Buffalo's Big Ditch Brewing opens sparkling new Lockport taproom

New Niagara County spot is the brewery's third location. (Here's hoping Rochester is next.)

Buffalo-based Big Ditch Brewing has officially opened its third location (second taproom) as its sparkling new Lockport spot is ready to welcome visitors, the brewery announced Thursday.

(It’s really nice to be sharing some nice news for once.)

Big Ditch, brewer of WNY’s favorite IPA Hayburner, opened in downtown Buffalo in 2014 and then added a bigger 40-barrel production facility a few blocks away at 101 Oak St. during the pandemic. The brewery still utilizes the 20-barrel system at 55 E. Huron St. for small-batch offerings.

The new Niagara County location is located at 1 East Ave. in a historic old post office and was made possible through the brewery’s ongoing partnership with Iskalo Developers. (Paul Iskalo also owns the famous Electric Tower in downtown Buffalo and is an investor in the brewery.) Iskalo’s company completed the work on the Huron Street location. It was formerly a Verizon fleet maintenance facility.

Big Ditch, in a release, credited its partnership with Iskalo Developers and support from the New York State Downtown Revitalization Initiative and the Niagara County Industrial Development Agency, meaning Big Ditch got some tax breaks and incentives from the government to aid in opening the new spot.

The post office was built in 1902 and is right across the street from Lockport’s landmark Palace Theater.

“We’re thrilled to bring Big Ditch to the city of Lockport and Niagara County,” said Big Ditch president and co-founder Matt Kahn said in a release. “This city has a rich history, a strong sense of community, and a growing demand for great beer and food. Discussions held early last year with local officials convinced us that the stars were aligned for Big Ditch to establish a venue in Lockport. As Big Ditch is named for the Erie Canal, the location and timing of the opening of the taproom and brewery coincides nicely with its bicentennial anniversary (the canal officially opened in 1825, wild).”

Interior shots of the new Big Ditch Lockport taproom (provided)

According to the release, the Lockport location will feature seating for 250 patrons across two levels. It’ll have a large bar, main dining area, outdoor covered patio, and private event space. Big Ditch will also install a small brewing system for making experimental and one-off beers.

Big Ditch is Buffalo’s largest brewery and is most known for its Hayburner flagship IPA. (I am wildly excited to try the brewery’s new imperial version of Hayburner.) It is one of the top-selling craft beers in this region (both in the Rochester and Buffalo areas). In order to meet demand, especially for Hayburner, Big Ditch opened a second, larger production brewery around the corner on Oak Street. That facility features a 40-barrel brewhouse, while the original Huron spot has a 20-barrel system. In a previous interview, Kahn told me that Hayburner accounts for at least 75 percent of Big Ditch’s total production.

Lockport will be open Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday from 4 to 10 p.m., and then Friday from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. On Saturday, it will be open noon to 11 p.m. and then Sunday will be noon to 8 p.m.

Now we’ve just gotta convince Big Ditch to continue its Erie Canal expansion into the Rochester market. There’s no reason that a Big Ditch taproom/pilot brewery in Rochester wouldn’t slay. Plus, you’d never get to experience Hayburner fresher (other than visiting the downtown Buffalo spot). We can dream, can’t we?

NYS Farm Bureau partners with Lunkenheimer for new beer

A new beer made with all locally grown ingredients will be released in the coming weeks to benefit food banks in the Rochester and Syracuse regions.

The New York Farm Bureau announced its “first-ever branded beer, AGRO-NYS,” an all NYS cream ale that was produced at Lunkenheimer Craft Brewing in Weedsport, Cayuga County. The Farm Bureau said it will partner with other breweries in the future, including Brewery Ardennes, Big aLICe Brewing, and WeBe Brewing, all from Geneva, Fall Street Brewing in Seneca Falls, Watershed Brewing, just outside Geneva, Runaway Blue Brewing in Newark, and Relative Risk Brewing from Penn Yan.

A portion of the proceeds from the beer will benefit Foodlink in Rochester and the Food Bank of Central New York in Syracuse.

The canning (Mobile Craft Canning) and label design (Crafting a Brand) were also donated, while the malt came from Murmuration Malts, the hops from Cobblestone Hops, and the cans and labels from Waterloo Container.

According to its site, “the mission of New York Farm Bureau is supporting today’s agricultural needs and creating member opportunities for tomorrow through advocacy and education.”

A final note: It’s pretty wild to think I’ve been working on this independent publication for over three years now. In that time, I’ve published more than 250 newsletters, highlighted some of my favorite people in the industry, curated two beers festivals (that featured 150 participants and 4,600 attendees), and continued to break all the biggest news in the region (closures, consolidations, openings, etc.).

The Cleveland Prost remains the preeminent source for regional beer news. If you own a brewery, bar, or beer-adjacent business, this is the best place to reach the nerds you wanna be in front of. So I remain open to sponsorships, advertisements, and sponsored content. Feel free to reach out to me at clevelandprost@gmail.com for more. And more than anything, thanks for all the support. None of this would be possible without the devoted (and thirsty) audience.