The andrew kirk brewery

The Copper Crow is located in the historic and storied Andrew Kirk Brewery at 904 Broadway in Albany, New York’s North End warehouse district.

As the state Capital of New York, Albany is often associated with politics but after the opening of the Erie Canal system in 1825, the city also quickly became one of the nation’s largest brewing centers. By the middle of the 19th century over twenty city breweries were shipping their famous beers up and down the Eastern Seaboard and Albany Ale could be found as far away as California, South America and the West Indies. By 1852 you’d have to travel all the way to London, England to find breweries larger then those in Albany.

Andrew Kirk, the son of a Scottish immigrant and successful Albany land owner & merchant, along with his partner John Outwin, first established a modest brewery & malthouse at our site in 1832. Based on early maps and drawings it’s believed that the front portion of the current building, now the main floor of the restaurant, was first used as the brewery and the malthouse, no longer standing, was initially located just South of the current building on the other side of Kirk Plaza.

In 1834, Kirk separated from his partner and formed the Andrew Kirk Brewery. By 1838 Kirk had expanded the operation substantially and was selling malt and hogsheads, barrels & half-barrels of his “superior” Albany pale, amber and fall ales from depot locations on Courtlandt St. and James St. in Brooklyn. By the 1840s ales from the “celebrated breweries” of Andrew Kirk could be found in Boston, Philadelphia and other major cities up and down the Eastern seaboard. By 1845, unable to meet the increased demand for his pale and amber ales “hitherto manufactured at his brewery in Albany,” Kirk expanded his Albany and New York City operations to include a second downstate brewery, the Croton Fountain Brewery, and eventually a third brewery on the banks of Normanskill. When Andrew Kirk passed away on the 27th of October, 1857 he, and his ales, had in fact become so famous and held in such high regard that newspapers in Detroit, Buffalo, Baltimore, Washington, DC published notice of his passing.

By the end of the civil war Albany’s prominence as a brewing center had began to wane. Railroads were supplanting the canal system as the major shipping method and the popularity of Albany Ale’s had faded. In 1867, Anthony McQuade sold the property to Wilson & Co.

Well not very famous as a brewer, David Wilson is perhaps better known for ghost writing and editing ‘Twelve Years a Slave’, an 1853 memoir and slave narrative by Solomon Northup, a black man who after being born free in New York was tricked and kidnapped into slavery in the Deep South. Northup was in bondage for 12 years before securing his release with the help of friends and family in New York. At the time it was issued his memoir would help to galvanize antislavery sentiment. The narrative would later be adopted into a 1984 television special and made into a movie in which actor Chiwetel Ejiofor would portray Northup in 2013.

Wilson & Co. operating at 904 Broadway until business partners John Smyth and James Walker purchased the site in 1870. The Smyth & Walker Brewery partnership would continue until Smyth’s retirement in 1877 where upon Walker continued operating the James Walker Brewery until 1879.

From 1882 to 1888 the original Fort Orange Brewing Company operated in the building. In 2017 partners Jim Eaton, Craig Johnson and John Westcott revived Fort Orange Brewing at a new location at 450 North Pearl Street in Albany.

By the end of the 19th century the era of corporate breweries had begun and in 1888 the Municipal Brewing Company took over and operated the brewery for four years. From 1891 to 1898 the Capital Brewing Company took over the location. A short two year occupation by the Consumer’s Brewing Co. in 1903 and 1904 would mark the end of an almost 72 year brewing era.

In the early 20th century cabinetmaker George Spalt and his sons would take over the space at 904 Broadway and the focus of our building would shift from the production of various ales to the crafting of the bars at which the ales would be consumed. In 1937 George Spalt & Sons designed, built & installed the exceptional Art Deco bar at Loch & Quay in Albany. Additional examples of their work can be found at Pauly’s Hotel & Lombardo’s Restaurant. The current and somewhat imposing Dutch Revival facade of the building dates to a 1912 renovation George Spalt & Sons.

After the departure of George Spalt & Sons the building served briefly as the home to Fort Orange Radio Distributing before Kimberly Scott Office Interiors turned the front of the building into a showroom and operated there until 2010 when Mike Graney leased the space and opened an Irish themed pub that would operate successfully for nine years until closing in 2019. The building then served briefly as the home to a second Irish themed pub, Molly O’Bryan’s before the current owners took over the space. 

Readers interested in learning more about the brewing history of Albany should visit the Albany Ale Project’s FaceBook page and pick up a copy of Upper Hudson Valley Beer by authors Craig Gravina and Alex McLeod.