Cooling off in the summer heat with an ice-cold beer will be no sweat for those who head to Ship Bottom Brewery’s new, production-sized brewhouse in the heart of Beach Haven in Bay Village next year.
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| Photo via Ship Bottom Brewery The new Island brewery will be located in the Bay Village plaza in Beach Haven. |
Although the company originally wanted to open the brewery in Ship Bottom, owner Robert Zarko said he was unable to find a suitable location. Bay Village, however, was an ideal spot.
“We always wanted to open a brewery on the Island,” he emphasized.
The company, which currently operates a small pilot brewery in Wallingford, Pa., produces a variety of ales, such as stouts, IPAs and wheat, pumpkin and pale ales, labeled after Long Beach Island landmarks.
Zarko named the business in tribute to his wife’s family, who had a Ship Bottom home for many years. He plans to have five ales on tap at the Beach Haven brewhouse; Barnacle Bottom Stout, The Shack IPA, Chicken or the Egg Killer Bee Sting, Beach Patrol Hefeweizen Ale and Double Overhead will be available, as well as at least three taps for seasonal or limited edition beers. An assortment of lagers and limited edition barrel-aged ales, including bourbon, whiskey, rum and tequila in 22-ounce or 750-milliliter bottles, will also be offered.
The pilot brewery in Pennsylvania is a two-barrel system as opposed to the new brewhouse in Beach Haven, which will be a seven-barrel system with 14 barrel fermenters. The company will continue to use the former facility to develop and test new recipes.
“With the new system (in Bay Village), we will be able to produce around 2,100 barrels a year,” Zarko mentioned.
Each beer is built differently, using a combination of ingredients such as malt, hops, yeast and specialty items like chocolates, coffee, hot peppers and fruits, he noted.
“We come up with an idea for a beer and then think about how we want the beer to taste,” he said. “We know the base recipe for a style of beer – stout, IPA, wheat beer, etc. – and know what items will impart different flavors and aromas to the finished beer.”
A typical brew day starts around 5 or 6 a.m., and lasts about eight to 10 hours, Zarko said. The process begins by heating the water to about 170 degrees in the hot liquor tun. In the meantime, the brewing grains are milled, and then both are transferred into the mash tun. The grains rest for one to two hours, depending on the recipe.
“This resting process allows the water to convert the starches from the cracked grains into sugar, which is called wort,” Zarko explained.
After the resting period, water is pumped into the mash tun over the grains, which act as a filter for collecting sugars. The wort is pumped into the brew kettle, where it is heated. Once it’s boiling, different ingredients such as hops, honey, coffee, chocolates and fruits are added to the kettle. Depending on the style of beer being produced, the wort is typically boiled for 1 to 1½ hours. When the boiling process is complete, the wort is pumped though a heat exchanger and cooled to around 65 degrees before being pumped into a fermenter. Yeast is added to the fermenter, which converts the sugar into alcohol. Fermentation usually takes about two weeks. After that, carbonation is added to the beer, which is then packaged in kegs or bottles.
Every batch of beer is handcrafted using local ingredients whenever possible, Zarko said.
“We really communicate with our consumers when we are developing and testing our beers,” he added. “We use their feedback at tastings, beer festivals and tap rooms to make sure we are producing the kind of beer that our consumers want to drink.
“Please feel free to reach out to us at any time with feedback or questions. We are a local, community-based brewery that loves to be engaged with our consumers,” he urged.
The company’s beer is currently available at Tuckers Tavern, Black Whale Bar & Fish House and Buckalew’s Restaurant & Tavern in Beach Haven; daddy O in Brant Beach; The Gateway and The Arlington in Ship Bottom; Northside Bar & Grille in Surf City; and Applebee’s and Spirits Unlimited in Manahawkin.
“If you don’t see us in any of these bars, please ask to get us in,” Zarko said.
The company has come a long way since Zarko, who grew up in Bucks County, started it as a homebrewer in 1995.
“We have fine-tuned our recipes and developed more control around our processes. This has led us to producing a higher-quality beer on a consistent basis,” he said. “We have learned more about modifying our brewing water with natural elements to help us brew the style of beer that we desire. We have really developed a process for management of our yeast that allows us to obtain the desired results that we need to provide consistency to make high-quality, handcrafted ales.”
A new barrel aging program has also really brought “a whole new dimension” to the beer, said Zarko.
“We are really amazed with the results that we are getting out of the program and will offer these limited-edition ales at the brewery,” he noted.
“I love the creativity of brewing,” he added. “It’s a lot of fun developing recipes, brewing the beer and then seeing the reactions on people’s faces when they are blown away by the beers that we produce. We also feel like all of the other brewers/breweries that we are engaged with are really helpful. The people involved in brewing are awesome people. We are glad to be part of the brewing community.”
The company is still in the process of obtaining a brewing license with the state as well as the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau for the Bay Village brewery. The next step is raising all the necessary funds.
“We are actively looking for investors, and we believe we will have all money needed to start construction sometime in August,” Zarko noted.
The Beach Haven brewhouse should be up and running by springtime 2016.
— Kelley Anne Essinger
This article was published in The Beachcomber.
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