin Insurance.
Earlier this week, the six men could be found huddled over a kitchen island going over the finer points of acquiring a full liquor license after having met with the Liquor Control Board the previous day.
Earlier in the month, the brewery team received approval from Franklin City Council to transfer the state restaurant liquor license from the Sportsman’s Tavern in Kaneville to Trails to Ales.
However unfortunate, the nearly 40-year-old tavern’s demise at the hands of a fire was a crucial stepping stone in moving forward with the Franklin brewery, said Ballard and DeGroat, who had been the owner of the Sportsman’s Tavern.
The two men said they have known each other for 10 years, and when the tavern burned down in February, they contacted each other about transferring the liquor license.
“We’ve talked about it for years,” Ballard said of the idea of a local brewery.
Years ago, Ballard said he and several of the other men started running on the local recreational trails and later meeting for lunch and drinks. The concept of opening a microbrewery in town was a running theme throughout many of their conversations, said Ballard.
The years of discussions fell together in a week earlier this year following the Sportsman’s Tavern fire and UPMC vacating the building space on Liberty Street, said Ballard. Trails to Ales officially formed this year on July 18.
The brewery’s atmosphere will be trail-oriented, Ballard said, with bikes, canoes and kayaks hanging from the walls and ceiling, and a slideshow of photos submitted from people on the trail being shown on an overhead TV.
“We truly feel that it will bring in people to the area,” said Smith, who is the owner of Dennis Trailer Sales in Barkeyville.
“A brewery’s not going to be an economic engine, but it’ll definitely add a few pistons,” Ballard added.
“We’re trying to use as much local as we can,” Ballard said.
Brewing will take place in a separate area of the same building, and the men said they hope to offer a small menu and homebrewed sodas in addition to craft beers.
A percentage of the profit from the brewery’s flagship beer will also be donated directly to the Allegheny Valley Trails Association.
“We want to give back to the community,” said Fry, owner of WeldTech and Shaw Industries.
Ballard said demolition will start in December, and an opening date is planned for next May.
“We’re all business people, so we want to get it up and running,” Ballard said. “We want this to be a good thing for the town.”
