Home Brewing to Lavery Brewing

Jason Lavery, the owner of Lavery Brewing in downtown Erie, grew up in Albion, Pennsylvania and received his masters in communication from Edinboro University. After having a hard time finding a job that he enjoyed that was in his field of interest he began to home brew with the help of his brother. 15 years later after working at other breweries, Jason and his wife opened Lavery Brewing where they now brew their own flagship beer (Dulachan).

Lavery brewpub has been open for eight years now has been expanding ever since then. They offer over 30 beers and brew some of their own in house, have fourteen beers on tap, just installed two 600 and three 200 gallon brewing tanks. At first Lavery was just a brewery and going into food service was accidental, because the Liquor Control Board told them that they needed to have food if they were going to be selling alcohol. When they first began serving food, they were just giving away appetizers or small small samples of food all for free.

Right now, their biggest competitors are the bigger chains like Buffalo Wild Wings and especially since people do not want to drive from places like Meadville to downtown when they could just go to the chains. Despite the competition from chains, they still find success and have a good time doing it when they are making their new styles of beer, brewing, and pairing the beers with food. Along with having a good time they are also sure to make the beer of good quality and their employee's of good quality. By treating their employees really well with respect and freedom they in turn take care of the customers really well. When Jason and his employees are able to see the customers enjoying and embracing their meals and drinks it gives them all satisfaction working there.

Some of their most popular menu items are the pretzels and beer cheese which is made with their flagship beer, their Sunday brunch special menu, their taco Tuesdays, and their pasta and pizza Thursdays. They even have happy hour at 8 p.m. which is some of their busiest times along with Saturdays after 2 in the afternoon. Jason's favorite menu item is their electric wizard sandwich which him and his employees have with a salad. Their beer is a secret recipe and they make around 600,000 gallons per year, and a third of their production is their flagship beer.

For Jason, being able to watch his business that he created grow from something small into what it is today, makes him want to keep growing the business. Seeing people love and believe in it has inspired him to plan on opening another brewpub in a different area in the near future.

Lavery Brewing is located at 128 W 12 St. Erie, PA
Their hours are Monday and Tuesday 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.
                         Wednesday - Saturday 11 a.m. to 12 a.m.
                          Sunday (Brunch) 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
They can be contacted at 814-454-0405