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This post is one in a partnership between the Rochester Beacon and veteran reporter Will Cleveland, featuring articles published on his Substack site, Cleveland Prost.
Ken Johnson knows the joke. He’s probably told it himself.
Opening a brewery in 2026, in Upstate New York, in Ontario County—in a beer market that has very clearly exited its growth-at-all-costs era—is not something you do because the odds are wildly in your favor. The easy money days are gone. The novelty bump has worn off. Distribution is tighter, tap handles are scarcer, and even loyal drinkers are making more deliberate choices with their time and their dollars. Closures now get more headlines than openings, and new breweries don’t automatically arrive with a built-in victory lap.
And yet.
Johnson, 61, and his business partner, Jeff Roberge, are moving forward anyway. Not blindly. Not nostalgically. But with a kind of grounded resolve that feels increasingly rare in craft beer—the belief that if you build something honest, useful, and rooted in place, it still has a shot. Maybe not to explode. But to last.
Wheel Works Brewing is slated to open this spring at 1755 Pioneer Road in Shortsville, inside a building that already knows a thing or two about making things move.
“It started life back in the 1800s as a wooden wheel manufacturing facility,” Johnson says. It’s the sort of detail that feels almost suspiciously perfect for a brewery called Wheel Works—except in this case, it’s simply true.
The building itself is substantial. In total, the space measures roughly 18,000 square feet, with Wheel Works occupying a portion of it and plenty of room left for future ideas. A full commercial kitchen is part of the plan (Johnson has been buying used kitchen equipment and dining room furniture in preparation), along with a full liquor license, private event space, and an adjoining recreation room that could eventually house a golf simulator, darts, and maybe even bowling lanes. (Yes, real lanes—Johnson says the space is big enough.) Outdoor dining is also part of the long-term vision. Along with that, there’s an exterior space that will be converted to a three-season room.
The real secret weapon, though, sits just beyond the walls. The property features roughly 800 feet of frontage along the Canandaigua Outlet, right next to public access. It’s not a token patio or a view you have to squint to appreciate. There’s water, wildlife, and the kind of quiet that feels earned rather than manufactured.
“It’s a great space,” Johnson says. “There are a couple of eagles that hang around nearby. There’s a lot of wildlife. We really think it’s going to be a nice outdoor space. We’ll bring in some entertainment. We’re focused on the outdoor space and the experience as much as anything else.”
That focus on experience isn’t accidental—it’s a response to where beer is right now, particularly in a place like Ontario County. This region is full of good breweries. Very good ones. The Finger Lakes no longer needs another spot just to prove it can make competent beer. What it needs—and what drinkers increasingly expect—are places that understand why people still go out for beer at all.
“A lot of people are gonna think we’re nuts doing what we’re doing in the current environment,” Johnson says. “We’re going to have to rely on marketing and word of mouth, because we’re not going to get a lot of drive-by traffic where we’re at.”
That honesty goes a long way. Shortsville has long been a pass-through village, a place you drive by on your way to Canandaigua, Geneva, or somewhere deeper into the Finger Lakes. Wheel Works isn’t pretending it sits on a bustling main drag. Instead, it’s betting that if you give people a reason to stop—and a reason to come back—they will.
“It’s kind of a crowded brewery market, but I think focusing on the food and the experience and putting out quality beer, maybe we can bring some more people into the area,” Johnson says. “But we know we’re going to need something more than beer (to attract people).”
Johnson comes to the project from the trucking industry, where he’s spent more than 40 years and currently owns Farmington-based Leonard’s Express. Logistics, maintenance, and thin margins are familiar territory. Beer may be romanticized, but Johnson’s background keeps things grounded. He has deep roots in the community, noting that his family moved to Canandaigua in 1972 when he was a kid.
“My accountant said the only business worse than the trucking business is the restaurant business,” Johnson says with a laugh. “I figured I’d challenge him to find out.”
His partner, Roberge, brings decades of hospitality experience to balance that pragmatism. Roberge has been in the food and hospitality business for 35 years, and he and his wife, Kim, have owned Sweet Times Bakery in Victor since 1990. That kind of longevity doesn’t happen by accident. It happens by understanding your community, adjusting when necessary, and not confusing trends with fundamentals.
