USA, OH: Ghost Tree Brewing Co. expanding within Lorain County

Ghost Tree Brewing Co. is expanding within Lorain County, Cleveland.com reported on January 15.

The original location, a 100-plus year-old building at 223 Church St. in Amherst, is 12 miles away from the quiet industrial-park space in Elyria that covers about 2,800 square feet, said the brewery’s John Rush, who operates Ghost Tree with Dan Blatt and Brian Mastellone.

Rush designed the grain-mill setup, and they installed new flooring - imperative for breweries with large tanks that must maintain a level, and sturdy, foundation. The entire place was designed to accommodate expansion.

As Blatt said, the Amherst location had “zero space” for more of, well, anything.

Rush said they all incurred “a lot of bumps and bruises from moving around over there.” It’s a workout, too: They brew beer and send it down to the basement, then have to haul it back up the steps.

Now, a truck will be able to roll up, drop off grain and head out. And they have elbow room and decent grain storage, he said.

“You could play basketball in there,” Mastellone said of the huge walk-in cooler.

They had looked at several spaces, but the new location, on Ternes Road just south of Interstate 80, previously belonged to Rush. It’s not far from the Amherst location, and they knew it had power, gas, water and sewer. They added piping for glycol and will have a lab on site for quality control.

“It’s super, super important to us,” Blatt said. “John and I have dumped several batches of beer because it wasn’t up to par.”

When demand in Amherst began to outweigh supply, Rush said they knew they had to expand.

“We always wanted to do it slowly. We didn’t want to flood the market with a ton of brands, just kind of see what sticks,” Blatt said.

They had taken over the Church Street site in June 2020 and brewed offsite at Collision Bend Brewing Co. in Cleveland during construction. A year later, they opened.

“It worked out for everyone,” Rush said of the arrangement with Collision Bend during the coronavirus pandemic. “They were slow, too. They said, ‘We’ve got capacity.’ We said, ‘Well, we’ve got recipes.’ "

“They saved our butts.”

Now, all three men brew. Originally it was Rush and Blatt, but “then Brian came on, and we said, ‘Hey, you’re not just selling, you’ve got to learn,’ " said Rush about Mastellone, who has been with the brewery for a little more than a year.

Mastellone and Blatt are brothers in law, and Rush was a neighbor. Blatt and Rush have brewed for eight to 10 years.

The three have heard positive feedback on the Amherst location, which uses a five-barrel brew system. The new location is a 10-barrel one but is designed to brew double batches.

The Elyria spot – which is about 30 miles from downtown Cleveland - will be used almost exclusively for production.

“Who knows down the road what will happen?” Blatt said. “That’s not even on our radar right now. We have a taproom – it’s in Amherst.”

Ghost Tree beer is in about 80 bars and restaurants on draft, Mastellone said, and distribution runs as far as Cleveland, and to Mount Vernon, which is about 50 miles northeast of Columbus. It also extends west to Clyde, which is 20 miles southwest of Sandusky.

They plan to make to-go / pickup for kegs and cans available out of the Elyria facility, so customers can get “fresh-off-the-line beers.”

Unique crowlers (quart cans with a reusable screw cap) are offered in Amherst, but Iron Heart Canning will bring its mobile unit in the spring. And the brewery plans to hire, they said.

They said they don’t want to flood the market immediately with their beers, so first release out of the new space will be Ca$h After 10, the brewery’s flagship India Pale Ale.

The pandemic gave way to the name, a reference to the last permissible serving time – 10 p.m. during pandemic restrictions, with closure at 11 p.m.

“Hey, we’ll take cash after 10,” Mastellone said. “That’s a good name for a beer.”

The owners keep a watchful eye on money, considering expansion is a big, and costly, step.

“The plan is this is our retirement thing. We’ve got a long road to go,” Blatt said. “If you want to not make money, open a brewery.”

Final permit approval is expected soon, which will allow them to start brewing.

“If we can get some beers in tanks by the end of the month,” Blatt said, “that would be a win.”

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