(C) Steven Pirani 2016

1. Brewed in N Y
MARCH 7 - Lucky Hare Brewing Compa-
ny exists within a proudly faded barn in Hector,
New York, one that’s 90 years old, eggshell white,
topped with a sloping roof that has been veined by
rain and rust. Tall and boxy, it sits handsomely on
its own hillside, overlooking the massive blue of
Seneca Lake. This morning in early March, barn
swallows can be caught darting around its roof,
making a home out of the rafters, while Ian Con-
boy stands by the barn’s front entrance, looking
down on a new toy.
“I don’t know if you’d say it’s the kidney,” he
said. “I don’t know what you’d say it is. Maybe it’s
the spleen?”
This barn has changed. At one point in its
past, bales of hay packed its attic, its ground floor
the home for livestock. Perhaps cows, perhaps
goats, perhaps chickens. Now, the barn is filled
with kegs, each one stainless steel and adorned
with a big, stenciled lettering: LUCKY HARE. Two
sinks, latched to the walls, jut out from the timber.
Up until three weeks ago, this barn was without
water. But it’s growing, the skeleton of something
soon-to-be: a passion project quietly, yet quickly,
maturing.
In the grass at Conboy’s feet, a rectangle
of brushed steel and screens, strapped snugly to
a pair of two-by-fours, sits by the barn’s entrance.
Sharp-cornered and gleaming, this thing looks
like it could have fallen from the sky. What this
is one of the first pieces of the new Lucky Hare:
a plate chiller. When Conboy gets done with it,
every drop of piping hot wort — essentially beer-
in-progress — will go through this unit, cooling
it down so fermentation can take place. Without
fermentation, there can be no beer, and without
beer, there’s not much of a brewery to talk about.
It’s a precious piece.
“If anyone is going to break it, it’s going to
be me,” he says.
Conboy is a co-owner of Lucky Hare Brew-
ing Company, a growing farm brewery operating
on Beckhorn Road, in the heart of Hector, New
York’s wine country. He oversees the brewery,
along with his step-father Richard Thiel, his moth-
er Susan Thiel and business partner Ricky Ember-
ley. Beer production here is on a small-batch basis:
Brewing once a week, they can produce one barrel
of beer — about 31 gallons — a session. With a
burgeoning craft beer scene finding a home in the
Finger Lakes region, all this beer can vanish quite
quickly. And it is: Lucky Hare is brewing beer at
fever pitch, working to expand its brewing capac-
ity and turn a cozy neighboring farmhouse into a
thriving tasting room, all by early April.
This is a far cry from a few years ago. A
former marine biologist, Conboy found himself
venturing upstate from the Bahamas, where he had
been stationed as a researcher. Looking for a fresh
start, he began work up the road, at Damiani Wine
Cellars, this barn being just one of many he passed
on his day-to-day commute.
As local drinking gains momentum in New York state, one budding
brewery embodies the state’s craft beer boom
By Steven Pirani
PHOTO BY STEVEN PIRANI
Lucky Hare co-owner Ian Conboy looks over his stock of kegs March 27, 2016.

2. “I drove past it every day, and I had just
started making beer,” Conboy said. “My stepfather,
Rich, always wanted to have his own business. And
everything just started saying, ‘Why don’t you start
a brewery?’”
Jump forward two years, and Conboy is
doing just that. He is head brewer, a beersmith,
King of Beer-Making. He’s serious, but at the same
time humble and hopeful as he examines some
new obstacle — some new, exacerbating step in the
brew-making journey. And there are many.
These next few weeks are particular-
ly daunting, as the brewery prepares to in-
crease brewing from a single-barrel system to a
three-barrel system. It’s the step from enthusiast
to professional, and it’s not going to come easily.
There’s equipment to be bought, beer to brew and
a taproom to build. Despite the looming to-do list,
Conboy and the team behind him all seem defiant-
ly calm, their efforts reclaiming for New York a bit
of its former self.
New York has been drinking, and brew-
ing, for a seriously long time. Early tavern licenses
trace back as far as the early 1700s and, even in the
very first days of European settlement, brewing
was occurring on both local- and state-size scales.
Beer was a source of nourishment, it offered up an
opportunity for tax revenue, and surely encour-
aged good tidings throughout the growing state.
Fast forward a century, to the mid-1800s,
and New York was fostering some of the United
States’ largest brewing productions, many of them
hulking brick castles of brewcraft, lining the East
River. Of these included brewing great George
Ehret’s Hell Gate Brewery, which at one point held
the title of largest in the nation and vied for the
beer market among fellow producers such as Rhe-
ingold and Schaefer.
Then there’s hops. These beloved, resiny
buds are the essence to what provides a beer its
bite, its dryness. The beer’s, to put it plainly, “hop-
piness.” They’re what give the characteristic, bitter
fruitiness to beer styles like the India Pale Ale, and
the crisp finish to lighter varieties, like the pilsner.