The building’s landlord—a longtime friend of Johnson’s who is also in the restaurant business—wanted to see the space developed and believed in the project enough to help make it happen. That relationship matters, especially at a time when many brewery projects collapse under the weight of rent, debt, and unrealistic expectations before they ever pour a pint.
On the brewing side, Wheel Works is working with Ultimate Brew Service, a local manufacturer of brewing equipment, to install a seven-barrel system. The size is intentional—large enough to support the taproom and events, small enough to stay flexible in a market where overproduction has sunk more than a few breweries. Johnson hopes to hire an experienced brewer to lead production.
“Being in trucking, I know mechanical stuff,” Johnson says. The team has taken a hybrid approach, buying some used equipment while ordering new mechanicals from UBS. During construction, they jack-hammered out the existing concrete floors to redo drainage and prepare the space for brewing. In the process, they uncovered steel wagon axles embedded in the concrete—relics from previous tenants who used them as reinforcement. Old wheels, new wheels.
The origin of Wheel Works will sound familiar to anyone who has ever homebrewed.
“Every homebrewer thinks about it from the start,” Johnson says. He’s been homebrewing for more than a decade, and serious conversations about turning that passion into a business began about three years ago. Like most brewery projects that actually come to life, it wasn’t impulsive. It was slow, deliberate, and shaped by reality rather than fantasy.
The beer lineup and kitchen menu are still being finalized, but the philosophy is already clear. (Johnson and Roberge are both big fans of European lagers. Johnson adds he’s also fond of the modern style of West Coast IPAs that feature a lighter malt profile. Roberge, Johnson says, likes stouts and porters more.) Wheel Works isn’t trying to out-weird anyone or chase the loudest corner of craft beer. The goal is trust—the idea that you can order something unfamiliar without feeling like you’re gambling your evening. Noting that he didn’t come up with this, Johnson says to expect “gourmet casual” food. “Doing it well, not frozen stuff from Sysco. Making stuff fresh in-house.”
That restraint matters, especially in a region as crowded with good beer as the Finger Lakes. Wheel Works isn’t trying to compete with larger breweries on volume or novelty. Instead, it’s carving out its own lane as a place you can rely on. Consistency isn’t flashy, but it’s powerful—and increasingly rare.
There’s also something refreshing about how Wheel Works fits into the rhythm of Shortsville itself. This isn’t a destination built in spite of its surroundings; it’s shaped by them. You can imagine locals stopping in after work, groups lingering longer than planned, neighbors using the brewery as a meeting point rather than an event. It feels less like a stop on a beer trail and more like a community living room that happens to pour pints.
Asked why they wanted to bring a brewery to Shortsville, Johnson’s answer is simple. “It’s about the building,” he says. “We thought we could build a brand and an experience around that.” They looked elsewhere, but nothing quite fit. “We’re going to have to bring people to Shortsville,” he adds. “But it’s not far from Rochester, not far from Geneva, Canandaigua, Syracuse. We hope to bring people here—and have them visit the other breweries around here, too.”
That cooperative mindset feels very 2026. The Finger Lakes beer scene is maturing. Breweries aren’t trying to be everything anymore. They’re leaning into what they do well, embracing consistency, and trusting drinkers to notice. Wheel Works fits neatly into that moment—confident without being complacent, approachable without being boring.
Ideally, Wheel Works hopes to be open by the time of the annual Wild Water Derby on April 26, which bills itself as the state’s largest homemade rafting event. Johnson admits that timeline is optimistic, and that later in the spring is more realistic. Either way, the wheels are in motion.
What excites me most about Wheel Works is what it suggests about the future of small-town breweries in this region. Not every place needs to be a destination brewery with national attention or viral releases. There’s real value—and real joy—in breweries that serve their communities first and the wider beer world second.
In a plain-spoken and matter-of-fact manner, you can sense Johnson’s excitement.
“I joke that it’s peer pressure (that led him to opening a brewery),” Johnson says. “I’ve been doing what I’m doing for over 40 years now. It’s not that I want to stop doing (trucking); I still enjoy it. I also want to do something a little different, a different challenge.
“I truly just enjoy the whole process of coming up with a recipe, brewing it, and seeing if people enjoy it. That’ll be the same even if I’m not the one brewing it.”
Will Cleveland is a Rochester Beacon contributing writer. A former Democrat and Chronicle reporter, he writes about beer in the Finger Lakes region and Western New York on Substack.
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