New Livingston County brewery, Solitude Brewing, combines love of nature and community

Solitude Brewing Co. will open later this month in the hamlet of Lakeville on the northern shore of Conesus Lake.

Like most of Cal Hasler’s best ideas, inspiration often comes from nature.

The seeds for Solitude Brewing were planted when Hasler was sitting atop a peak in the remote Utah backcountry.

Solitude Brewing, 5953 Big Tree Road in the Livingston County hamlet of Lakeville, will open this month. It overlooks Conesus Lake. For an exact date, pay attention to the brewery’s social media pages or just wait until the “coming soon” sign is taken down in front of the brewery. Either way, you’ll be able to come relax very, very soon.

“Me and my friend, who is a brewer at another place, we were on this trip in Utah. We were backpacking out there for a week, just living in tents,” said Hasler. “We were up at the top of this mountain at like 10,000 feet and I was like, ‘I need to figure out a way to bring this experience to people, this raw, untouched wilderness.’ Nowadays, people are just so consumed with their electronics. Once you get out there in the wilderness and you disconnect from all of that, it’s just so primal. It almost resets your brain. So when you come back to civilization, things like running water are so nice. You just feel like you love your family so much more. And my friend was just sitting there and he was constantly talking about beer.

“When you get solitude, you figure out what you want to do with your energy and your life.”

Photo: Solitude Brewing Co. co-owners Cal Hasler, left, and Chris Wegener.

When I visited, they were preparing the expansive backyard area for sod after they determined where the fire pits and concert stage would go. There will even be hammocks and a “nature playground” for kids. Like Other Half FLX in Bloomfield (just on a bit of a smaller scale), it’s gonna be an excellent place to bring the family.

“We’ve got twin 4-year-old boys, so it’s pretty important that it’s super family friendly,” Hasler said. “Here, I just want to bring the outdoors in. I want to give people that space where it’s super comfortable.”

When I first met Hasler, 37, a Piffard, Livingston County resident, I think I shocked him a bit, because I couldn’t stop offering up expletives. The brewery’s main seating and bar area is really that stunning. Filled with rustic touches, a stone-fronted bar, moody lights, and a wood-paneled ceiling, Solitude evokes nature with its lodge-like setting. I really like how the 10-barrel brewing system, which came from a brewery in Portland, Ore., is visible from any vantage point in the main area. It’s separated by a half-wall and features a ton of fermentation capacity. (With the tenuous nature of the craft brewing industry right now, the market is flooded with used equipment, often from breweries in the process of closing. It often makes sense to shop that way.)

The Solitude space is certainly not what I expected. They hope to garner similar reactions when the general public walks in for the first time. That’s part of the reason why they haven’t shared many interior pictures on social media. They want people to be surprised. After all, you don’t get a second chance to make a first impression.

“The experience is so important,” said Chris Wegener, 45, a Livonia resident (important to remember that Livonia is the town and the hamlet of Lakeville sits within it), who is a partner in the brewery and also owns the building. “That’s why people want to go out. They want to be entertained, they want it to be family friendly. So the next step is to have good beer, have good food, give people a reason to come out.”

The Solitude crew is exceedingly resourceful. It’s impossible to tell now, but the Solitude building was previously a gas station, Pizza Hut Express, a butcher, and a number of other different things. Wegener and his Lake Construction crew completely re-imagined the property, which includes the 6,800-square-foot section for the brewery and the adjoining Lake Life Accessories business.

Solitude Brewing Co. in Lakeville, Livingston County

The old beer cooler was the only original portion of the property to be saved. It was taken apart and then reconstructed in another spot, where it will serve as the brewery’s cold storage. The kitchen equipment was secured from Tin Cup Social in Fairport. The giant exhaust hood came from a restaurant in South Town Plaza in Henrietta.

The rooftop deck framing is in place and it’ll be completed next year (and hopefully ready by next summer). And that’ll truly be a game-changer in the Finger Lakes. How many spots offer that? Because they haven’t bitten off enough to chew yet, Hasler said that rooftop deck will be the winter project.

When Hasler outlined the opening beer list, the menu is transposed over a picture that was the ultimate inspiration for the project. The tap list offers good variety, including a session ale, IPA, stout, pale ale, and Kolsch. Head brewer Eddie Graves, a Navy veteran, is a true fermentation nerd. His experience spans the worlds of cider and beer. He previously worked as head cider maker at Clarksburg Cider in Lancaster, Erie County.

Initially, Hasler said Solitude will keep the food menu “simple.”

“Just some small offerings to give people a few options. We’ll do some pub pretzels, chips and dip, a burger, some salads, and then we’re gonna get feedback from everybody and see what everybody wants,” Hasler said. “Let the market dictate some things.

“But we’ll do differently weekly specials, whether it’s a wing night kind of thing or steak and fish, whatever. With the equipment that we’ve got, we’ve got the ability to do a lot of different things.”

Hasler and Wegener initially connected a little over a year ago as Hasler was searching for the right spot for his brewery to put down roots. Wegener had the space (and the skill to transform it), while Hasler had the vision. Hasler said his wife encouraged him to call Wegener to talk about the space. To hear them talk about it, this marriage of convenience evolved into a faithful partnership. Wegener was impressed when Hasler came in with a well thought-out business plan.

“The facade was done, but the inside was pretty raw still,” Hasler said. “The only thing that was left standing was the beer cooler and some walls in the back. Honestly, when I walked in, I said, ‘This place has got potential.’ I could see it.”

“His inspiration is what got me excited,” Wegener added. “I really wanted somebody unique, anybody unique. I had realtors, I had attorneys who wanted to put their office here. Multiple offices. But I wanted something unique. When Cal showed up, it was perfect.”

They bonded after realizing they both attended neighboring York High School. They’re also both very committed to their families and share a lot of the same values, Wegener said.

Construction really started to ramp up in March. Hasler said he was amazed by Wegener’s ability to juggle so many different projects while continuing to do exquisite work at the brewery. Again, when you walk into Solitude for the first time, you’re gonna be blown away at the level of craftsmanship and the vision. Every little detail has been planned out and executed faithfully.

“You see Cal’s passion,” Wegener said. “And I want to be a part of that.”

Pointing to developments like the Cannery complex in the village of Fairport, Wegener hopes to be part of something similar in Lakeville. The seeds are already there. Solitude is within a few hundred feet of OSB Ciderworks and is right down the street from Little Lake Brewing. A bit farther north, No B.S. Beer Co. and Rising Storm Brewing offer different experiences while adding to the vibrancy of this little slice of Livingston County.

“I like the idea of something like that happening here,” Wegener said. “The (business) committee I’m on, we’re trying to get sidewalks, trying to do a trail between the businesses. The town is all for it. The funding is here for all the sidewalks. We just need to make it happen.”

A final note: It’s pretty wild to think I’ve been working on this independent publication for over two years now. In that time, I’ve published 200 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.