TROY HILL — Just under six months after declaring bankruptcy, Penn Brewery is under new ownership under a team including a well-known figure in the Northside business community.
Priory Hospitality Group CEO and president John Graf was joined by beverage-industry veteran Eric Heinauer and a third unnamed partner in taking on the battered brewery. The new ownership was announced in a press conference on Sept. 14.
“We’re all super excited because we came into acquiring Penn Brewery as fans,” Graf told reporters.
The Priory Hospitality Group is the company behind The Priory Hotel and Pittsburgh’s Grand Hall at the Priory, two major landmarks of the Deutschtown neighborhood. Graf told The Chronicle that the brewery fit right in with his existing business’s hospitality focus.
He also noted that the hotel and the brewery both opened in 1986, and that his dad — The Priory Hotel founder Ed Graf — would play St. Nicholas during Christmas-time festivities at the brewery.
Heinauer, meanwhile, has a long history in the beverage industry, including serving for more than 11 years at Penn Brewery under various roles, including director of sales. Other businesses he’s worked at include Pittsburgh Brewing Company, InBev, Straub Brewing and Wigle Whiskey.
Check out the October 2026 issue of The Northside Chronicle for the full story.
