A new business is bringing a unique idea to Rochester's St. Paul Quarter.
"It takes the idea of a microbrewery and a specialty coffee roaster and merges the two together. What we're looking to do is blend our uppers and downers together," said Jon Mervine, one of the three co-owners of Split Batch Brewing.
He and his partners won the Retailent Rochester contest, with the grand prize of a year of rent-free space at 155 St. Paul St.
Mervine used to work at Roc Brewing and his partners, Jarred Foster and Wade Reed, were at Joe Bean Coffee Roasters. They got together decided to combine their experience and experiment with “coffee beer”.
"The whole idea is to do coffee beers that you didn't expect to be dark - like coffee porters or coffee stouts, so we started thinking of coffee IPAs, coffee Belgian ales, and so on and so forth," Mervine said.
"You're going to pick up a lot of nuance and a lot of subtlety of the coffee in the aromatics, whether you add it on the hot side or cold side, but you're still going to get the hoppy and yeast profile, and some of the malt coming through. It's never going to be two dimensional."
Coffee beer isn't a new idea. Foodrepublic.com offered a top ten list of the combo brew in 2013.
Split Batch will also serve up your favorite beverages the traditional way – separately, as well as brunch food and snacks in the evening.
Mervine is excited about opening the business in the St. Paul Quarter some time in 2016.
"There's just a lot of energy there that's positive and we feel that we're going to one of the first to help revitalize that. I think over the next few years, it's really going to be a destination in Rochester to go to."
Hive Properties says it may use the Retailent concept to fill vacant storefronts in other parts of the city.
