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Genesee Brewing Company ‘astounded' by community response to tanks on canal project

Alex Crichton

Even officials at the Genesee Brewery are surprised at the community response to the massive beer tanks passing through the Erie Canal.

Twelve 20-foot by 60-foot tanks have been shipped by barge and eventually will be trucked to the brewery and unloaded and put in place.

Director of project management, Mark Fabrizio, says they didn't anticipate the popularity of a project on the 200 year old Erie Canal designed to modify a 140 year old brewery.

"We expected some turnout.  You know, I expected modest groups of people that maybe had an affinity for the canal or appreciated the history of the moment.  The turnout and the passion and the excitement that we've seen, it's just, it's astounded me," he said.

Fabrizio says shipping by canal has been a cost efficient way to get the tanks to Rochester.

He adds the 12 tanks that went down the canal will be put in place through next week, and they’re a key component in Genesee's $49 million dollar expansion project.

"This is where we're going to make the beer.  This is where the beer is going to get fermented. This is where it goes from wort to beer.  Where the yeast does its magic, where we kind of harness that living organism to do its magic, so it's the heart of what we're doing.  Without them, we couldn't do what we're doing," he said.

UPDATE: Genesee says there has been a delay in the ground transportation phase of the project, and a few more logistical details still need to be addressed, so the tanks won't be arriving on Thursday as originally scheduled.

 
Here's Fabrizio talking about making room for the new, smaller fermentation tanks: