FoundersMessages

The one thing we’ve learned in business and in training for different activities is you have to be consistent. Whether we’re making beer or trying to improve our time in a race or a score in disc golf, the key to success is developing good practices and routines. As with any athletic endeavors or successful organization, developing good habits early and sticking to them is critical.

It is also important to remember that even the best practices and plans may need to be revisited and reaffirmed to keep the desired outcome. The onset and re-emergence of COVID is an all too relevant example of an outside force that has required all of us to make adjustments to routines and habits we hold dear. As a business, Common Roots Brewery has had to adjust to an ever-changing business paradigm that the pandemic created and yet we couldn’t compromise the quality of the products or services we delivered.

The Foundation, even as a relatively new organization, was established on some very focused set of principles. Our mission to be a resource for positive change in our community is dependent on the consistent involvement with and by our community members. We started this organization with just ten people and have now grown to one with over 100 members. We’ve helped individuals, businesses and organization to the tune of over ten thousand dollars in grants in our first year. None of this would have been possible without the consistent focus of our Board and the generous support of our members and community.

As you look ahead to the promise and challenges of 2022, we hope you will consider either joining the Common Roots Foundation or renewing your membership at any level. Membership in the Foundation can be an easy habit to start and maintain…and one which we know will yield some very positive outcomes in our community.

Cheers!

Gratitude is a great word and one we feel deeply. In every sense, we are filled with gratitude for the amazing support we’ve seen both for our Company and our Foundation. This past year has been an especially incredible gift and we feel honored that so many of you have chosen to be part of this journey with us. Common Roots Brewing Company has had a banner year and your continued support for this idea of creating a community around beer has been nothing short of amazing!

Incredibly, you can now find CRBC products in ten states and even Canada! Due to this demand, we have implemented plans to expand our production in the coming year. Our local manufacturing partner, Fronhofer Design, will be building new tanks for us for a 2022 installation. Look for more news on our plans for expansion in the coming months and come help us celebrate our 7th Year Anniversary on December 19th.

The Common Roots Foundation just completed its first year of existence and your support has been phenomenal. As we look ahead to the winter months, it’s a good time to remember that for many in our community, these are difficult times. The Foundation was created as another vehicle for positive change in our region. If we learned anything from this past year, it is that so much more is possible if we work together. We invite you to please continue your support and help us in our mission to elevate our community and make it a better place for everyone. A gift of a CRF Membership for someone on your list is great way to pay it forward in the coming year.

Cheers to a season filled with hope and good health for all our community!

With Gratitude,
The Weber Family

As many of you may know, I tore my Achilles tendon and recently had surgery to repair it. I’d really like to make-up a better story of how this happened, but in full disclosure, I did this playing a relatively calm game called pickleball. As disruptive and disheartening as this injury has been to me, thankfully it’s only a temporary set back.

In many ways (and I can’t believe I’m saying this) my injury has been a gift to me. My wife Robin, the annoying, eternal optimist love of my life, had been telling me this from day one. Begrudgingly, I now have to agree that she’s right yet again. This injury has given me the unusual opportunity to sit still, be reflective and be more of an observer of the world around me. This is not something that most of us think about and yet it can be a refreshingly interesting eye opener.

The world we live our daily lives in can become a rather routine and mundane place. We tend to pass people and places that have become merely recognizable objects, void of meaning except maybe as a reference point during our travels. Interestingly enough, when you have a dramatic change in your life, even if temporary, you may start to see those same people and places differently. For instance, I now see that abandoned building on South Street and I think of the endless possibilities it has. The old man who’s always on the bench at Stewarts… could he benefit from knowing more about services available to him in our town? The dangerous sidewalk on Garfield that the home owners can’t afford to repair…maybe we could get some volunteers and donations to fix that? The word I like to use is “inspired”. The gift I previously referred to is a heightened ability to be inspired by the things you see in your daily life. The good news is you don’t have to be injured to be inspired. Take some time to look at your world from a different perspective and see what opportunities there are to create a better place for all of us. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised. As a reminder, there are two ways that we here at the Foundation go about creating a better place for our community. One way is best described as reactive, meaning we’ll help when we are asked. The other way is proactive, where we seek out projects and causes without being asked – ones that we feel will benefit the community we’ve pledged to serve. Our Foundation is now six months old. In that relatively short time, I believe we’ve accomplished much together. I’d like to take this opportunity to personally thank Alex Kochon, our first director who helped us get our start…and now Sean Rafferty who has taken over without missing a beat. Through it all, our Board has worked selflessly to help us bring our vision of making the not-for-profit arm of the Common Roots Brewing Company a reality. Cheers to making our community a better place for all of us!

With just a few days until the Christmas holiday and only a few short weeks remaining in 2020, we wanted to take a moment to reflect on what has been a truly incredible year. We at Common Roots have been met with the joys of opening our new facility, the trepidations of the pandemic landscape, and humble gratitude for the continuous support shown by our community built on beer.

