Drinking great beer at the source
The Beeryard reports that Tom Baker is closing Heavyweight Brewing in New Jersey, an operation always more famous that it was big.
Baker is talking about opening a combination good beer bar and brewpub. You should really read the entire post, but consider this:
“The other thing is that, while Heavyweight has been profitable for the last couple of years, the only way to make it really profitable would be to divest myself of the whole one-man brewery approach, to grow bigger and add people. But the real charm and appeal of Heavyweight was that is was just me. I really have no interest in hiring people and doing all the things you need to do to grow bigger.
The point for Beer Travelers is:
It’s nice that so many talented brewers are willing to bottle and ship beer all over the country. And if you really want a beer brewed in the United States there’s almost always a way to get it poured in your own home. Yes, having a friend go to a brewpub, buy a growler and FedEx it overnight seems excessive, but definitely do-able.
But that will never be as much fun as heading to Ocean City, N.J., or wherever Baker opens a bar/brewpub and seeing what he is up to.
Consider how he is wrapping up brewing at Heavyweight:
Baker also confirmed that the final Heavyweight appearance will be at the Royal Stumble, Nodding Head’s annual beer event in which the winning brewer is the first to empty his keg, on July 7, and he talked about the last three beers still to be brewed at the Ocean City plant, including one which will be a collaboration with Scott (The Dude) Morrison, brewmaster at the two McKenzie Brew House locations in suburban Philadelphia.
“Scott and I just worked this out Saturday at the Iron Hill brewfest,” he explained. “We’re going to make a wild rice beer with bread yeast. All three of the final beers will be made with bread yeast and the next one, which I’ll also do this week, will be a sourdough rye beer with caraway. It will be a little different from the Triumph version, which is a really nice beer. They put the caraway in at the last minute, in the serving tank, but I’m going for a more subtle thing and will add caraway in the boil to let the sourness and the bread yeast dominate with hint of caraway in the back. The final beer will be what I call a smorgasbord, which will be made with whatever is left in the brewery. We won’t now what that beer will be until we do it, I guess. That’s the one which I’ll take to the Royal Stumble.”
July 7. Philadelphia.