Nowadays, the West Coast, notably the
Pacific Northwest’s Yakima Valley, is the hotbed of
hop production in the United States. It’s no
New York’s drinking history
surprise, then, that this region has become famous for
its wildly hoppy ales.
But this wasn’t always the case. In the not so dis-
tant past — from about 1840 to 1880 — New York was
the largest producer of hops in the United States. Steve
Miller, a specialist in hop production with the Cornell
Cooperative Extension, said New York once fostered
thousands of acres of the crop.
“At the turn of the 19th century, there was over
300 breweries in New York alone and more breweries
than the rest of the Northeast,” Miller said. “At that time,
we also had 30 to 40 thousand acres of hops growing.
New York was really the beer capital of the U.S. at that
time.”
To put that in perspective, that’s just over 62
square miles of hops, or about the size of Liechtenstein.
As one would expect, prohibition put a wrench
in things for state-wide brewing, and really all brewing
COURTESY OF THE NEW YORK STATE BREWERS ASSOCIATION

3. in general. While bathtub gin and hidden speakeas-
ies come to mind regarding the United States’ ban on
alcohol, beer was by no means exempt, and the nation’s
collective dry spell set into motion what would ulti-
mately dethrone New York as reigning beer producer,
leaving today’s Midwestern brewers to take the charge.
However, New York beer is now thriving, large-
ly thanks to the craft beer movement. Since the 1970s,
thousands of smaller, artisan breweries have sprouted
up throughout the United States, offering their prod-
ucts to explorative drinkers and fostering a culture that
blogs, tweets, writes and travels, all for beer.
Craft beer has also been the focus of several
large corporate acquisitions in the past few years. Most
notable is the recent purchase of California craft-icon
Ballast Point Brewing Company to Constellation
Brands, a beverage conglomerate that boasts the likes
of Corona and Svedka in its portfolio. The sale went to
the tune of $1 billion.
Karl Seibert, professor emeritus of food science
at Cornell University, has watched the beer-making
industry grow during his previous work with former
brewing conglomerate, Stroh Brewing Company.
Seibert now leads talks on brewing technology and
is responsible for the university’s brewing extension
program, which has offered information and classes
throughout the craft beer boom. Recalling his years in
the industry, he said the most perceivable change in the
industry is the new breadth of beer available to con-
sumers, many of which defy the tradition conventions
of beer-making.
“Brewers have started producing a tremendous
range of products compared to what we had before,”
Seibert said. “Some of these are things that old German
brewers would turn over in their graves over, but there’s
an enormous energy and interest on the part of people
in brewing now, and I think it’s very healthy for the
industry.”
Just look in stores: Blood orange pale ales,
chocolate stouts, blueberry Belgian-style farmhouse
ales. All of these styles are suddenly on shelves of local
grocery chains like Wegmans or Whole Foods. Craft
beer is an experimental, explorative movement, appre-
ciating an age-old craft while also toying with it — and
New York seems to be taking its own proactive mea-
sures to reap the spoils.
Most perceivable of the state’s action is the
Farm Brewing Law, which passed in 2012 and allows
the designation of “farm breweries,” beer-makers that
manufacture a product with a certain degree of
locally-produced materials. Currently, that bracket
is set at 20 percent, thus a brewery must utilize this
degree of New York-sourced something — hops,
grain, fruit, etcetera — to maintain the title of a
farm brewery. And this bracket set to increase: by
2018, the bracket will raise to 60 percent, and by
2024, 90 percent.
This attention toward beer-makers
shouldn’t surprise New Yorkers, as it comes with
some hefty economic incentives for the state. A
2013 report by the New York State Brewers Asso-
ciation reports that, at the time, New York fostered
207 craft beer breweries, producing just about 1
million barrels of beer in 2013. That’s enough to
serve every New Yorker — all 19.75 million of
them — about 16 pints.
The result? In 2013 craft beer in the state
had a total economic impact of $3.5 billion dollars.
Break that down, it looks like this: $748 million to
state and local taxes, $450 million of that coming
from craft beer tourism, $227 million in brewery
revenue, and $554 million in paid wages.
Now, in 2016, experts estimate New York
boasts 240 breweries. Paul Leone, executive direc-
tor of the NYSBA, said this trend is proof that the
steps taken by the state are working as they were
intended to.
“It was always our hope that a number of
breweries would take advantage of the benefits
of being a farm brewer, but more importantly, to
also spur new business,” Leone said. “You know,
nine malt houses in New York State now. Farmers,
planting brewer-grade barley for the first time. Re-
search being done to help the industry grow. And I
think, so far, it’s doing exactly what it was designed
to do, and the 20 percent that is required, by law,
is working.”
... New York fostered 207 craft beer
breweries, producing just about
1 million barrels of beer in 2013.
