By Scott Scanlon
(Image above: Griffon Brewery head brewer Todd Eberwine in the Youngstown Brewhouse. All photos by Scott Scanlon)

Three breweries – Everest, Falls and Steelbound – look to make a splash this summer in Niagara Falls, but they’ll need to chase a bigger Kahuna that stepped into the craft beer breech in the region more than a decade ago, and has flourished since.

Griffon pubs sprinkle Military Road in the Falls, the former Water Street Landing along the Niagara River in Lewiston and on Main Street much farther south in East Aurora.

Those locations had more than 270 beers on tap pre-pandemic, before greater competition shook the international craft beer markets as lockdowns waned and drinking habits shifted.

The operation was prepared with lots of options – including Griffon beer brands – as owners Ken Scibetta and Ed Webster launched their own brewery two years ago in the village of Youngstown, a year or more before its three closest rivals opened their Falls area operations.

“We love to cater to the masses and not the classes and not pigeonhole ourselves into one specific type of thing,” Scibetta said recently while dishing out a Neapolitan pizza at brewery, a renovated grocery store on Lockport Street. “I think that’s one of our reasons for success. We’ve always offered everything from food to beer to any style of alcohol. With one trend now being nonalcoholic beverages, our NA program is also top notch.”

Still, beer at Griffon remains king. It’s testament to Webster, who gained the nickname “The Beer God” when the duo owned the Village Pub in Lewiston before closing it in 2014.

“I don’t think you can walk into one of our locations with just our beers on tap, let alone the guest taps, and not find something that you’ll want to drink,” Scibetta said. “If you don’t like a particular style of beer, great. We have 27 other ones.”

Griffon looks to stay ahead of the pack with help from head brewer Todd Eberwine, a 47-year-old city of Tonawanda native who lives in Cheektowaga.

Beermaking is his day job. He’s also frontman and guitarist for the band  eberwine, He’s shared the stage with Derek Trucks, Kenny Wayne Shepard, Los Lobos, Leon Russell, the Tea Party and more.

He fell for craft beer during a concert while in his early 20s, when a friend gave him his first “green beer,” an IPA from Sierra Nevada.

“I was just blown away,” Eberwine said recently, between making batches of Puck Life lager during the Buffalo Sabres’ playoff run. “It was like, ‘What is this?’ So after asking him for several more throughout the course of the day, I went on the hunt to find it locally, and I honestly couldn’t. I could find Saranac Pale Ale, but I couldn’t find the IPA in Buffalo. That was part of the catalyst that got me into home brewing, because if I can’t find it, I guess I got to figure out how to make it, right?”

Eberwine became an award-winning brewer earlier this year, when his Oregon High Five pale ale won a bronze medal in April in the New York State Craft Beer Competition.

“My inspiration was a Sierra Nevada style,” he said.

Four other Griffon beers grabbed state medals the same month in the third annual Untappd Community Awards. Beer drinker ratings put his Monkey Kung Fu White IPA and Old Fort ESB in the gold category, Huge Hefe Nerd in silver and Vow of Silence Belgian Strong Ale in bronze. Monkey Kung Fu also won silver in the national ratings.

Eberwine’s introduction to top regional craft beer-making came as a regular at Flying Bison Brewery in the early 2000s, sharing his homebrews with owner Tim Herzog, the dean of the Buffalo craft beer revival.

“He was very honest and critiqued everything with me,” Eberwine said. “I did my first ever all green batch, and I just loved the results. I brought it into Tim, and he took one sip out of the bottle, and he was like, ‘You got it. Wow!’ That was the first moment where I was like, okay, maybe I can do this.”

His brewing abilities became more pronounced when he took a job in 2019 as head brewer to Thin Many Brewing Company’s lead brewer Rudy Watkins, and the two started turning out batches for one of the most popular city craft brands in the years that followed.

The Griffon owners tapped Eberwine to star in his own brewing gig in early 2024.

Q: Griffon is known for having the most guest beer taps than just about anyone in the region. Why pivot to their own beers, as well?

Ed Webster. The brewery is his baby. Ken is more the food guy. Ed’s the beer guy. He believes in me and the liquid that I’m producing and he’s so happy that it got some recognition.

Q: Talk about your band.

