CAZENOVIA — On June 26, Cazenovia resident Chad Meigs held a press conference at The Hops Spot in Syracuse to announce the launch of Third Space Distribution, an early-stage startup working to raise awareness of New York State craft breweries by representing their brands and increasing their distribution statewide.

Based at 2100 Park St. in Syracuse, Third Space Distribution is in the process of building a portfolio of NYS beer brands that it can supply to bars, restaurants, and shops in Central New York and eventually across the state.

According to a June 25 news release announcing the press conference, Third Space Distribution is the only beer distributor working exclusively with NYS craft breweries.

The company’s portfolio currently features Triphammer Bierwerks, Haberle Brewing Company, Butternuts Beer & Ale, Pressure Drop Brewing, Burning Banjo Beer, Roc Brewing Co., Big aLICe Brewing, and Old Klaverack Brewing Co.

As of June 28, Third Space had 75 open accounts in Onondaga and Madison Counties, including local establishments such as Caz Sports Bowl, Caz Pizza, and Due Passi Pizzeria in Cazenovia; Mad Tacos in Nelson; and Woody’s Country Store in New Woodstock. Additional locations include The LaFayette Inn, Mazzye’s Meats in Liverpool, Harvey’s Garden and Funk N Waffles in Syracuse, Now & Later on Tipperary Hill, Toss & Fire in Camillus, and Trappers II Pizza & Pub in Minoa.

According to Meigs, the number of accounts is growing weekly.

Meigs entered the craft beer business as a hop farmer and processor in 2013 with the opening of The Bineyard in Cazenovia.

At the time, Meigs, who was a former software engineer based in Boston, had recently relocated to CNY with his wife and had decided to make a career pivot.

“I asked myself the question, ‘What do people do in Central New York?’” Meigs said. “[The answer was] agriculture. I wasn’t about to start a dairy farm, so I decided on hops because I really like beer, and I just started homebrewing and growing my own hops at our home.”

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Meigs launched a direct-to-consumer, e-commerce marketplace called Drink NY Craft (DNYC), drinknycraft.com.

His vision was to give every beer-drinking New Yorker the opportunity to get hard-to-find NY-crafted beers delivered straight to their doorsteps and to expand the reach of local breweries hoping to take the leap into the commercial realm.

Although he officially launched DNYC in October 2020, Meigs was unable to sell beer through the online platform until he received State Liquor Authority approval almost one full year later.

“That whole time I had to be 100 percent ready, including having a warehouse and everything,” he said. “[There are] lots of barriers to entry for starting a beer distribution company, which is why nobody is doing it.”

After repeatedly hearing his hop customers and brewery owners express frustration about the challenges of self-distribution and market access, Meigs took steps to build on DNYC with the launch of Third Space Distribution.

“The first phase of the business was the direct-to-consumer channel, and that was about 1.5 years ago,” Meigs said. “Since then, we have launched what I’m calling our ‘Traditional Retail Distribution’ line-of-business, which is business-to-business. The press conference was to let the public know that we’ve launched this second phase of the business.”

Meigs hopes that Third Space Distribution will help further his mission of getting people in NYS to drink more NY-made craft beer.

“One of the challenges for small craft beer producers in NYS is access to market,” Meigs said in the June 25 press release. “We are offering another option for the NYS breweries to distribute in markets that they may otherwise not have the resources to get their products in front of customers. Distribution is one of the keys to help NYS craft beer increase market share in our backyard.”

Across the country, about 13 percent of beers sold are from craft breweries, according to statistics from the Brewers Association, In New York, however, craft beer represents an estimated 6.3 percent of all beers sold, and NY-made craft beer makes up only about 4 percent of the total beer sold in the state.

“New York craft breweries employ 3,548 people full-time, paying $417 million in wages and $2.3 billion in economic revenue,” said Third Space Distribution Sales Director Brian Slater, who is also a Cazenovia resident. “Can you imagine if we were closer to the national average of 13.1 percent in our state what that economic impact could be? That’s why Chad founded Third Space Distribution and why we are working diligently to educate consumers as well as buyers and decision-makers [on] why supporting NY craft breweries is so important.”

In the June 25 press release, Paul Leone, executive director of the New York State Brewers Association, reported that NYS has the second-highest number of breweries in the country with a total of 538 spread throughout every region of the state.

“. . . With access to market for local craft beer becoming increasingly more difficult, having a New York State-focused distributorship and online retail outlet that has fresh local beer delivered to anyone in the country is critical right now to the growth of the industry,” Leone said.

To learn more about Third Space Distribution and its vision, visit thirdspacedistro.com.