By Christine Graf
Common Roots Brewery of South Glens Falls has opened its long-anticipated sister location, the Common Roots Brewery Albany Outpost, at 19 Quakenbush Square in Albany. Located in the former home of the Albany Pump Station, the restaurant and taproom is owned by father and son Bert and Christian Weber.
The Weber’s purchased the Albany property from the late Cornelius “Neil” Evans, the founder of the C.H. Evans Brewing Albany Pump Station. About 18 months ago, Evans reached out to the Webers, asking if they would be interested in purchasing the building as well as additional business assets.
“The deal was in the works for a while,” said Christian Weber. “We completed the details of the sale in May but didn’t close on it until November.”
Evans died just one month after the deal was finalized, passing away in June at the age of 78.
After assuming ownership of the Pump Station, the Webers totally gutted the facility, installing a new kitchen, taproom, and bar. They also added new bathrooms and purchased new furniture for the facility.
“We reopened at the end of February, rebranded as the Common Roots Brewery Albany Outpost,” said Weber. “We’re really excited because we’ve always wanted to have an outpost facility in the Capital Region. We feel like we’ve created and cultivated this wonderful experience at Common Roots, and we want to create that same experience in Albany.”
The Albany Outpost serves food sourced from within a 100-mile radius, with everything prepared in-house. The menu features burgers, salads, wraps, pizza, and bar snacks.
Private events can be hosted in the spacious second floor of the Outpost. When that space is not reserved, it is used to accommodate restaurant and taproom overflow.
As part of their purchase agreement with Evans, the Webers also acquired the C.H. Evans Brewing trademark. The brand dates back to 1786, at which time the C.H. Evans Brewery was established in Hudson. The brewery operated there until the 1920s, closing its doors during prohibition. Evans revived his family’s brand in 1999, opening the C.H. Brewing Albany Pump Station in a building that once housed a city water pumping station.
“All three of our facilities will now have C.H. Evans beers on draft. Those beers are now part of our portfolio,” said Weber. “Everything is brewed at the moment in South Glens Falls, but there is a brew system down in Albany that we will be working on during our phase two. We will be working on some fun taproom-only beers that will be available in South Glens Falls and Albany, but all of our production beer comes out of South Glens Falls.”
The Common Roots Brewery Albany Outpost has 30 employees, many of whom were previous employees of the Albany Pump Station. An additional 60 employees are employed in South Glens Falls where the company operates its flagship restaurant and taproom, its brewery, and the Common Roots Bierhall & Barrel House. Opened in 2023, the Bierhall is a private event space with a café that serves breakfast on weekdays.
The Common Roots Brewery distributes its products throughout the Northeast, and last summer, the company added the Common Roots Coffee company to its portfolio. Sold and served in all of their restaurants, the coffee is also used as an ingredient in select varieties of beers.
In addition to operating for-profit businesses, Common Roots established a non-profit, the Common Roots Foundation. To date, it has distributed more than $150,000 in funds to the local community.
“With our expansion to Albany, we’ve added some more board seats in order to add some people from Albany to our board of directors for the foundation,” said Weber. “As our for profit company grows, we’re excited to see our foundation grow with it.