Saturday, May 30, 2009

An Iron Hill rises in the East

He won't win any Brew Lounge schwag since he didn't send the pictures directly to me. However, Jeff at Beer Stained Letter (headquartered out of The Garden State) will get some mention here since he's captured some of the best photos of Iron Hill's brewhouse delivery last week in Maple Shade, NJ.

Head Brewer Chris Lapierre and team have been busy, but not too busy to begin blogging about it. Chris has part 1 and part 2 up at the company blog to give us all an inside peek at what it takes to get the newest location of Iron Hill up and running. With the installation of Iron Hill's brewhouse underway and brewing promised to begin in the very near future, the expected summertime opening of the 8th Iron Hill Brewery & Restaurant (and 1st in New Jersey) still looks to be on track.

Chris and I exchanged a few short little blurbs about how things have been going. Here they are…

The Brew Lounge: What is the brewhouse's legacy?
Chris LaPierre: It's the former Independence Brewpub's brewhouse.

TBL: Any tales from the installation and setup worth sharing?
CL: Just that I've learned more in the past two weeks than I have in the past two years. It's been a tough but valuable experience so far.

TBL: When is brewing expected to begin?
CL: My calender says two weeks from tomorrow. (ed: that'd work out to be June 12th)

TBL: Still have a July target opening date?
CL: Yep, we're shooting for mid-July.

TBL: What obstacles remain?
CL: Lots of dirt, construction, modifications and repairs!

TBL: Any other interesting tidbits about the brewhouse equipment or its history that you'd like to share with The Brew Lounge inhabitants?
CL: I've already brewed on it! I brewed a batch for Tim (Roberts) at Independence while he was away on his honeymoon.

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