Hasbrouck Heights-Little Ferry- Two Hasbrouck Heights men plan to open the first production brewery in Bergen County.
Peter Reuther, 27, sees more than the empty space and dust-covered floors of the Alsan Way industrial building he leased with partner Joe Delcalzo, 25.
At the entrance will be a tasting room, open Fridays and Saturdays at first, with pints, growlers, T-shirts and other merchandise for sale.
Vistors can take tours of the production side, where the large silver fermenters and tanks–currently idle–will churn out the beers of the Brix City Brewing company: mostly higher-alcohol content varieties like stouts and IPAs.
The system they purchased is large enough to allow them to produce many varieties of beer at once, Delcalzo said, and they don’t plan to limit themselves.
The two have loved beer since they were young. They both say their fathers drank good beer, and their father’s friends drank good beer.
“So the stuff we were stealing was pretty good,” Reuther said.
Reuther’s appreciation grew when he was with the Army, spending time stationed in Germany, and after he interned at the Chelsea Brewing Company in New York. He and Delcalzo served their first home-brewed beer at a party in 2010.
They brought three cases and got a good response, Delcalzo said.
“It was a dirty beer but it was enough of an impact on us,” he said.
From then on, they spent much of their free time brewing beer, Delcalzo attending college and working as a part-time appraiser, and Reuther working at his family’s mason yard in North Bergen.
“We were both doing things we were miserable with,” Delcalzo said.
It didn’t take long before they decided to go all-in on beer. They’ve received plenty of advice from brewers in the state like Kane Brewing Company in Ocean and their fellow Bergen County brewers Bolero Snort in Ridgefield Park.
While many young breweries contract brewing out to larger companies, Reuther and Delcalzo have opted to keep brewing in-house.
“We want to be able to control everything, from raw materials all the way through the entire process,” Delcalzo said.
Unfortunately, they have run into a mountain of paperwork. Opening a brewery requires approvals from local, state and federal agencies.
The two originally planned to open in Lodi, but couldn’t get through the approval process. Luckily, Little Ferry had just rezoned their Alsan Way property to allow for microbreweries.
When it opens, Brix City will be the only brewery in the county. Bolero Snort has offices in Ridgefield Park, but contracts brewing out to High Point Brewing Companyin Butler.
Delcalzo and Reuther, who graduated a year apart from Hasbrouck Heights High School, say Bergen County is a “perfect market” for craft beer. So why haven’t other breweries opened there?
“It’s probably because of the cost and the fact that it’s a pain in the ass,” Delcalzo said.
“We’ve been out to every brewing mecca in the country and we talk about how much we pay in rent and they’re like, ‘What? How do you guys survive?'” Reuther added.
Bob Olson, one of the founders of Bolero Snort, agreed that the cost of real estate in Bergen County was a prohibitve factor. But he said the company was “working like hell” toward opening their own facility, preferably in Bergen.
“I’m really pushing to be in the county that we started in and have always called home,” Olson said.
Reuther and Delcalzo, despite their red tape issues, will likely claim the title of first Bergen County brewery. The two expect to start brewing in March after receiving their brewers permit from the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau. Later this year, they hope to start work on the tasting room and their offices.
But they don’t want to be the only brewery in Bergen County.
“We want to bring craft beer to northern New Jersey,” Delcalzo said. “It’s a perfect market for it. We want more breweries to open up around here.”
Myles Ma may be reached at mma@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter@MylesMaNJ. .
