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| Bob Craven |
The new owners of a Queensbury brewery have hired a veteran of the local brewing scene to oversee the operation.
Bob Craven is the new general manager of Glens Falls Brewing Co. in Queensbury, created three years ago by the Davidson Brothers Brewing Co. of Glens Falls and now owned by
Northern Eagle Beverages Inc. of Oneonta.
The sale was
announced in July and finalized last month, but terms were not made public. The 22,000-square-foot brewery was constructed in a former movie theater by local businessmen John and Rick Davidson in 2013. They now are concentrating their efforts on their Glens Falls brewpub, Davidson Brothers Brewing, which they founded in 1996.
Craven was hired as general manager of Shmaltz in 2013 when it created its first standalone brewing facility, in Clifton Park. Previously, he was general manager of Olde Saratoga Brewing.
At the time of the closing, Northern Eagle president George Allen said he and company chairman Lou Hager Jr. have plans to expand the Queensbury operation. That would be in line with their actions with Northern Eagle, a distributor of Budweiser and Michelob beer that sells and delivers 800,000 cases a year in a three-county area, a significant number given the relatively small population of Otsego, Chenango, and Delaware counties.
This is not the first acquisition by Northern Eagle. In 2014 it purchased the Cooperstown Brewing Co., and started a hops farm just outside Cooperstown. In the first year of ownership of Cooperstown, the company said, production was increased from 2,000 to 10,000 cases of beer. At the time the Glens Falls Brewing purchase was announced, Allen said a canning line and the addition of non-alcoholic beverage lines to the brand’s portfolio were part of the projected changes.
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