A Tree Grows in Albany

As you might have guessed, we love trees. They are not only a dominant feature of our company logo, but they also represent the very ethos of our business and how we view community and its resilience and connections though our common roots. This spring, as you wander through neighborhoods or your favorite hiking trails, take a moment and notice the trees there…the old and the new. Trees are cool!

On one of my doggie walks in our neighborhood in Glens Falls, I’ve noticed the new trees that have been planted by our city. They are still getting established and need some extra care with watering and staking to keep the wind from pushing them over. New tree plantings are an investment for future generations and always bring a smile to my face. As a science and history guy, I must admit that it’s the old trees that really get my imagination going. Especially in established neighborhoods like ours. If you allow some personification here…you know these trees have seen some things in their lives! They’ve had to put up with less-than-ideal growing conditions. Limited soil, sidewalks, road salt, heat, ice storms, spongy moth infestations…you name it, the old trees have been through it and yet they’ve persevered…some for hundreds of years.

What’s also remarkable is that we now understand that trees need each other! They need community and interact through a complex mycorrhizal network of soil fungi and other organism. Forest tree communities have a distinct advantage in this regard over their urban counterparts and yet… even the urban trees have somehow found community and a way to survive.

Continuing the tree analogy, our brewery in South Glens Falls just celebrated ten years of business back in December. In “tree years”, we would still be a young, immature specimen. Like the young tree, our business has flourished because we found a caring community connection here.

A little over a year ago we also acquired the CH Evans Brewery Company in Albany that had its “roots” dating back to 1786 in the Hudson Valley. Like those old trees, we were very excited to acquire the old building that now houses our Outpost in Albany. We think this old building is magnificent and has seen some stuff in its history and still has a story to tell.

Old buildings, like old trees, still need a connection to community to thrive. Part of our mission at the Albany Outpost is to not only honor this old building but to recreate a new community that will thrive here. The renovation of the building and our investment in Albany was a natural extension for both our business and our Foundation… one we are committed to see thrive and grow.

We know caring for trees in an urban environment can be a challenge, but we also know that with the right care and connection to community…they too can thrive.

Common Roots Brewing Company and our Foundation are committed to making those connections and thriving in the Capital Region and beyond. When you visit us at the Outpost…take a moment a say hello to the beautiful American Sycamore (Plantanus occidentalis) growing near our front entrance. The tree is about 80 years old right now and with some love and the right conditions, it should continue to grow for another 100 years or more!

Our Sycamore tree, let’s call her Francie, can be our symbol of hope and resilience in Albany as we all look to face the challenges of an uncertain future. At Common Roots we are confident that if we continue to support each other and stay connected, we can all flourish in challenging times.

Cheers to connections to old friends and the new ones we make every day.

Our Upstate New York winters are a good time to be reflective and plan for the coming months. This past December our brewery celebrated its 10 Year Anniversary and for us it was certainly a time to celebrate, be reflective and to ask ourselves what’s next?

The reflective exercise was the easy part and while we certainly had our ups and downs as a business, in retrospect, we all felt especially fortunate to be where we are now. The fire in 2019 followed by the pandemic in 2020 could have been death blows to our company but, through it all and with the help of a lot of people, we were able to maintain our vision for growing a community around making beer. The uncertainties we faced back then seemed daunting and yet we felt confident that if we kept to our core principles, treat people well, make a delicious product, create a warm and welcoming environment…it should work out.

As we know now, so far, things have worked out! We rebuilt our brewery and taproom, survived the pandemic, added a special event space and cafe, started a foundation, expanded our company into Albany, and started a coffee company while adding hard cider to our list of delicious craft beverages we produce.

When we started Common Roots Brewing Company, we had a saying, “Expect good things to happen!” This simple phrase is our way of focusing our intentions on a vision of where we want to be as business. It still requires us to do the work, but it also allows for a positive vision of what that “good” looks like. Just saying we want to be a successful business would not be enough. In our case, we defined success in a different context. Our intentions were not just to make delicious beer but to create a community and an experience around brewing that would bring people together and create a sustainable business. Taking an abandoned warehouse and transforming it into a brewery and community hub was our vision then and, in many ways, it continues today. The new spaces we created in South Glens Falls and Albany were intentionally designed to encourage gatherings of all kinds. Bringing people together in welcoming and safe places is good for the collective soul and the economy of a community and hopefully, our bottom line.

What will the next ten years bring? The one sure thing we do know is that the market has changed and just making delicious beer is not enough. For the first time in our history, according to the Brewer’s Association, we’ve seen more brewery closures than openings. Fortunately, at Common Roots we’ve kept a close eye on the market trends and have made, what we believe are some strategic decisions to keep Common Roots relevant and true to our core beliefs. Critical to those core beliefs is our firm understanding that our success as a company is indelibly linked to the success of our community.

Supporting one another and our local businesses will be especially important in the coming months and years. We know that just expecting good things to happen is not enough; we all need to take actions that are measurable and meaningful. As a consumer, you have many choices where to spend your hard earned dollars and purposefully spending those dollars at local businesses makes a measurable and more meaningful impact in our communities.

In the coming years, we can safely predict that Common Roots will continue to invest in our community and work with our partners that helped bring us here. As you plan gatherings with friends or business colleagues, we hope you’ll continue to join us at Common Roots and help us grow a more sustainable and vibrant community!

Thank you.