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.

The coming winter season is one that I normally really look forward to. Those of you who have been receiving our newsletter and reading my Lifting the View submissions will likely understand how shocked and saddened I was personally with the results of our recent national election. Politics aside, I really struggled with how best to describe this feeling of loss and not become consumed by the negative side of this new reality. For me and other like-minded individuals, the coming winter is looking especially bleak… but not without hope.

In the 1961 novel The Winter of Our Discontent, Steinbeck’s protagonist, Ethan Hawley, repeatedly chooses his own financial gain through unethical business dealings, which eventually leads to his own moral reckoning. In a similar sense, I fear our country will likely face a reckoning of its own because of the decisions made in November.

At work, in my family, and within my community, I have the distinct honor to be surrounded by women of substance, intelligence, and integrity. To them, this election was an especially profound disappointment and one they still grapple to understand. One of those women, my wife Robin, who is always a harbinger of hope in our family, was disheartened and at a loss for words. In one of the many ways she helps others cope, she gave each of our grandchildren–when they were old enough– a ‘worry stone.’ They know that their own worry stone can help them when they are feeling anxious or scared. It can be a very soothing and comforting possession to hold when things get scary or confusing.

While I am not suggesting we all go out and get a worry stone, we do need to find a collective way to help each other find some hope in this dark time. Personally, I’ve decided I am going to recommit my time and treasure to helping individuals and organizations that are bound to be negatively impacted over the next four years. The Common Roots Foundation of course gives me tremendous purpose to this end, and I’m proud that its impact continues to grow, deepening our ability to offer support to our local community.

Those of you who read Steinbeck’s novel will remember Ethan Hawley had his moral reckoning come when he realized the negative consequences his actions had on others. So distraught was he that he contemplated taking his own life. Fortunately, he then discovered a stone in his pocket that was placed there covertly by his young daughter, Molly. He then realized his family needed him more, which gave him hope and saved his life.

Our country, marginalized groups, and especially the women in our lives really need support now. Perhaps a stone in our pocket might just be the talisman we all need to step back from this ethical abyss. In the coming months, I hope each of us will find the moral strength to do what we can to help those who are bound to be hurt in the coming years. As a reminder of that hope, put that stone in your pocket and support those organizations, businesses, and individuals that need it now more than ever. Whether it be through contributions or volunteering, each of us can play a more positive role in this still-unfolding chapter of our American story.

While we all may have different reasons to celebrate the end of summer and welcoming the fall season, I’ve noticed what seems like a new reason…neighborhood block parties! My neighborhood in Glens Falls has had several in recent weeks and they were a lot of fun. This last one was especially enjoyable because it gave me a chance to meet some of our new neighbors, many of whom had just recently moved to this area from other parts of the country and from Central America and Africa!

As a son of immigrants myself, I was especially interested in learning more about their backgrounds and why they came here. Their stories were heartwarming, especially those that came from distant lands. It made me once again appreciate the principles of why our American democracy is such a unique and magnificent experiment in the world…our diversity.

My family immigrated to the USA from Germany in 1950. I am a first generation American whose family left everything they knew in worn-torn Germany in search of a better life in America. Even though we were Germans–a recent and former foe of America–my family was welcomed and given an opportunity to succeed and become part of the national fabric.

Part of our national discourse this election season is focused on immigration and while we all agree that we need a comprehensive policy, we shouldn’t be vilifying immigrants that are seeking a better life in the USA. Let’s face it, unless you are a Native American, we all came here from distant lands. Some by choice, some by force. The one thing that we used to agree with was that it was our diversity that really created what we love to call “American Exceptionalism”.

Building walls, banning books and vilifying immigrants has never been a recipe for success. As business owners and employers, we know first-hand how hard working our immigrants are. Like all of us, they just want a better life for themselves and their families. Let’s stop the messages of hate and look for solutions that embrace our differences and build stronger communities that benefit all of us.

In the end, our neighborhood block party was a microcosm of what the American experiment should be. People from different background and beliefs working together to build a better future.

I was reminded while visiting with some friends from the Adirondack Mountain Club that as humans we need to gather and be social. This should not have been a surprise but given the circumstances of this meeting, it brought to light this basic human need. ADK Mountain Club chose the Biergarten in South Glens Falls as their first meeting post-Covid. The members, due to Covid and busy schedules, had been almost exclusively meeting in the Zoom format. I think they were pleasantly surprised not only how much more enjoyable the meeting was in person but also the productiveness of the meeting. (I think the beautiful evening, beer and food didn’t hurt!)

We all know Zoom meetings were extremely useful for many reasons, yet most of us would agree, there is something much more meaningful about the human-to-human contact that was missed…and science agrees!

First, the human brain is large for our relative size as a mammal. Most anthropologists have agreed that our large brains developed, in part, due to our need to be socially dependent animals. We need each other!  The extra brain size is because we had to develop social skills for survival and cooperative interactions. Humans could not have evolved without being socially astute animals.

It’s also been proven that social gatherings are better for our health. Covid aside, the idea of getting together with other humans is good for your health. The Blue Zone Project…which looks at contributing factors that affect one’s health and why some people in the world live to over 100 years of age, found that one of the universal contributing positive factors is the ability to have meaningful social interactions and relationships. This is especial important to us as we get older and often become more isolated.

