Hello, I am Manny Salvatori and I am Brewer & Co-Owner of Blind Cat Beer Company, a 5 BBL brewery that I run with my wife, Brittany, in Downtown Pittston, Pennsylvania. Blind Cat Beer Co is an Earth-friendly brewery where we have a strong focus on sustainability, community, and inclusivity. We opened at the end of November 2024 brewing a wide variety of styles and things have been going great so far! We are about to have 6 different lagers available in the taproom which I was not expecting, and we are stoked!
Motivations
We were both born and raised in NEPA, but we spent a good chunk of our lives in NYC where I spent most of my brewing career as the Lead Brewer at The Bronx Brewery before coming back home and opening Blind Cat Beer Co near family and old/new friends! Blind Cat Beer Co is a tribute to our 2 blind cats, Cricket and Weezy, and a way for us to spotlight special needs shelter pets. Quality is of course super important and the quality we get from Double Eagle Malt has been outstanding!
Choosing Local
Sourcing as locally as possible is always important to us. Since using Double Eagle Malt in September, I really enjoy the Pennypack Pilsner malt in our German-Style Pilsner, Cricket. I do add a few small amounts of other malts, but I feel like Pennypack helps give the beer a nice rustic, old school vibe. Sourcing locally is tough with exotic fruits, but aside from that we are always looking to our closest neighbors.
Championing Local to Customers
Just being able to offer brands made with mostly, if not all, PA malt, and some with all PA hops as well, is something I was never able to do in my past and it’s great to finally have that ability. We are always shooting to use at least 75% local malt throughout the year. As far as specific styles, we have only been brewing for roughly 6 months in our space, so not yet but maybe soon!
The continuous use of local ingredients is always one of the first things we want folks to know we are doing. We share it in our social media posts, on our can labels, and on our menu in the taproom.
Overall, we have had a great response to what we have put out so far. I’m positive the quality of our beer will continue to increase as I learn our equipment a little better and get to brew more unique styles.
Using the Made with PA Grain™ logo
Currently the Made With PA Grain logo is on every label for the cans available in our taproom. We also share the hashtag on social media posts.
Telling the farm-to-glass story to customers is extremely important. Not only does it back up our mission of running an Earth-friendly brewery and taproom but it also makes people aware of how important (and cool) it is to support local agriculture. I’m not sure if any other breweries in our area are using as much local malt as often as us, so it sets us apart in that way.
Final Thoughts
BCBC is a family-friendly and pet-friendly brewery with a cozy, inviting space, where we hope to meet some of you folks reading this in the near future. We also love to collaborate and work together if anyone is interested! If you are thinking of using locally grown and malted grain – Do it! Support your local farms! No Farms, No Food… or malt.
Brewer-to-Brewer is published by Double Eagle Malt in Huntingdon Valley, Pa. Contact JimB@doubleeaglemalt.com with inquiries about being featured in an upcoming release.