EP-185 Taylor and Dan Suarez of Suarez Family Brewery
Suarez Family Brewery has become something of a North Star for our editorial staff\u2014not to mention many brewers and drinkers around the country\u2014for everything that\u2019s right about craft beer in 2018. Sessionable, delicious beers made by a family in the Hudson Valley that\u2019s part of a small community of farmers and small businesses in the area: What\u2019s not to love? To top it all off, Dan Suarez\u2019s brother owns an essential restaurant in Germantown called Gaskin\u2019s. At the little brewery on U.S. Route 9 across the from the corn fields and housed in an old lighting factory, the Suarez family makes exquisite Pilsners and Pale Ales alongside what they call Country Beers\u2014those that are barrel-aged or wild-fermented, but still every bit as delicate and balanced. Their taproom is family-friendly, in large part because they have a small, young family of their own. How could it not be? Our Editorial Director Austin L. Ray\u2019s profile of the brewery in 2016 was something of a coveted assignment amongst our team, and one of the few that Austin claimed for himself. It\u2019s a moving portrait. You should read it. But like any small business so closely tied to the family that runs it, there\u2019s struggle, too. And it\u2019s about more than just making ends meet. While the beers may be the epitome of balance, balancing one\u2019s life is every bit as difficult and necessary. Managing the start-up pace of a small, hands-on brewery, expanding the market for those beers via delivery runs to New York City, raising a toddler, and maintaining a busy taproom that\u2019s increasingly becoming a destination for beer fans? These things, perhaps even more than trying to crack the code on these so-called \u201ccrispy little beers,\u201d are what\u2019s keeping Taylor and Dan Suarez up at night. Not that you\u2019d believe they struggle with anything. Their reputation for being very relaxed, chill folks with a small town brewery is, at least on the surface, the epitome of the small brewer dream in America. Taking a deeper look, as we do today, will only make you love them more.