Rising Storm Brewing at the Mill: Livonia brewery nears open of second location

The historic Daisy Flour Mill has been completely re-imagined and plans to open in six weeks.

Out with the plates and table linens. In with the shiny steel tanks and new floor drains.

What was once a stolid ballroom, one that hosted thousands of events over the last few decades, has become a glistening production brewery, one with large new windows, a canning lane, and fermentation vessels that nearly scrape the ceiling.

Since August of last year, Rising Storm Brewing’s second location at the historic Daisy Flour Mill, 1880 Blossom Road in Penfield, has slowly taken shape. And what once felt like a marathon has surely become a sprint as brewery owners hope to open the 19,000-square-foot facility by mid-June.

And with the opening, Rising Storm, which opened its original 12-acre Livonia location in September 2018, jumps into rare air in the Rochester region. It now has the production capacity to compete for retail shelf space and restaurant/bar draft lines. The brewery long known for its rap-influenced beer names will still pump out unique IPAs with unconventional hop combinations and vibrant fruited sours with equally unconventional fruit (and sometimes tea) combos.

“Out of the gate when we closed on the building last year, we knew it was going to be a little bit of a long haul and a lot of work. It has definitely been a marathon from that perspective,” Rising Storm co-owner Bill Blake said. “Now we’re feeling like we’re in the sprint phase. We’ve got the big stuff done and now it’s the finishing touches.”

The Livonia location will remain open, with its 5-barrel brewhouse utilized for smaller batch offerings, including the potential for more lagers and experimentation. The 3-acre Flour Mill spot will focus on larger batches for distribution and in-house consumption.

The oldest portion of the Mill dates back to 1840 and was listed on the National Register for Historic Places in 1972. The ballroom, which was transformed into the brewery, was added in the 1970s and could be updated since it wasn’t originally part of the historic structure.

Both locations feature kitchens and ample outdoor space to spread out. The goal is to clear the brush at the Mill and allow for easier appreciation of neighboring Irondequoit Creek. The original catering kitchens remain largely untouched and are probably the biggest task still to be completed. Rotted boards on the exterior have been replaced and a fresh coat of paint will be added in the coming weeks.

Final steps include wrapping up the plumbing on the brew system, which should be in operation in the next week or so, electrical work in the taproom, getting the two kitchens operational, and cleaning up the yard. New lighting has been added throughout the massive space and the bar area has been reconfigured. Floors were finished in the brewery and floor drainage was added. Bathrooms will be completed in the next two weeks. Blake said they still need to construct a bar for the outdoor seating area.

The 15-barrel brewhouse system at the Mill was produced locally by Ultimate Brew Service. It’s the largest system the Lima-based manufacturer has manufactured and installed, Blake said. UBS made the original Livonia system and Blake saw the value in working with a local vendor. (I remember first meeting the UBS crew when it was retrofitting old dairy tanks to use for brewing beer.) UBS also installed a six-head canning line, while expanding Rising Storm’s capacity by four or five times. Big 30-barrel fermentation vessels were specifically crafted to fit barely under the ballroom ceiling.

“We’re excited to get brewing in here,” Blake said. Rising Storm hired Bradley Nagle, the former head brewer at Gun Hill Brewing, to help with production in Penfield. To allow co-founder/head brewer Jeff Riedl to focus more on coordination and recipe development at both locations, Blake envisions hiring another brewer.

“It has taken longer and been more expensive than what we originally planned,” Blake said. But that’s never unexpected when tackling a project this large.

In an era where many craft brewers are consolidating or shifting focus due to increased competition and changing market conditions, it’s definitely a calculated gamble to see Rising Storm double down with a multi-million dollar facility.

To complete a project of this scope in less than 10 months is pretty remarkable. When I originally toured the space, I remember having to climb over stacks of plates and encountering seemingly endless racks of catering uniforms. The ugly ballroom carpet has been removed, too.

“You can feel it getting closer now,” Blake said. “The end is finally in sight. Now it’s both scary and exciting. Early on, it was so far away that you didn’t have to think about the operation of it. Now we’re on the verge of hiring 30 people to run it.”

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