I’m still in something like seven different bands, but I have one primary band that goes by my last name. We have a monthly residency at the Sportsmen’s Tavern every third Thursday. We did some touring in 2022 with our album One Vision. We’re making another record right now and will do a little bit of touring this year.

We’re basically a rock jam and blues quintet. We cover Phish, Grateful Dead, Little Feat, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Clapton. We split up our shows. We’ll play some covers, we’ll play some of our tunes. We recently released a single. It’s getting a little bit of traction, so we’re playing that tune a lot. It’s called, “Shine A Little Light.” (His daughter Lyra Eberwine helps with backing vocals.)

Q: What’s its message?

A feeling that I have about where we are as a society right now. The idea was just kind of shed some light when you see people. You don’t have to immediately assume anything. You could be nice first.

Q: What is your beer-making schedule like on your 10-barrel system?

I was brewing three to four times a week this time last year. It’s intense in the summer. We have four locations, so just keeping them stocked is a thing, and now that we’re into some distribution (Consumer’s, Tops in Lewiston and several other taprooms and drinking establishments). That’s a new challenge. We added another 20-barrel storage tank at the end of last summer, because we couldn’t keep up.

Q: What tend to be your top beers.

Pub Life. That’s our house IPA. It’s a hazy double. Second Street Pilsner is always on. Last summer, we added a light lager at 4% that is now on all the time. It’s called Pub Lite. Another one that seems to be on all the time is Ghost Ship, a porter. While the rotation of it changes, we maintain some sort of Belgian program, which I think is important for us.

Q: What’s your favorite beer to brew?

Oregon High Five. I think it’s the best recipe and most technically sound beer I’ve ever made.

Q: What’s new on tap?

A summer ale, Tasty Waves. I would describe it as an American wheat. It’s going to have that American sharp, crisp finish on it.

Q: You’ve brewed 94 different beers.

There’s only been a few things that really have been remade. Ed and I are enjoying the innovation process of constantly creating something new. It’s like, ‘Hey, we got hold of this cool hops, so we’re going to make a new beer.’ If there’s enough clamoring, we’ll make something again. Ed and I had this idea to make an ESB (Extra Special Bitter English-style pale ale). It sold out so fast. It’s rated over a 4 on Untapped for ESB. I’ve made it three times.

Q: What are popular brands by location?

Up here in Youngstown, we go through a lot of lagers. Lewiston is a very healthy mix of almost every offering we have. Niagara Falls, hazy IPAs are dominant there. In East Aurora, hazy IPAs and the Belgians do super well.

Q: What are you brewing for cans and which have become the most popular?

Over the last year, every batch I make gets some sort of percentage split between package and draft. Every beer that Ed and I come up with, we help create a label, no matter what that run might be. Maybe it’s just 10 cases for our restaurants. It seems that consumers like to take all the IPAs, whether they be West Coast or hazy.

Q: Who designed your beer cans? They’re amazing. Same for your social media pages.

Ed, my business partner, has designed some of them. His son Andrew has designed some of them., Lewiston Digital Owner Matt Villnave is the main designer.

Events on tap

Big Ditch Lockport concert series: 6 p.m. Wednesdays through August. Free for all ages. The July 1 event took place and the Aug. 26 concert will take place in the municipal parking lot behind Big Ditch, 1 East Ave.; the others are in the alley next to the brewery patio. The Gnerous Pour Trio is up July 8 week in the Big Ditch Alley. See the full schedule here.

Spirits tour: $27 a person will get you a 90-minute Deluxe Buffalo Distillery Tour and Tasting at Buffalo Distilling Company one Saturday afternoon each month. The next one up is on Aug. 15. Tours start at 1 p.m. Mike Foti, a certified executive bourbon steward, United Kingdom whisky ambassador and certified spirits judge, will share the history of Buffalo distilling, as well as insights into making fine spirits, during visits to the Tasting Room, Still House production space and the warehouse, called the Rickhouse. A tasting will unfold in each. Private corporate tours are available for up to 30 guests; inquire by email at  info@bflodistilling.com. Buy tour admission tickets here. An undated “gift option” is available in the dates section.

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WNY craft focuses on beer, wine, spirits and other craft beverages across the Buffalo-Niagara region. Have a tip or idea for a column? Email Scott@WNYcraft.com