Newly-opened Nyack brewery is creating beer 'to gather over'

Craft beer is shifting from an endless pursuit of limited-release hazy IPAs, slushie sours, and pastry stouts from hype breweries to something a little more traditional and community-minded. Newly opened in Nyack, Marlowe Artisanal Ales is ready to help usher that shift in.

“People are no longer waiting in lines for cans when they can order beer online or grab it in grocery stores,” Marlowe founder Zac Ross says of the pandemic’s impact on how breweries sell their beer. Now, the driving force behind raising a pint is getting together. “Marlowe makes sense for people wanting to gather and hang out. It’s more like a pub.”

Ross recently opened Marlowe in the former Two Villains space on Main Street. Ross says they took more down than they put up, true to Marlowe’s minimalist, approachable ethos that allows patrons to focus on their company, their conversations, and their beer.

The pared-back space became a blank canvas for Carla Waclawski, a fellow brewer and talented artist who’s collaborated with Ross on Marlowe's label art. She created hand-painted signage and a mural to personalize the taproom, while details like bone tap handles lend a little moody curiosity.

“When you walk into the taproom it’s clear that there is meticulous attention to every detail,” says Melissa Jones, a Connecticut-based photographer who has shot Marlowe beers since the beginning. “A curation of beer and decor that reminds me that while I’m inside, everything we consume, both with our eyes and mouths has come from the outside. As a longtime fan of Marlowe Ales, it’s really wonderful that so many more people are now able to experience [Ross’s] vision and approach to craft beer.”

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Finding a beer and life balance

Having brewed at some of the craft beer industry’s most renowned breweries, Ross has long wanted to create beers that enhance life experiences instead of being the experience. His journey started at Voodoo Brewing Co. in Meadville, Pennsylvania, where he was so driven to learn the beer ropes he worked for free for six months. After being hired and working at the brewpub for two years, he moved to Richmond, Virginia to work as an assistant brewer and beer buyer for craft beer hotspot The Answer Brewpub.

Eventually, Ross found himself falling a bit out of love with beer, and when a part-time job at Commonwealth Brewing Company turned into an offer for a full-time position, it motivated him to return home to Pennsylvania and Voodoo while he worked toward a goal of joining the Navy. Learning he was color-blind took that ambition off the table, but when Ross considered returning to beer, he had conditions.

“I wanted to make beer for a greater purpose than just getting people drunk,” Ross says. He read about a head brewing job at Kent Falls Brewing Co. in Kent, Connecticut and the brewery’s “greater purpose,” partnering with local suppliers and farmers, felt like a fit. After brewing there for 2 ½ years, an opportunity at yet another sought-after brewery, Aslin Beer Co., called him back to Virginia, but when that role felt like a step away from the intentional journey he’d embarked upon, a job offer with the promise of starting his own business brought Ross back again to Connecticut.

“Before I even started, I told the owners I wanted a small brewpub with minimal distribution and a kitchen where I could make tacos … within five years, and they were okay with it,” Ross recalls. He stepped into a head brewer role at Twelve Percent Beer Project, a distributor, contract brewer, and taproom in North Haven, Connecticut. Ross got to work shaping his own brand, launching Marlowe Artisanal Ales in the fall of 2019, but Twelve Percent’s business model meant Ross was busy brewing for some of the country’s buzziest breweries simultaneously — no mean feat.

“[Marlowe] beers might be balanced but my life was anything but at the time,” Ross says with a laugh. “When I first started [at Twelve Percent], I was working 60 to 80 hours a week, no sleep, brewing for other people. But I still found moments to take a step back and figure out what I wanted to do.” Learning to take those pauses were a useful exercise, Ross adds. On top of his regular workload, he ran Marlowe largely through Instagram. “It was not the most efficient but thankfully people liked the beers.”

Remembering a grandfather

Making gathering-friendly beer felt worth the dedication, and there’s one thing about the brand even more personal to Ross than that mission: Marlowe is his late grandfather’s name.