While this year’s season of celebration may feature new traditions and re-imagined holiday gatherings, we hope you take this time to recount the blessings of the year and are looking forward to 2021 with the same optimism and impassioned desire for camaraderie and community as we are. We thank you for making Common Roots part of your holiday traditions (both new and old) and we look forward to times ahead when we can celebrate with our entire community in our home at the 58 Saratoga Avenue Taproom.

We wish you and your families a safe, restful and joyous holiday season. We raise our glasses to you for allowing us to enjoy our community built on beer for another year. Cheers to many more and Happy Holidays!

Warmest regards,

Bert and Christian

The finish line is in sight for our move back to 58 Saratoga Avenue and we cannot wait to share the new facility with you! We are thankful everyday for the memories made and beers shared at our Temporary Taproom location at 30 Saratoga Avenue. It goes without saying that these past few months have been an absolutely wild ride. We are grateful and thankful beyond words for the continued support from every single one of you.  Your acts of kindness, statements of encouragement and the simple fact that you continue to choose to enjoy Common Roots with your friends and families has brought us to where we are today.  We are perpetually thankful and continuously humbled to call you friends, guests and fellow beer-drinkers.

We are working tirelessly to move our operations from the Temporary Taproom at 30 Saratoga Avenue to our permanent home back at 58 Saratoga Avenue.  As we do so, we will continue to follow the safety guidelines as issued by the state of New York to ensure the safety of our staff, our guests and the community at large. Stay tuned to social media and keep your eyes on your inboxes in the days and weeks ahead to stay informed as we transition into our forever home.

As many bars and restaurants in our area begin to re-open for indoor and outdoor dining, we are excited to see life moving back towards some semblance of normalcy.  In order to ensure that we are opening the doors at 58 Saratoga Avenue in the safest way possible, we need to take a little bit of extra time before we roll out full operations for eating and drinking inside and outside of our new Taproom.  In order to ensure that we are able to provide a safe and enjoyable environment, our first steps of re-opening at 58 Saratoga Avenue will be focused on to-go beer with limited outdoor draft service only.  Online ordering for pick-up and home delivery will be continuing indefinitely.  We hope to be offering these services out of the new Taproom at 58 Saratoga Avenue in early July.

A perfectly poured beer served alongside a wood-fired pizza is something we have been waiting a LONG time to share with all of you, and we thank you in advance for your continued support, patience and understanding as we work towards bringing that to fruition.  Once again, we cannot thank you enough for the overwhelming support you all have continuously shown us.  We can only imagine how wonderful that first beer will taste when we are able to share it with you in the fashion that we have all been envisioning for so long.

Cheers,
Bert and Christian

There’s been a lot of excitement around Common Roots Brewing lately but a story you probably missed is that we found a little hatchling turtle a few days after our fire a few months back. We were walking around the parking lot of what was to become our new temporary space. As we walked the lot, I spotted what turned out to be a very tiny, painted turtle on the ground.

I’m not a biologist, but seemed strange to see an obviously newly hatched turtle in a parking lot a good quarter mile from the nearest water on such a cold, raw day! The temperature was cold and we still had snow mounds in the shaded areas next to the building. Without really thinking about it, I picked up the turtle for a closer look and saw he/she was miraculously still alive! I placed him in my pocket for warmth and brought him home. After a quick Google investigation of what to do next, we decided to set up a hatchling turtle sanctuary in our kitchen and name our new household guest, “Sparky.”

We are happy to report that these efforts have not gone in vain. Sparky continues to thrive in his temporary space in our kitchen. Our plan is to release him when the weather is warmer, although that may be more difficult then we think since we’ve grown somewhat attached to him.

And really, what are the chances of finding a baby turtle in the parking lot on a cold March day?

On that note, I am sure a lot of us are wondering why things happen. Sometimes, it seems, they just do and we all have an opportunity to help or ignore.

All of us at Common Roots have been wondering a similar question—the fire and now this unbelievable outpouring of love and support—how did this happen?

I can tell you we don’t have the answers but we are all so grateful for the tremendous show of love and support. Our community has adopted us and, like young Sparky, we know we will now thrive because of it. Thank you!

Cheers to Sparky and an even brighter future.

Bert

 

Humbled. That’s the best word to describe how we feel right now.

So many of you turned out to hang with us at Rally for the Roots North in Glens Falls and Rally for the Roots South in Troy. More of you have shown up at your favorite local craft brewery, taproom, and restaurant for pop-up support events or are planning to attend benefit festivals like Rising From The Ashes on May 4th.

You sent texts, emails… and Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter messages, too.

We’re humbled and grateful for each and every one of you.

We also want to take a moment to publicly thank our Common Roots alumni family and friends in the craft beer industry who have taken on volunteer leadership roles to organize and activate you, our Community Roots community. Our rebuild will be deeply rooted in these good deeds.

Cheers,

Bert and Christian

Photo Credit: Matthew ‘Fuj’ Scher