Lauded Pittsburgh brewery starts Rochester-area distribution soon

Two-year-old Lolev Brewing, based in Pittsburgh's Lawrenceville neighborhood, eyes Rochester as its first out-of-state market. Here's why you should be excited.

One of my questions during a recent beer interview provided a hearty “LOL.”

I asked Lolev Brewing co-founder Ted Slesinski, where the Pittsburgh brewery got its named. I fully expected a response that talked about some cool Latin word origin or maybe something connected to ancient Roman mythology. Eh, not quite, it turns out. Instead, I got this…

“We were brewing in my basement (Ted was brewing with his brother Scott) and our mom used to harass us about calling it the basement. Because a basement is gross and dusty and she was like, ‘You guys have a bar down there. You’re doing this cool project. You should call it the lower level,’” Slesinski said. “After a period of time, we started calling our homebrewing project ‘Lower Level.’ We had some discussions when were pulling this together as a commercial business. We could potentially call it ‘Lower Level,’ but we ended shortening it.”

And I am very excited that Lolev will soon be sharing its beers with the beer nerds in and around Rochester as it kicks off local distribution with Lake Beverage in the coming weeks. It’s the first out-of-state marker for the two-year-old brewery and a chance for folks to experience the varied and delicious portfolio of Lolev beer.

Through the generosity of Deron Weet, one of my favorite beer buds, I’ve had about a dozen different Lolev beers at this point. I’ve been wildly impressed with the depth and quality of the offerings. I’ve had some really fantastic lagers. The Helles and doppelbock (pictured above) are two standouts. I’ve also had a really nice cream ale, some vibrant hazy IPAs, and a barrel-aged barleywine (three variants aged in three different types of barrels).

Seriously, you should be excited.

So here’s a bit more about Lolev, the people behind it, and its connection to Rochester. Because we all know there is seemingly always a Rochester connection.

Brewery construction started about three years in Pittsburgh’s Lawrenceville neighborhood (which itself is a great destination for beer nerds as it is home to places like Hop Farm Brewing, 11th Hour Brewing, Cinderlands Beer through its Long Story Short sandwich shop and beer bar, and Coven Brewing).

Lolev production manager Andy Walker, a Rochester native, is a long-time friend. I first met him about 15 years through the Upstate New York Homebrewers Association. (Andy eventually became president of the esteemed homebrew club, which dates back to 1979.) Walker later brewed in and around Rochester at Rohrbach Brewing and Triphammer Bierwerks. (He also had a stint at head distiller at O’Begley Distillery.) Life took him to Pittsburgh and for the past two years he has been making beer with the Lolev crew.

As soon as Deron told me Andy was involved with Lolev, I knew the beer would be good. I’ve got a lot of faith in his ability and technical chops. He’s the right kind of nerd to make beer, always questioning every part of his process, educating himself on the latest techniques, and striving to improve.

And it is.

When Ted and Scott Slesinski started homebrewing more than a decade ago in the basement of their Philadelphia home, they were really looking for something they could do together. Scott often brewed with Derek Gonano, who later became one of the brewery co-owners. Jeff Gonano, Derek’s brother, is the other co-owner. Scott then moved into the beer industry and started working as a brewer. That sparked even more passion and led to the easy decision for the Slesinskis to venture out on their own.

In searching for a location, they considered the footprint of the building and tried to imagine how they would lay everything out. When they found a 110-year-old former beer distributor building in Lawrenceville at 5247 Butler St., they knew the spot was perfect for their shared dream.

“The way it has been renovated, it honors the old and celebrates it,” Walker said. “But it also brings it into the future.”

“We really tried to emphasize the cool architect of the building and some of the elements you don’t always see and balance it with new, modern finishes,” Slesinski added.

The current spot features a 20-barrel brewhouse with lots of capacity, an assortment of oak foeders and barrels. That means the brewery is equipped to pump out a lot of different styles and constructed with patience in mind. Need an extra week in the tank for that lager? Sure, no problem. Think that farmhouse ale should sit in the foeder for another month? Then go for it. When it starts Rochester distro next month, expect a lot of that variety to be on display. The exact beers are still being ironed out. But you can certainly expect something hazy (the brewery’s flagship Prismatic IPA is fantastic, trust me) and something crispy (I’ve been wildly impressed with the Lolev lagers I’ve tried).

According to Slesinski, Lolev is primarily focused on three things:

1. IPA or “making this modern version of the IPA that is pushing the boundary of flavor, hops, what hops can do with yeast, and really trying to pull as much as we can out of the ingredients, push the boundaries a bit,” Slesinski said.

2. A focus on lagers. That includes styles like Helles, Baltic porter, doppelbock, cream ale (admittedly lager adjacent), what they call an imperial Pilsner, and so on. Walker was particularly excited about a recent Mexican lager inspired by Negro Modelo that was brewed with locally sourced, wild pollinated heirloom corn. “We try and source really good ingredients. We try to make sure everything is balanced properly. It’s a focus on technique, quality, and making sure we’re doing everything right,” Walker said. “There’s a million ways to mess up a beer even if you have the right concepts.”

3. Aged beer. “In the past that has been barleywine, imperial stout, saison, different types of funky, mixed fermentation stuff, and barrel-aged beers,” Slesinski said.

Slesinski continued, “Andy and Scott have always paid a lot of attention to how the beer presents in the glass. We always have a lot of care for the foam.”

“We spend a lot of time iterating the color profile of our IPAs,” Walker added.

(And this is where the conversation devolved into 10 nerdy minutes about spunding or naturally carbonating beer by trapping carbon dioxide created during fermentation. Walker said it leads to denser foam and more uniform bubbles.)

A note on distro: You’ll find Lolev at most places where Lake Beverage distributes beer, including Wegmans (look in the trending cooler) and some of the bigger beer retailers in and around Rochester. Lake also distros brands like Resurgence, Ommegang, Big Ditch, and Three Heads.

Secondly, Lolev will make its Rochester festival debut in June when it is featured at the upcoming Rochester Real Beer Expo. I expect you’ll see a heavy dose of Pittsburgh breweries at the event.

A final note: It’s pretty wild to think I’ve been working on this independent publication for nearly three years now. In that time, I’ve published 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.