That’s enough to serve every New
Yorker — all 19.75 million of them —
about 16 pints.

4. MARCH 27 -- A few weeks have passed at Lucky
Hare, and Conboy is standing in the gutted living
room of a neighboring farmhouse. A house that
will soon become the brewery’s taproom. It will be
here that customers will be able to mill about, tast-
ing what Lucky Hare has to offer, which makes it a
particularly important room. Right now, however,
what was once a homey rental for wine-tourists is
empty, still waiting to be re-furnished and reborn
as a venue for food and drink. Sue, Richard and
Ricky move as a single huddle, looking over a clip-
board, pining over each detail.
“This week’s going to be crazy,” Conboy
says, watching the huddle. There’s a mounting list
of things to take care of, notably a looming de-
livery of upgraded brewing equipment that will
demand hours of Conboy and Emberley’s time.
Conboy mulls over these tasks, looking out
from the patio. In the distance Annabelle, Con-
boy’s proud and stout Puggle, is laying in a pocket
of sun, rolling joyously on her back. She’s Lucky
Hare’s brew dog, and in some ways the brewery’s
mascot. Her share of the stress is mercifully small:
She won’t ever have to make an order, set up
equipment, or brew a beer.
“As long as she can find something dis-
gusting to roll around in, that’s all she cares about,”
Conboy says.
Turning this home into a taproom was not
part of the original plan. For the last few years, this
house, the prototypical “cozy country home,” has
been a rental for the many eaters and drinkers that
come to explore the Finger Lakes’ wineries, brew-
eries and vineyards, of which there are many.
Today, Conboy’s living room is an empty, a
barren, almost perfectly square space. Soon — by
late April, the team hopes — a bar, 12 feet long,
will find its home here. Tables, chairs, glasses and
much more will follow suit, along with the beer,
and finally, those who drink it. They’re expecting a
lot of bodies, and that means a lot of beer.
Which is why, often, Conboy can be found
in his brew room, away from the bustle, toying
with new product. It’s hot, messy work, with a sin-
gle brew-day lasting over 12 hours. During this, he
labors over his Brewtus, a high-end home brewing
system. It’s been well loved in its few years with
Conboy, who purchased the unit practically new
from another hobby brewer, and wears proudly the
burns and stains of many sessions of brewing and
even one massive chicken fry.
“When I got it, it looked brand-spanking
new,” Conboy says, arms knotted over his chest.
“Look at it, this thing is fucking toast.”
Mercifully for Conboy, today isn’t a brew
day. Instead, he is sampling his wares. He pours a
straw-pale saison, a Belgian style of ale often char-
acterized by its dry, complex and fruity body. Con-
boy’s is loaded with notes of banana and spice. It’s
quite good, but he seems undecided so far. It may
go unsaid, but one can sense there’s still tweaking
to be done, at some point, behind the scenes.
“When you see what we’re working with,”
PHOTO BY STEVEN PIRANI
Brewtus, a high-end homebrewing set-up, had been used to brew all of
Lucky Hare’s beer. The new equipment should triple the brewery’s capacity.
Courtesy of Lucky Hare Brewing Company
Cézanne, a farmhouse saison, is one beer of many offered at Lucky Hare. In
addition to the local brews, the brewery’s taproom serves food as well.

5. Emberley says, eyes panning over the brew area.
“It’s a lot of effort to make one barrel of beer. For
it to come out as something like this, it’s just— It
shows a lot.”
Eventually, when good and ready, the beer
will be named — this one possibly the next batch
of the Belgian-style, “Cézanne” — thrown into
kegs, shipped off, poured and drank. Distribution
is strictly local, with local bars like The Westy, in
Ithaca, and The Stonecat Cafe, in Hector, often
featuring one of Lucky Hare’s beers on draft, easily
spotted by it’s tap handle: A wooden silhouette of a
large-eared hare, appropriately.
“As long as people are enjoying the beer,”
Conboy says, eyeing his glass.
Meanwhile, Emberley checks around the
brew area. He’s assistant brewer, and a capable
technician to boot. Conboy sings his praises often,
and they’re entirely well-earned: The whipped-to-
gether keg cleaner on the wall — a maze-like nest
of tubes and valves — Emberley crafted himself,
saving the brewery several thousands of dollars
over buying specialized machinery. His tentative
food menus for the taproom, which feature pork
buns, banh mi and oxtail, don’t sound so bad
either. Yet he, like Conboy, is humble, brushing off
compliments with an endearing nonchalance.
“It’s kind of like, you just make it work,”
Emberley said. “Really, we wouldn’t be here with-
out each other.”
Ask either of them, Conboy or Emberley,
how they feel about the upcoming opening, and
for a moment that nonchalance fades. There’s a
flash of boldness:
“We’re ready,” they’ll say. “We’ve been wait-
ing for two years.”