The Burning Man Project was recently studied by some sociologists from Yale. Burning Man gatherings and others like it in the rest of world, were found to help people feel more of a connection with humanity and become more willing to help distant strangers. It is what Emile Durkheim called “collective effervescence” …a transformative experience that helps people transcend the borders of self and connect with all of humanity.

Looking at the headlines lately, I think we can agree that we could all use some more connection and empathy for what other humans on the planet are dealing with now.

That said, all of us at Common Roots perhaps innately understood that good things can happen when we gather, especially over delicious beer and food. All our spaces at Common Roots have been designed with the idea that people need a positive setting to gather and keep building that collective effervescence. (BTW…sounds like a good beer name!)

Gathering together is good for your health, makes you smarter and probably a better person! All kidding aside, we plan to keep gathering for social good and we hope you’ll consider Common Roots as a place to gather for your next event.

Cheers to Summer Gatherings!

It has been a busy time here at Common Roots with some exciting news all around. The recent historic Solar Eclipse in our region certainly added to that excitement! Through it all, we’ve welcomed lots of new faces and new places to gather with old friends and make new ones. The opening of the Albany Outpost and our new event space and Café at the Bierhall & Barrel House has kept our team very busy.

On Eclipse Day, I personally struggled with the idea of staying local or heading north to experience totality. In the end, I opted to stay home and enjoy it at our Flagship in South Glens Falls. As the time of the eclipse drew near, we had a biergarten full of friends, customers, and our amazing staff listening to Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon and looking skyward. It was at that moment I knew I made the right decision. I was where I was supposed to be…and I was grateful! Any possible FOMO had vanished because I was thankful to be there in the company of so many good people.

As I was thinking about this edition of Lifting the View, I came across a quote from Ann Voskamp, a Canadian author, that seemed apropos. I wanted to find a message that could capture the importance of being in that moment because I really believe it made a difference:

No amount of regret changes the past.
No amount of anxiety changes the future.
But any amount of gratitude changes the present.

I think this also says a lot about how we feel at Common Roots. Our journey both as a business and as a Foundation has certainly come with challenges and a certain amount of anxiety. Through it all, we’ve always seemed to find a reason to be positive and present in the moment. In fact, the one thing I feel that has always been our strength is the ability to appreciate the good things that are always present around us. Inevitably, that good is often found in the people we work with every day!

In that spirit, we would like to take this time to recognize and thank the incredible people that make up the human resource here in our company and in our Foundation. We wouldn’t be here without them, and for that we are eternally grateful.

THANK YOU ALL!

This past December I was returning home from a local holiday concert when I heard the news that our neighbor and friend had passed away. He had just celebrated his 90th birthday the previous week and we made plans to get coffee together at our new Café at Common Roots. Kendall was a good man who had a long and fascinating life. He loved to hear about the brewery and wanted very much to see the new space we had created there. Sadly, I missed that opportunity to grab that coffee with him and hear more of his stories.

In the weeks since his passing, I’ve looked out at his house across the street from us and still feel a bit of sadness. It was somehow always comforting to know Kendall was there. The house itself is a solid structure but looks a bit tired and Kendall, while he was very comfortable there, didn’t feel the need to update things. He loved having visitors, especially if you brought your dog. As I look out at that home across the street, I wonder who will live there next. Will it be a young family? How will they change the house? Whoever the future owners are, I know I will always think of Kendall being there. I hope it’s a family with a dog…Kendall would like that.

This past autumn, CRBC began the lengthy process of acquiring the C.H. Evans Brewing Company at the Albany Pump Station. As most people know, Neil Evans, the owner, had become ill and he and his family made the difficult decision to sell the business to another family brewery, Common Roots. In the weeks since the sale was announced, we have been working extremely hard to breathe some new life into the old structure. We loved this old building and what the Evans’ family did to convert it into a brewery and restaurant, but it was ready for some serious updates.

As we’ve gone through this process, we’ve tried to be sensitive to the incredible history of the previous owner while bringing our unique brand and company ethos to this historic structure. As we’ve been doing this renovation, I can’t help but wonder what our new neighbors in Albany are thinking. Since Neil’s passing in June and the shutting down of operations last Fall, I can imagine a lot of people are wondering what will happen to the old Pump Station. What will the new owners be like, and what will they do in the future?

As we all soon gather in this new space, I can imagine that Neil would be happy knowing the building he initially transformed will once again be a place to gather and celebrate. As old friends and neighbors leave us, it’s nice to honor their memory by re-imagining and transforming their space into something new and welcoming again.

In the next few weeks, we are very hopeful that the renovations will be completed, and we can open the doors and welcome everyone back into this beautiful space. The new business is now called Common Roots Brewing Company – Albany Outpost. We are extremely pleased with how it has been transformed and cannot wait to share it with everyone!

While we still have some work to do, it cannot be overstated how excited we are to be in downtown Albany. All of us here at the Common Roots family are looking forward to becoming part of the new revitalized downtown scene. Cheers to old friends and the opportunity and privilege to make new ones here in 2024.

On behalf of all of us in the Common Roots Family, we wish everyone a healthy, prosperous, and more peaceful New Year!

Bert