A desire for balance — in life and in beer — has lead three partners to open their own craft brewery in Ross.
“A good beer is balanced in its sweetness and bitterness,” said Rob Houston, co-founder and operations manager for Balance Brewing, whose philosophy of balance extends to his employees.
“People in this industry can be very passion driven,” he said. “We want to make sure our employees have a good work-life balance and they’re not at work all the time by necessity or drive. We want to make sure they take time for themselves and have that balance as well.”
Located on Babcock Boulevard near McKnight Road, Balance Brewing had its soft opening March 19. A grand opening is in the works for sometime this spring.
It occupies the former home of Necromancer Brewing, which closed in February 2024 after being open for three years. Described as a financial decision, the closing also scuttled their plans for a second location, Midnight Whistler Pub, in Greenfield.
The building was originally built for USA Baby, a children’s furniture store.
Houston, 45, a native of Gainesville, Fla., moved from Atlanta to Shaler in 2019 with his wife, Rebekah Fitzsimmons, an associate teaching professor of professional communications at Carnegie Mellon University’s Heinz College. They have a son, 9, and daughter, 3.
It was her career that brought them to Pittsburgh. Now, it’s his turn.
But, “he’s contractually obligated to have a dark beer on tap at all times,” Fitzsimmons said.
Houston’s main partner is brewer Matt Gibb. Their third partner, Drew Smith in Atlanta, handles the finances.
Fitzsimmons said Gibb is “very talented. Matt has yet to brew something I don’t like.”
Houston got started in beer in Atlanta and met and became friends with Gibb at Hitchhiker Brewing in Sharpsburg, where Gibb was the head brewer. Around 2020, they started talking about having a place of their own and how they’d do things differently.
“I saw an opportunity here in Pittsburgh,” Houston said. “Pennsylvania is an easy state to open a brewery in. There’s no limit to what we can sell through these doors.”
After working on a business plan for several years, they started looking at properties, including locations in Lawrenceville and Emsworth. Houston knew Lauren Hughes, the head brewer at Necromancer, and its closure was opportune.
“Building out a brewery is not cheap,” Houston said. “It was a unique opportunity to move in and get a brewery running for less capital than was required.”
They’ve enlarged the taproom to 3,400 square feet, more than double the size of Necromancer, but it was recently still a blank slate. A mural and some woodwork and art were planned to give it personality.
Unlike Necromancer, they don’t have seating in their production area. They’re starting with a seven barrel brewhouse that can produce up to 1,000 barrels per year, which Houston said they plan to expand.
There are nine taps with a variety of beers, which Houston said they want customer feedback on so they can narrow in on a core lineup. Their signature brew is a house lager, available in-house only at $5 for a 16-ounce pour.
“We wanted to produce a beer that was economical to produce,” Houston said. “Even when things are tight, you can come out and get a good beer.”
In addition to beer, they have Goodlander cocktails, wine from Pittsburgh Winery, and, in cans, Stateside vodka soda, Surfside vodka, and Arsenal seltzer and hard cider. Non-alcoholic beverages includes a variety of Barmy sodas.
“Our goal is to be a space where you want to be whether you like craft beer or not,” Houston said.
An unfinished room on the other end of the taproom is planned to become an event space by fall. There will also be outdoor seating.
While there are limited snack options, Balance Brewing does not have a kitchen and most food will come from a variety of food trucks, Houston said. To start, they’ll be there every Friday and Saturday and most Thursdays and Sundays, with plans for having them other days later into the spring.
The Balance Brewing staff consists of a full-time taproom manager, a ful-ltime bartender and six part-time bartenders.
Houston said they want to foster a sense of community at Balance, as Necromancer had.
“We want to be a place where anybody in the community feels comfortable coming,” he said.