As New York’s landscape is gradually popu-
lated by new craft producers, the question of
business sustainability often comes up in con-
versation. Can one state feasibly drink this much
beer? Will the Empire State oversaturate itself with
beer-makers? Is the beer market destined to crash?
They’re all looming questions, but Leone
seems unphased by them. He doesn’t think there’s
any “beer-market crash,” in the future, and said the
answer to all these questions is, ultimately, in the
state’s history.
“Before prohibition, there were 350 brew-
eries in New York State, with a population of 5
million,” Leone said. “We’re at 240 breweries right
now, with a population of 20 million. I think that
we’re going to at least double in size, in ten years,
I would even argue that we will double in size by
five years.”
So where is the ceiling?
“We’ve got room to grow,” Leone
said. “With nearly 500 wineries, I think we
could easily support 700 breweries in New
York State.”
It’s massive number, especially
considering that California, another state
famed for its beer-making chops, hosts
only 509 active breweries. If Leone’s pre-
monition comes true, New York could see
its former glory once again.
“The west coast has a head start on
What’s next for New York?
Photo by Steven Pirani
Beers are compared during TAP New York, a state beer festival and competition.
Courtesy of Tap New York
Members of the Lucky Hare team gather March 27, in the yard just behind their taproom.

6. us.” Leone said. “I think, that if the beer’s quality
stays good, and we’re able to manage the growth
responsibly ... I could easily see us back.”
APRIL 19 -- Conboy and Emberley have new
company in the brew-barn: Three massive, mir-
ror-shined tanks, sitting in a cluster next to one
another, each one as tall as a man and adorned
with dials, nozzles, levers and gizmos. The new
brewing equipment has arrived, and seeing it next
to the Brewtus gets across how severe this upgrade
is. Just one of these tanks dwarfs Conboy’s loyal,
former brewing setup by several feet and several
hundred pounds.
Look anywhere, actually, and there’s new
equipment. Lights finally wired across the ceiling,
newly-installed speakers belting out thrash met-
al, fermentation tanks that line the walls of their
cold-rooms, heavy-duty hoses, pumps and coils.
Much of this arrived just a few days ago, in two
massive deliveries that left Lucky Hare with thou-
sands of pounds of new gear to brew with. All that
they need to do now is piece it all together, a task
Emberley has taken on happily.
“It’s actually kind of exciting,” Emberley
says, smiling as he wrenches apart a piece of pip-
ing. “Ian and I were talking about it yesterday. It’s
all your new stuff, it’s like Christmas.”
Conboy nods along with him. “It’s like, the
best Christmas.”
On the floor, off of its two-by-fours, the
plate chiller from weeks before sits on its end. It’s
the smallest piece of equipment they have, dwarfed
by the other brewing gear, some of which proves
almost too big.
“All of it just barely fit in the door, by like,
a quarter inch,” Conboy is holding his palm up to
the door frame. “It just squeezed in.”
This had been a very real concern, and
there’s a sense of collective relief that something
“I think, that if the beer’s quality
stays good, and we’re able to
manage the growth responsibly ...
I could easily see us back.”
like the size of an entryway didn’t slow things
down. Because there’s no time for that, no time
for slowing down now: By Memorial Day week-
end — Conboy will emphasize, “definitely Me-
morial Day,” since there’s a 40-person party set up
already — this place needs to be up and operat-
ing as the new Lucky Hare.
“If you look at the giant list of everything
that has to be done, it’s overwhelming,” Conboy
said. “But if you just kind of do it, and get your
shit done that day, it’ll get done.”
Changes elsewhere are subtle: In the
taproom, a bar is taking shape, and the kegerators
— keg-specific refrigerators — are in, still wearing
the protective plastic film. Peeling it all off is going
to be satisfying, but Conboy resists. They’re not
ready, he says. They’ll only be ready once they are
housed within in a handmade wooden bar, crafted
just for Lucky Hare. That too, is on the list.
Even the customers are making them-
selves known: A reservation of 70 has already
been locked in, along with the 40-person party
set for Memorial Day. It’s a quick start, and a big
crowd, but Conboy insists they’ll make it happen.
“The next couple weeks, it’s just going to
be tying this all up,” Conboy says. “And making
sure everything’s functioning, and then we’re
brewing beer. And we’ll go from there.”
Standing in a brew room that has, more or
less, materialized in the span of a month, makes
it hard to doubt him. Knowing that two years of
teamwork led up to that change, however, makes
it impossible to doubt him. They’ve gotten this far,
and at the end of the day, Conboy, Emberley, all of
Lucky Hare, seem unshakable.
“We’re just going to try, that’s all we can
do,” Conboy says. “We’re going try, and make
it work.”
The new brewing equipment finds its place in the brew room April 19.
Photo by Steven Pirani