USA, OH: Bummin’ Beaver Brewery hoping to open around July 4

Bummin’ Beaver Brewery is built on, of all things, tragedy, clevelan.com reported on May 17.

A failed attempt by a beaver to cross a road near the Mahoning River offered inspiration for the owners of the planned Auburn Township brewery.

Tony Solitro’s day job with Thomas Steel Strip in Warren occasionally takes him to the area to collect water samples. Side streams snake their way from the river, and there’s a nearby dam.

“I would see them once in a while,” Solitro said. “One day I went down there and the beaver tried to cross the road, and someone ran over its tail. He crawled to the side of the road and died. I’m looking, and I’m just bummed out. Beaver … and boom!”

It’s been said inspiration comes in all ways, and this was certainly non-traditional.

“Hence the logo with the X’d-out eyes,” said Solitro, who owns the brewery with Mike and Dave Rutana.

Solitro, a chemist, is from Portage County originally. Dave Rutana grew up in Bedford Heights and then Maple Heights, and worked at IT executive levels. Mike, his son, is a geologist whose day-job schedule allows him to check out breweries all over.

The trio hopes to open around July 4, but that’s dependent on insulation being put in, permits in the later stages going through, and equipment work that remains.

Solitro said in addition to the cartoon-death-symbol eyes, “to keep the wood theme,” the lettering in signs and logos tends to follow Pinewood font, which resembles little connected logs. Various types of wood are used throughout the tasting room, also.

The three have “known each other for eons,” Solitro said, but it was Dave Rutana’s wife who kickstarted the brewing bug when she got them a brewing class in Brunswick.

Solitro had been a home brewer for about 20 years, and Rutana Sr. had made wine for 40 years.

“Things just kind of snowballed after that,” Solitro said. “We said ‘Why don’t we just do this?’ We were brewing home beer and enjoying what we were making.”

“I kind of got roped into this about five years ago,” Mike said.

The “bucket chemistry,” Solitro calls their basement brews, slowly progressed and evolved.

They created a limited liability company in 2019. They had driven by the building at U.S. 422 and Ohio 44, the former Pawsitive Results animal-rehabilitation center, many times. A conversation led to a sale, and the lease began in July 2020 on the two-acre property – right in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic.

“Because,” Solitro said, “why not?”

For now the three owner-brewers are, well, eager beavers in fixing up the place and getting it ready for the summer opening.

They took out some walls to open the design. Interior windows will allow folks to peer in and check out the brewhouse without having customers saunter between kettles. Bad batches of beer cannot be dumped. A special aeration system will be used to break it down to avoid the potential of a wastewater-treatment plant not being able to handle it.

They will brew on a 3.5-barrel system with four 3.5-barrel fermenters.

“Our goal is not to make mass quantities of beer,” Solitro said. “We’d rather be small quantities of beer but good quality and eclectic.”

Added Mike: “We’ve got our own special twists we put on them.”

The trio collaborates on recipes; they have about 60 between them. And they have partnered with Auburn Acres Hops for hops.

“Tony is the hops guy, and I’m the malts guy,” Dave said.

A 12-tap system will hold a variety of styles in the works:

• Solitro describes their Honey Brown as a knock-off of Jackie O’s Chomolungma, a well-regarded Brown Ale.

• Several India Pale Ales will be brewed, including one made entirely with Cashmere hops, which yields “a melon-peach overtone,” Solitro said.

• Seasonal Blondes are in the works. They have made strawberry and blackberry Blonde Ales, as well as a blackberry habanero ale. “It’s warm going down but not excessive,” Dave said.

• A pair of big Stouts includes a White Stout recipe that they want to add vanilla to.

• A Wee Heavy imparts peat flavors.

• They also have made a Blackberry Farmhouse Ale and Munich Helles.

• One intriguing hybrid is a Black IPA. “It’s definitely not a Porter,” Solitro said. “As I call it, it’s a Stout for IPA drinkers and an IPA for Stout drinkers.”

And flights will be offered along with crowlers, growlers, pints and 10-ounce pours for the bigger beers.

“It’s our retirement plan, plain and simple,” Solitro said. “You’re going to have to retire someday. We don’t want to sit there and watch grass grow or cut grass every other day.”

The brewery is at 11610 E. Washington St., Chagrin Falls, and sits on a country road. It’s about 32 miles east and to the south of downtown Cleveland.

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