Staten Island Beer Company View Full Caption

MARINERS HARBOR — A Staten Island homebrewer is moving his suds from his basement to a bar this weekend.

Jonathan Schulman, who started The Staten Island Beer Company, will bring his first commercially available ale to taps at Bootleg Mannings, 2645 Forest Ave., on Saturday.

"It's exciting when you go from basically homebrewing into a commercial aspect," Schulman said.

"After this long wait and just a lot of trial and tribulations, we finally got it going."

Schulman originally wanted to brew the ale, called "Victory Blvd. Pale Ale," in his home borough, but couldn't find the right space. Instead he contracted it out to Broken Bow Brewery in Tuckahoe, New York.

They've already brewed 310 gallons of the beer and recently started a second batch. Schulman runs the company out of a space in Mariners Harbor with his wife and two sons and plans to eventually move the brewing to Staten Island.

"It's one of those things you think is going to be easy and it turned into a whole bigger thing," he said.

"[Brewing upstate] has just been a slight detour to get a brand out there and be able to bring quality beer to Staten Island and give pride to the community."

Aside from Bootleg Mannings, the company plans to be in several other bars and one catering hall in the borough this year and will only be on tap, not bottled or canned.

The company will be the second beer maker to call Staten Island its home after the Flagship Brewing Company opened in May.

Schulman said he plans to focus only on the pale ale for now, but has been cooking up other recipes — all named after Staten Island landmarks.

"We're not in it to make millions of dollars," he said. "We're in it to do a healthy business and make the community proud of us and take pride in themselves."