BUFFALO, N.Y. — In their first year in business on Military Road and Hinman in the city's Black Rock neighborhood, Froth Brewing Company has become known in the Buffalo beer space for their sweeter take on sours.
"The other night I had a customer in here saying, 'I never had sours, never liked sours, until I came here,' " co-owner Travis Hale said.
He and his brother, Eli, make up two-thirds of the ownership team behind Froth. They want to make people who don't drink beer into beer drinkers.
"There's a lot of customers that come in, and they're like, 'Oh, I don't like this,' " Eli said. "Chances are about 95 percent of the time, they're like, 'Wow, I didn't expect that.' "
Also unexpected, some of the ingredients that go into Froth brews, such as strawberries, vanilla icing, lollipops, chocolate bars, and marshmallows. Their most popular beer recently has been the "Liquid Lollipop."
"The liquid lollipop is a sour with a thick puree to it, and the Mounds Bar is a stout. A thick stout chocolate, conditioned on coconut. A hundred pounds of it. It's a lot of coconut," Travis Hale said.
Before they got into the beer, Eli was in real estate and Travis was a teacher. They met their future business partner, Jesse McLaughlin, at a bar (where else?) and Froth was born.
"It kind of just worked out," Travis said. "We became best friends. The whole process started about two to three years ago with the friendship and then became this. It's honestly incredible. We didn't expect this.
The team was originally going to set up shop at a smaller location on Hertel Avenue. When that didn't end up working out, they wound up in their current home, with a huge bar and full kitchen. They first opened in January.
"Our first couple months open you couldn't move in here," Travis said. "It was a great problem to have, but we definitely got slammed. More than we thought, we didn't do any advertising. Just social media, and it was packed in here."
Even in the booming Buffalo beer scene, there's still always room for something new.
To stay up to date with the latest with what's on tap at Froth, check out their Facebook page.