Buffalo's Big Ditch Brewing will open a location in Lockport

Big Ditch, famous for its flagship Hayburner IPA, will renovate a historic post office in the Niagara County city for its third location

One of western New York’s most beloved breweries unveiled plans Wednesday morning for a third location.

Big Ditch Brewing, which already operates a brewpub (with a pretty large production brewery) and a second, larger production facility in downtown Buffalo, announced it will soon add to its burgeoning beer empire with the opening of a brewery/taproom in neighboring Lockport, Niagara County.

Brewery co-founder and president Matt Kahn said the Historic Post Office development at One East Avenue in downtown Lockport is really the perfect spot for the next Big Ditch location. Kahn said the brewery hopes to open the new location in mid-2024.

“In discussion with area officials, it’s clear that there is a need for a venue such as ours in the city,” Kahn said in a press release. “The proximity of this location to the Erie Canal, which our brewery is named after, makes this a perfect fit for our next tap room destination.”

Photo: The exterior of Big Ditch’s original location in downtown Buffalo.

The post office was built in 1902 and is right across the street from Lockport’s landmark Palace Theater. Iskalo Development is working on the project and is nearing completion, the release stated. Paul Iskalo is an investor in the original Big Ditch location on Huron Street in downtown Buffalo and is one of the biggest developers in the region. Iskalo’s company completed the work on the Huron Street location. It was formerly a Verizon fleet maintenance facility.

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, which is Buffalo’s largest brewery, is most known for its Hayburner flagship IPA. 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.

Previously, Big Ditch announced plans to open a massive location on Transit Road in Cheektowaga (right off the Thruway), one estimated to cost $47 million, in March 2020 right as the coronavirus pandemic caused the world to pause. The 105,000-square-foot facility was slated to include a huge production system and a nearly overwhelming amount of event space. Before work really took off there, Big Ditch opened the Oak Street production facility. Kahn said this Lockport decision was made independent of those still paused Cheektowaga plans. The brewery could revisit those plans in the future, he added.