Emphasis placed on field-to-cup experience

By Hayleigh Gowans

Staff Writer

The Menikheim family has been busy the past few years — planting hops and barley, operating and expanding farm land, working out kinks that come with a renovation of an old building — and now they can finally breathe a sigh of relief because, after several years in the making, they finally have opened the Seneca Street Brew Pub in the heart of the village of Manlius.

Seneca Street Brew Pub is located at 315 E. Seneca St. in Manlius and offers a variety of beers and wines made both in-house and from other New York state producers, including a pale ale, IPAs, a blonde, a stout, an amber and more. They offer beer flights, 12-ounce glasses and will soon sell growlers. On the weekends, the pub invites food trucks to set up outside for customers to enjoy, and encourages customers to bring food from local restaurants. The brew pub project was carried out by local residents Bob, Joyce, Brooke and Heidi Menikheim.

Joyce, a retired consultant, said her family got into the brewing business mainly due to the Farmers Brewery legislation that will go into effect in New York that states by 2024, no less than 90 percent of the hops and 90 percent of all other ingredients that are used to make beer in the state must be grown in New York. Joyce’s husband, Bob, who is also retired, decided to make it happen and Heidi and Brooke got involved.

“We saw the opportunity and decided to jump in,” said Joyce, who said her family did not have any experience in growing hops or barely. The family now operates two farms in the outskirts of Manlius and have planted more than 2,000 hop plants, have started to plant barley and will start malting their own barely this summer.

“We got to the point where we realized we wanted to be part of the end product and that’s when we started looking into property to open a brew pub,” said Joyce. “We really want to emphasize that field-to-cup experience.”

Brooke is the brewer for the business and the beer is brewed right inside of the pub on a one barrel system. The pub serves beer from their brew system, as well as other local craft brewers including Canastota-based Erie Canal Brewing Company, which was recently bought by the Menikheims.

In the future, Heidi said the business plans to open a gift shop that will sell beer, wine and other products made in New York State and will install taps to fill growlers of their own beer.

“We’ve had so much support so far and are hoping to bring something special to the Manlius area,” said Heidi.

Seneca Street Brew Pub is currently open from 5 to 8 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday, 4 to 9 p.m. on Fridays, noon to 9 p.m. on Saturdays and 1 to 6 p.m. on Sundays. To learn more, search “Seneca Street Brew Pub” on Facebook.