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| Tom and Catherine Bullinger will open The Victor Brewery to the public this Thursday. |
Catherine Bullinger was the first person who ever signed up to take painting lessons with me. She still takes them today. She has an MBA and a very responsible corporate job, so when she told us that her dream job was to be a barmaid, we laughed. It turns out she was serious.
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| Tom is using locally-sourced grains and hops wherever possible. These hops were grown in Victor. I’m looking forward to painting the hop-fields next summer. |
This Thursday, her husband Tom will officially open The Victor Brewery at 6606 State Route 96 in Victor, NY. Tom is one of those creative types who defy easy labels. He is a programmer but his passion is building things. He built his own kayaks and dining room set, and they’re exquisite. Then he moved on to building the brewing system, kettles, sanitizers, coolers, and furnishings for this brewery.
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| Tom made the brewing system and all the furnishings, including this bar and tapboard. I made the paintings of the upper and middle falls at Letchworth behind it. I imagine he’ll be working on the finishing touches right up to Thursday’s opening. |
As Brewmaster, he builds the beer, too. The whole system is elegant, efficient, and computer-driven. “That’s the brains of the operation,” he said, pointing to his laptop sitting on a chair in the corner.
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I bet when Catherine dreamed of tending bar, she never thought about devising systems of washing and disinfecting glasses. Almost unbelievably, Tom did not learn to blow glass and make his own barware.
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I see no reason to waste calories on any food or drink that isn’t top-shelf. Since Tom made the beer for my daughter’s wedding rehearsal, I’ve had a chance to sample rather quite a bit of it, and I think it’s fantastic. I don’t know the language of beer, but let me describe it in my own terms: it’s effervescent and distinctive without being overwhelming, and it tastes fresh and alive.
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| Because of my recent surgery, I can’t lift. So I was forced to sit and quaff beer while Tom and my husband hung this show for me. Pity. |
So when Tom and Catherine asked me to hang a landscape show for the Brewery’s opening, I was tremendously chuffed. I’d had to cancel a show in Maine in December because of my surgery, but Tom and my husband offered to do the heavy lifting while I sat at a table and drank beer.
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| I should have stayed and helped Catherine steam t-shirts. |
Much of the work I’m showing is of local subjects like Keuka, the Erie Canal, Seabreeze, and the mouth of the Genesee. Others are of summery, beer-drinking kinds of places. It will be there through Victor Brewery’s grand opening in March; I hope you get a chance to stop by and raise a glass to it and maybe take home a growler as well.
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| The Victor Brewery is located at 6606 State Route 96 in Victor, NY and opens this coming Thursday. |
Let me know if you’re interested in painting with me in Maine in 2014 or Rochester at any time. Click here for more information on my Maine workshops!