Business Profile: The Simple Brewer, Somers
Somers resident Greg Gates has long enjoyed brewing his own beer, and he has turned his hobby into a new business.
Gates opened The Simple Brewer on Route 202 in Somers in October for home beer and wine brewers.
“People can come in and get everything they need to make their own beer or wine,” Gates said last week. “I’ve been brewing for many years, mostly beer.”
Gates said he enjoys the beer making process. “I actually think the beer I make taste better than the beer I can buy,” he said. “I do enjoy drinking my beer and I certainly enjoy bringing it to places and parties and it makes for good conversation. It’s nice when people like to drink the beer that I make.”
Gates said the typical batch of beer for home brewers is five gallons. “From start to drinking it, it takes about a month,” he explained.
The first step in the beer making process is creating wort, “the syrupy, hoppy liquid before you put the yeast in,” Gates said. The wort, which is 90 percent water, also includes malted barley, and hopes, takes about an hour to boil and then the yeast is put in to start the fermentation process, he said.
While some brewers add other ingredients to their beer, such as sugar and spices, Gates sticks to the four basic ingredients when he brews beer. “That’s kind of how we came up with the name was simple, by not adding too much stuff,” he said. “It’s really easy to make really good beer if you just keep it simple.”
Gates sells equipment kits that include everything needed to brew and ingredients kits are also sold at The Simple Brewer. An equipment kit “will last you forever,” he said, adding ingredients are also available separately.
The roughly 1,500-square-foot building has two floors and an attic. The building formerly housed The Quilt Shop and later became a physical therapy location. Gates said d it took him about three months to renovate the building. “I did everything myself. I even built the cash registers,” he said.
Though he has opened a business, Gates continues to work at The Children’s Hospital at Montefiore in the Bronx as a physiologist two days a week. “I would like to stay at the hospital if I could. I enjoy that,” he said.
“I’d just like to get everybody brewing their own beer,” Gates said. “It’s a great hobby. It’s something that anybody can do and it’s really easy.”
The Simple Brewer is located at 346 Route 202 (across from the Elephant Hotel) in Somers. For more information, call 914-617-8617, visit simplebrewer.com, send an e-mail to ggates@simplebrewer.com or go to Facebook.
