Courtesy Common Roots Brewing Co.
Courtesy Fronhofer Design
By Jill Nagy
Common Roots Brewing Co. in South Glens Falls is doubling its brewing capacity and a local company, Fronhofer Design of Cossayuna Lake, is fabricating the vats that will allow them to do it.
Both are local, family-owned, companies.
Common Roots will add four new 20-barrel (620 gallons) fermenting vats and a new 20-barrel “bright tank,” said co-owner Bert Weber.
The bright tank, he said, is for the final conditioning of the beer. It spends a day or two in the tank before being transferred to kegs.
Fronhofer is a 36-year-old steel fabrication company in Washington County, consisting of Fronhofer Tool and Fronhofer Design. Brewery equipment is a relatively new line of work for them.
“They do beautiful work,” Bert Weber said of Fronhofer.
Getting into the brewery niche began about two years ago, according to Paul Fronhofer II, who runs the business along with his brother Kyle. Paul Sr. founded the business in 1980.
Their projects have included a 40-barrel tank for a meadery (a honey-based beverage) in the Bronx, a 70-barrel tank for the Brown’s Brewery facility in Hoosick Falls, and a full-scale brewery in Argyle.
