The roads around Beau’s Brewery in Vankleek Hill will be busy this Saturday (June 25), with the 5K for Ovarian Cancer Canada back as an in-person event for the first time since 2019.
Held in 2020 and 2021 as a virtual run, the 5K for Ovarian Cancer Canada still raised a total of $53,000 in 2021, bringing the total to more than $250,000 raised since the first run was held in 2015. The 2022 event is combining what worked well virtually, with a return to in-person participation.
The Beau’s 5K for Ovarian Cancer Canada is inspired by Vankleek Hill’s Ashley Courtois (Cowan), whose friends and family started this race when Ashley was diagnosed with the disease in 2015. The event started small but grew each year during Ashley’s three-year battle with ovarian cancer. Ashley lost her battle with cancer in 2018, but the race continues to be held in honour of her wonderful strength and spirit, and her love of running.
The Beau’s 5K is a walk or run event, with distances of 3K, 5K or 10K. Entry fee is a $40 tax-deductible donation to Ovarian Cancer Canada.
The 3K and 5K course is an out-and back on Newton Road, starting from and returning to the brewery. The road is a scenic rural route, a gravel road past farms and homes in Vankleek Hill. The course is basically flat, save a small hill at the finish line. The 10K course is simply a double out-and-back, for those who want the extra challenge.
More information on this year’s Beau’s 5K for Ovarian Cancer Canada can be found here.
Syracuse, N.Y. — Thinking of having a wedding, office party or other event at a local brewery?
Middle Ages Brewing Co., the city’s oldest standalone brewery, is working on an expansion that will improve its ability to host private events and offer more regularly scheduled live music.
The brewery will take over a 6,500-square-foot space on the second floor above its current taproom at 120 Wilkinson St. on the city’s near west side, owner Isaac Rubenstein said. The new space, which will include a stage, furnishings and its own bar, could be ready by late summer or fall, he said.
It might also have enough space for a pool table, cornhole or other games.
“But it will primarily be for private parties, concerts and things like that,” Rubenstein said.
The brewery doesn’t have its own kitchen, but the expansion will be accompanied by include more “grab and go” food items, Rubenstein said. There will be a staging area for food caterers during events.
Middle Ages is also pursuing a state “farm brewery” license, which will allow it to sell beverages from other New York beverage producers, including beer, wine and liquor.
Middle Ages, which was founded in 1995, has been hosting small private events in its original tasting room area in a corner of the property.
It frequently hosts bands in and around its current tasting room, which opened down the block from the original one in late 2017. In warm weather, the brewery invites bands to play for outdoor crowds from the building’s loading dock.
The loading dock shows, which sometimes draw big crowds, will continue, Rubenstein said.
The expansion of Middle Ages comes as the property’s owner, the Lahinch Group, plans improvements to the building facade and grounds, Rubenstein said. The brewery occupies a large part of the property, which had once been home to several industrial tenants, including an ice cream plant.
The new event space marks the biggest expansion at Middle Ages since the current 2,500-square-foot tasting room opened in 2017. That allowed Middle Ages for the first time to become a real gathering place, like a bar, a phenomenon that has been growing throughout the beer industry in recent years.
Before that, the Middle Ages sold beer and offered samples from the small original taproom at the corner of Wilkinson and Barker streets facing Leavenworth Park.
Isaac Rubenstein’s parents, Marc and Mary Rubenstein, opened Middle Ages in 1995. It was the first “microbrewery” in the city, although there were already a couple of brewpubs (restaurant/brewery combinations) in the area.
It has recently undergone several changes, including the elimination of its bottling line (it packages only in draft and cans today). It also replaced its original “open fermentation” or English-style brewing system with a more flexible closed system. That has allowed Middle Ages to add newer styles, such as lagers, sours, and hazy IPAs, to its original lineup of mostly English-style ales.
BAXTER — Both the Baxter City Council and Patrick Sundberg, owner of Jack Pine Brewery, look toward future drafts as the council unanimously decided Tuesday, April 5, to deny his special event requests.
Sundberg had sent a letter to the council requesting approval for 12 special events between Memorial Day and Labor Day, seeking to utilize an area outside of his approved outdoor seating area to host concerts.
Instead, there will be fewer such events allowed at Jack Pine while the city looks at changes to city code regarding special events.
gives permission to the city to consider the issuance of a special event permit to a business, organization, or individual to host a special event requiring use of special services, use of public property or right-of-way, or temporary exemption from compliance with applicable local and state regulations. Such events would not threaten the health, safety and welfare of residents and visitors of the city.
Jack Pine Brewery at 15593 Edgewood Drive in Baxter.
Submitted photo
Earlier this year, the Jack Pine Brewery received administrative approval for four special events in 2022.
“We kind of inadvertently found out that our outdoor space is just a phenomenal venue for live music and we really took advantage of that last year, in the summer,” Sundberg said.
At a time when people were itching for something to do, after all the activities were canceled for a year and a half, Jack Pine Brewery kind of fell into putting on live music outside as a way of working with the state’s COVID-19 restrictions, Sundberg said.
“I think this is really special but I don’t know how far that’s going to go,” Sundberg said. “So I’m not to the point and the business isn’t to the point where we can build-out … and really, really go that far.”
Jack Pine’s four busiest days of the year, Memorial Day weekend, Fourth of July weekend, Labor Day weekend and their fall festival weekend were covered by their initial request, which equated to 12 days or about 3.2% of total operational days for the year.
As he closed up his statement to the council, Sundberg said he respected the council’s decision, adding that he was “looking for that line, ‘Where’s that line for special events? And where can we go?’”
With most of the council familiar with Sundberg since his garage brewing days, council member Connie Lyscio asked if 12 was the “magic number” for the max number of special events an organizer can host.
Council member Zach Tabatt added how the city’s code did not match with what was being discussed.
“I think what happened here was that the form that gets filled out, doesn’t match the code and it just kind of slipped through,” Tabatt said. “I’m also saying, I don’t think we have the ability or authority to deny a special event based on a number, based on how I read the code.”
The council ultimately fell back on the number of requests and felt adding more events moves farther from “special” and more toward a standard operating procedure.
A unanimous vote to deny Sundberg’s request for 12 additional special use permits was passed at the meeting. With the vote, the council also formed a committee to review the code as written and advise the council and city on potential changes.
“We’ll still figure out a way to do live music somehow, but it’s going to change the look and feel of the patio,” Sundberg said after the meeting. “So our live music for the summer isn’t dead, it’s just going to have a scaled-back appearance. … We’re always trying to come up with new and fun ideas or different ways we can do things. At Jackpine, we’ll kind of run through the summer and see what the future brings for us.”
TIM SPEIER, staff writer, can be reached on Twitter