“We were trying to figure out what the logo should be and my mom found the piece of music my grandfather had composed for [my parents’] wedding, this simple and beautiful signature. Rather than some symbol that could mean anything, it’s this signature from my grandfather on this piece of music that essentially created me, being for my parents’ wedding.” Ross adds how special it is to enjoy Marlowe beers at family gatherings and feel like his grandfather is there with them.

To introduce Marlowe Artisanal Ales with its focus on coming together to enjoy beer that tastes like beer, Ross kicked things off with Eager to Share, a 5.4% pale ale.

“I wanted a beer that embodied the entire spirit of Marlowe,” he says. Setting a tone for future Marlowe beers to follow, it’s a simpler beer still boasting the flavor of bigger beers without the hefty alcohol percentage. Using social media, Ross shared with a quickly growing audience where they could find Eager to Share, and the pale ale took off. It became one of the top 100 beers on beer-rating app Untappd in that first year. In fact, Marlowe was becoming so popular, the need for its own space arose years before Ross anticipated.

“We were getting this following and people were asking me where they could find my beer and I didn’t really have an answer.” Twelve Percent handles Marlowe’s distribution, but suddenly, the brand had proven big enough to warrant its own homebase.

How he ended up in Nyack

At a beer festival in Albany, Ross met Travis Koester, owner of The Local Tap House. Hearing about the search for a Marlowe home, Koester told Ross he might have an idea. Ross had never been to Nyack but stopped by on his way to a wedding so Koester could show him 132 Main Street, where Two Villains Brewing was on its way out. The brewhouse equipment was all still set up; there was even leftover grain, Ross says. “I immediately fell in love.”

The road to opening was faster than most breweries could dream, with three weeks of transitioning from one brewing company to its successor, then six weeks of prep from the Marlowe team.

As for the beer, some of it is still brewed at Twelve Percent though Ross makes as much as he can in the Nyack brewpub’s seven-barrel brewhouse. There are eight taps to showcase Marlowe’s variety. Eager to Share is now a series updated with different single hops, like Eager to Nectaron, dry-hopped with Nectaron hops. When we spoke, Ross was about to get a helles-style lager in the tank within the next couple days, and planning to brew a brown ale. Patrons can expect beers like these traditional German and English styles alongside IPAs and pale ales that pack big hoppy flavors into easy-drinking, lower-ABV iterations, plus a knowledgeable staff to walk anyone through the options. To take beer home, Ross is reviving the glass growler, citing its eco-friendliness and ability to keep beer fresh, plus there will be limited crowlers (32-ounce aluminum cans filled to order).

The food menu concentrates on “simple hand-helds,” Ross says, circling back to his passion for tacos. There will be five different varieties, including a vegan option. There will also be a smash burger, a Nashville hot chicken sandwich as well as a mushroom version, hummus, salad, and a pickle dip Ross invented that “people who don’t even like pickles are raving about.”

Ross is happy, too, that this is happening in Nyack, a community he feels is perfect for Marlowe. Nyack has felt welcoming since before the brewpub opened, he says, remembering a dinner at DPNB with Kloester after viewing the space. “After that, the [DPNB] owner Tony [Scotto] reached out and said, ‘Hey, I’m excited about the potential of you being here; if you need anything let me know.’” Ross notes what a warm welcome that was, and what that told him about the Nyack community. “I knew this was the right spot.”

So far, Ross says, even if it’s a cliché, it’s been a “dream come true” to welcome people into a home of Marlowe’s own. “It’s always been the goal, to see it executed and executed well. We’ve been pretty deliberate with how we want to make things and present things and welcome people … Now to have regulars within the first week? We have a cool thing going here.”

If you go

Marlowe Artisanal Ales is located at 132 Main St. in Nyack; open 3 p.m. to 10 p.m. Wednesday to Friday, noon to 10 p.m. Saturday, noon to 6 p.m. Sunday. 845-480-5495; marloweales.com.

Courtney Iseman is a freelance writer. Contact her at metro@lohud.com

This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Marlowe Artisanal Ales opens in Nyack, offering craft beer