Bonded through beer: Penfield's K2 Brothers Brewing opens

Brothers Kyle and Brad Kennedy are the first to admit how different they are.

Kyle, a state corrections officer, looks like he just wrapped up an NFL career. (He's handsome.) Brad, a software engineer, looks like the analytics geek in the NFL front office. (He's also handsome, just in a different way.)

But two things bond them: Beer and family. Together, the Kennedys will open K2 Brothers Brewing, 1221 Empire Blvd., Penfield's second craft brewery, at noon Saturday, Dec. 2.

“You can trust family,” Kyle said. “That’s the best thing about a family business. No matter, what at the end of the day you’re still family.”

"We complement each other. We're complete opposites," Brad added. "We always joked different milkmen. We don't look anything alike, complete different personalities. It's like the right and left side of the brain."

Kyle is more of a talker, able to connect with people quickly. He's more of a doer. Brad is good with troubleshooting and the business side. "He's practical and loaded with common sense," Kyle said. "That's where the two of us complement each other."

The Kennedys are also getting support and expertise from their parents, Dick and Lori. Dick, a retired general contractor, has assisted in much of the demolition and renovation in the massive 10,000-square-foot space. Lori is helping with bookkeeping.

Each of the Kennedy brothers has young children. Brad has four boys and Kyle has two girls. They want K2 to be a welcoming place.

These guys are truly nerdy. Brad has a degree in biochemistry, but currently works as a software engineer. Because of that, there is consistent tweaking.

"I did extract brewing maybe three times and it was just so boring," Kyle said. "The all-grain process is just so cool, especially manipulating every bit of what you put in and tweaking it. You can change so much by just adding 4 more ounces of chocolate, how much darker you can make the color and how much more mouthfeel you can add."

"We love recipe development," Brad said. "We do everything together."

Kyle said K2 has about 35 recipes “set right now that we’ve created.”

Kyle and Brad are all about IPAs. But Brittney, Kyle's wife, loves dark beers. So the brothers created #BeersForBrittney. Kyle said that for every two IPAs they produced, they would have to brew something to keep Brittney happy. That allowed them to expand their portfolio of recipes.

"We will always use real ingredients in our beers," Kyle said. "We will always use real Madagascar vanilla beans. Even though we won't make the profit we will on other beers, you can taste the difference between real ingredients over extracts."

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Brad said K2 will focus on American-style beers. The brothers hope to have eight beers on draft when they open. The list includes a blonde ale, pumpkin spice ale, vanilla porter (this is a real winner), Scotch ale (because you can't be a Rochester-area brewery and not feature the Rohrbach-created Rochester classic), jalapeño cream ale (should pair beautifully with barbecue), double dry-hopped IPA, double dry-hopped Galaxy DIPA and a New York state pale ale.

The Kennedys are big proponents of the hazy, juicy New England-produced IPAs. They also aged a keg of their blonde on blueberries and will feature the vanilla porter served on nitro.

In the future, they plan to have 15 of their 21 taps filled with K2 creations. They want to devote four other lines to local ciders, another to cold brew coffee, and the final tap for carbon dioxide (CO2) purging (to prolong growler shelf life and rid the growler of unnecessary oxygen).

"I am the type of beer snob who likes to have his growler purged," Kyle said. "It just makes a huge difference."

The Kennedys didn't have any interest in operating a kitchen at their brewery. So they talked to area vendors about partnering. They found a perfect partner in Justin McRae and his Midnight Smokin' BBQ. McRae already operates a highly popular food truck. The Kennedys said he will lease the kitchen space from them.

"He's been doing this long enough that he has his own following," Kyle said. "His ribs are outstanding and his beans are the best I've ever had. It's going to be a great partnership. We'll be able to grow together."

The businesses will run seamlessly. You'll be able to order your food at the tasting room bar when you order your beer, the Kennedys said.

The immense size of the space presents some unique opportunities. The Kennedys plan to turn the massive second floor into a private event space. They envision large windows to take advantage of a gorgeous view of Irondequoit Bay. The expansive fenced-in side yard will become a beer garden/patio.

"We see future plans everywhere we look," Brad said. "We want to see this grow."

WCLEVELAND@Gannett.com

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