Massive K2 Brothers Brewing location at former elementary school opening Saturday
Massive K2 Brothers Brewing location at former elementary school opening Saturday
The Kennedy brothers bought the former Freewill Elementary School in Walworth seven months ago. They envision a wild entertainment complex there.
Update: K2 Brothers Brewing announced it would officially open its school location at noon Saturday. The original story with more details is below. Place is wild and I think you’re gonna dig it.
Original: During a recent walk-through, Brad Kennedy joked the gym storage closet that once stored floor hockey sticks is now filled with kegs and draft lines.
That’s the new reality amid the new K2 Brothers Brewing location at the former Freewill Elementary School in Walworth, Wayne County. The transformation, largely completed in the last seven months, is nearly complete and is almost too much to believe.
Public records indicate the Kyle and Brad Kennedy, brothers (duh) and K2 co-founders, paid $1.5 million for the massive space and then spent millions more to refurbish just 30 percent of the 72,000-square-foot building. The roughly 20,000-square-foot re-imagination includes a 20-barrel four vessel brewing system (with an army of 60-barrel fermenters and two horizontal lagering tanks) in one of the school’s gymnasiums, retail/to-go space in the former main office, a tap room, gaming area, and stage in the old cafeteria, and much, much more to follow. (How many breweries have a huge stage right in the middle of their tasting rooms? And as Kyle showed me, the acoustics are surprisingly solid.)
K2 at Freewill will open in the next few weeks, probably sooner than you expect. It will cap off a busy, busy year for the Kennedys as 2023 included the opening of a satellite taproom in Buffalo’s Black Rock neighborhood, K2 Bros. Brewing at Hatchets and Hops.
(The Kennedys also plan massive renovations and expansion at the original K2 location overlooking Irondequoit Bay in Penfield. That, however, is backburnered while the Freewill project takes center stage. The application, filed with the town of Penfield last year, proposes some huge changes — an expanded kitchen, the addition of second-floor event space, and expansion on the north side of the property to include a covered dining space and open-air deck above.)
A beautiful solid oak bar stands as the centerpiece of the new taproom. It was sourced after the closure of Guida’s Pizzeria at the Hegedorn’s supermarket. There will be 30 beers on draft, 31 if you include the cask engine next to the shiny tap wall. K2 was equally smart and thrifty in the acquisition of coolers and shopping carts from a number of different closed businesses.
Last time I visited the Freewill property in May, Kyle and Brad were standing on the roof of the school with beaming smiles and minds filled with endless possibilities.
“We envision this place being a mix of Dave and Buster’s, Lasertron, and Radio Social, and all under one roof,” Brad said to me in May. Those possibilities still exist and are still under consideration, but they’re just excited to get the taproom open.
The future could include a bowling alley, Airbnb-style lodging accommodations, and classroom-based private event spaces. And that’s before you even factor in the second gymnasium that could be used for indoor cornhole leagues (a big part of K2’s current outdoor beer garden in Penfield) or other adult-themed games. Who knows, K2 could partner with other businesses to turn part of the Freewill property into a retail destination.
In the spring, it will include a fenced-in beer garden. But that will only occupy a fraction of the sprawling 40-plus acre property. Could they host concerts or large-scale events there in the future? Certainly, especially with the natural slope of the property.
For Kyle, the possibilities are endless and exciting. Never did he expect they would buy a school, especially after they nearly closed on a large production space on Buffalo Road in the city of Rochester right at the onset of the pandemic. But that’s been the beauty of this whole journey, things have just worked out as hard work is rewarded. K2 has grown and grown and grown as demand has continued to grow. K2 sells a ton of its fruited sours and hazy IPAs and has seen more and more demand for its line of classic lagers, something that really pleases the Kennedys.
They can’t physically make any more beer at the Empire Road facility and have partnered with Canandaigua’s Young Lion Brewing for contract brewing recently. Of course, that partnership is ending with Young Lion’s pending sale to Other Half. So the opening of the new production space is really coming at the perfect time.
All pieces and elements for the brewhouse are now on site at Freewill. It’s the biggest system Rochester-based Ultimate Brew Services has ever built. (If you can recall, I highlighted Chris and Justin from UBS a few months ago. Needless to say, they are rocking it right now.) There’s also space for a lab, grain mill, and plans to add exterior malt silos. They will also complete construction on a larger walk-in cooler just outside the wall of the existing gym that will make it super easy to store cans and load up trucks for deliveries.
Walking through the space earlier this week, it’s hard not to smile. Kyle is clearly anxious and antsy. He can’t wait to open the doors and see how families react to the expansive property. There’s little doubt folks will embrace it, especially when you consider the community K2 has built in Penfield.
Kyle knows the K2 brewing team will be thankful for the elevated walkway connection each of the 60-barrel fermenters as it will make fruit, adjunct, or whatever additions to beers much simpler. At some breweries, brewers have to precariously climb up ladders to add those ingredients.
(At this point in the interview, Kyle had to wait for me as I was transfixed by the UBS crew carefully loading a massive fermenter into its new home.)
After all, who woulda thought a brewery would fit so seamlessly into a school gymnasium and that a cafeteria could be transformed into a family-friendly taproom? It’s almost unbelievable, but it’s something that is inching closer and closer to becoming a reality. And one thing is certain, the Rochester area has never seen anything like it.