Visitors to craft breweries may sometimes see double, especially after a few pints. But at Twin Fork Beer Company, which opened in Riverhead in October 2020, customers would not be mistaken if they ran into the founders, identical twin brothers Dan and Peter Chekijian.
The brewery’s name is a triple homage to the Twin Forks region, the twin brothers, and to tuning forks used to tune musical instruments, because their father was a classical pianist.
“We use the tuning fork in our logo and in our distinctive tap handles to show our love and respect for music,” says Peter, whose younger brother is a professional musician.
After pursuing a variety of jobs in manufacturing, sales, and wine importing, Peter started homebrewing in 2008 and joined the Brewers East End Revival homebrew club. He then interned at Long Ireland Beer Company in Riverhead to deepen his brewing skills, and his brother joined him in the dream of starting their own brewery.
The brothers took the leap in 2014 and founded Twin Fork Beer Co., contract brewing their beers at local breweries. They wanted to be part of the craft beer boom that has now resulted in Riverhead having the most craft breweries of any town on Long Island.
In 2018 on an undeveloped lot on Raynor Avenue, they broke ground on an 11,480-square-foot facility with a 20-barrel brewhouse, cold storage for distribution, and a tasting room. The expanded production capacity of their new brewery will enable Twin Fork to continue expanding self-distribution of cans and kegs across the New York Metro area.
Twin Fork’s beers have names that also pay tribute to musical terms, including the flagship Chromatic Pale Ale, Crescendo IPA, Minuet Session IPA and Sonata, a Kölsch-style Lager Ale. Seasonal beers include rich Legato Stout in the winter, Harvest Notes amber ale in the fall, and the soon-to-be-released Summer Notes ale.
Before opening, the brewery received approval to expand its tasting room to provide more space for social distancing during the pandemic. Savannah Kurz, tasting room manager, said the brewery’s priority is the health and safety of its customers and employees.
“We have an outdoor area with picnic tables that was great to use on warmer days,” said Kurz, “and we look forward to opening that up again this spring.”
Twin Fork will soon have its own permanent food truck at the brewery, serving food in perfect harmony with its beers.
Twin Fork Beer Company is located at 807 Raynor Avenue in Riverhead. For more info visit twinforkbeer.com.
Bernie Kilkelly is the editor and publisher of LIBeerGuide.com.
For more food and drink coverage, visit longislandpress.com/category/food-drink
