Penn Brewery Announces Transition to New Ownership

PITTSBURGH, PA (PittsburghNewsWire.com) — Penn Brewery is pleased to announce the sale of the company to Stefan Nitsch, Pittsburgh-based businessman and owner of Arkham Realty. After thirteen years helming the Brewery, outgoing owners Sandy Cindrich, Linda Nyman, and Corey Little plan to retire.

 

“With the youngest of the partners’ children now graduated from high school, we’re eager to have the flexibility to spend more time with spouses, traveling, and pursuing other passions we’ve been putting on hold,” said Sandy Cindrich, who served as Penn’s President and CEO. Cindrich added, “In an era when so many small and mid-sized breweries are being bought up by large corporate entities, it was very important to us that as a ‘quintessentially Pittsburgh’ institution, Penn Brewery remain locally based and independently owned. We’re beyond thrilled to pass the torch to Stefan to maintain the tradition.”

 

Nitsch added, “I’m tremendously excited to take the reins at Penn Brewery. Having spent my childhood in Austria and Switzerland, and my adulthood in Pittsburgh, I’m a huge fan of Penn’s “Euro-Pittsburgh” branding and look forward to growing the business and bringing it to the next generation of Penn consumers.”

 

The Penn Brewery brand was launched in 1986 by Tom Pastorius, who also opened the Brewery’s flagship Northside restaurant in 1989. Since purchasing Penn in 2009, Cindrich, Nyman, and Little expanded the restaurant to a satellite location at the Pittsburgh International Airport; won multiple Great American Beer Festival® and World Cup Beer® medals; and most recently, successfully competed for a $40K grant from American Express and the National Trust for Historic Preservation under the “Backing Historic Small Restaurants” program, making Penn one of just 25 restaurants nationwide to earn this distinction in 2022.

 

Nitsch’s first order of business as Penn’s new owner will be to kick off the Brewery’s annual Oktoberfest celebration, slated for the weekends of September 16-18 and 23-25.

 

Penn Brewery, opened in 1986, is Pittsburgh’s oldest and largest brewery. Penn specializes in award-winning German-style craft beers and serves traditional “Euro-Pittsburgh” fare including wurst, schnitzel, pierogi, and goulash, in its restaurants.  Penn is independently owned and operated. For more information, visit the company website, www.pennbrew.com or contact Linda Nyman at 412-237-9400, X-104