Our Story

Ithaca Beer opened its brewery back on December 4th, 1998. The company has been growing by about 25% every year since (IS THIS ACCURATE INFO? DO WE WANT TO CHANGE THIS OUT FOR OTHER INTERESTING INFO?), and is planning on another 35% growth this year, excluding The Taproom.

Dan Mitchell, our founder, grew up here in the Finger Lakes Region, and after 2 years at Hobart College just up the road in Geneva, decided to take a break and go to California to help a buddy of his with a student-run house painting company. It was there that he got the “entrepreneurial bug”!

Dan moved back to Ithaca, got into Cornell University, and while bartending to pay his way through school, got into a conversation with a couple patrons about the question, “Why doesn’t Ithaca have its own brewery?”. It was this conversation that sparked all of this you see before you.

At that time, the mid-nineties, there were few Craft Brewers around. Sam Adams and Pete’s Wicked Ale were the big players, as well as Saranac and Yeungling. Dan decided to look into it, and after borrowing $5,000 from his roommate, and not first investor, created the Ithaca Beer brand.

Having only that money he borrowed from his roommate, and only a few hundred of his own, Dan decided to contract his first beers from the closest brewing he was able to contact, The Chicago Brewing Company. The Ithaca brand was launched on October 6th, 1996, at a fundraiser for the Kitchen Theatre. Distribution was very limited to start, and it was shortly after the launch that Dan was told The Chicago Brewing Company was going out of business.

Not deterred, Dan had to decide whether to contract again with someone else, or go it alone. He did the latter, lucky for us!

Roughly 2 years later, he had raised about $30k, and managed to purchase a 10 bbl system from a small brewpub in Austin, Texas.