Pittsburgh-based Top Hat branding agency to open Necromancer Brewing Co. in North Hills

Top Hat, a Pittsburgh-based creative branding agency known for collaborating with the craft beer industry, is opening its own brewery.

Necromancer Brewing Co. is scheduled to open by the end of the year in the North Hills. The exact location will be announced in a few weeks, said Ben Butler, founder and owner of Top Hat.

“I have always wanted to open my own brewery,” said Butler of McCandless. “The focus will be less on trends and more on recipes of beers gone by.”

He plans to resurrect brews of the past such as Schwartz Bier, a black lager, and Kentucky Common, a dark cream ale. He said he trademarked the name Necromancer because it represents someone who communicates with the dead, a resurrection of bringing beers back to life.

Through its campaign “Will Work for Beer,” Top Hat helped design labels and marketing campaigns for more than 200 beers locally and across the country.

This brewery will be operating based on pandemic restrictions first, so no tap room to start. Customers can find out what’s happening on the website.

“We are reversing the brewing model,” said Butler, a certified cicerone, the beer industry equivalent of a wine sommelier. “We are opening with canning first. We will invest in a tap room and restaurant later.”

Customers will be able to purchase beer there and at select retail sites. It will be delivered within a 25-mile radius. Through working with breweries, Butler saw the importance of being able to order beer quickly and efficiently online.

The beer will be made by a master brewer, Lauren Hughes of Greenfield, who has been doing some test batches.

“Lauren is as good as it gets,” Butler said. “There aren’t many women head brewers in the industry. It is fun to watch Lauren deconstruct beer.”

Hughes worked locally as assistant head brewer at Penn Brewery, assistant brewer at Rock Bottom Brewery, bar manager at Hitchhiker Brewing and bartender at Hop Farm Brewing. She was tasting room manager at Sun King Brewery in Indianapolis.

They will start with six beers and grow. They will have some available all year while adding others on a rotation.

“This is an awesome opportunity,” Hughes said. “I was a home brewer in college, and I’ve had other jobs using my music degree, which included working for the Pittsburgh Symphony, but I love this more.”