Kings Road Brewing Company moves to much bigger digs in Haddonfield

Tammy Paolino | The Courier-Post

When Haddonfield mourned the loss of a pre-Colonial buttonwood tree in 2017, borough resident David Hunter led a call to residents to come up with creative ways to use the wood while honoring its history.

Kings Road Brewing Company, which is in the process of moving from its original home of two years on King’s Highway to a much bigger space several storefronts down, had one of the winning responses.

Craft beer lovers who enter the new brewery, which for half a century was home to Harrison’s department store, will soon be greeted by a farmhouse-style, live-edge table handcrafted from a piece of the historic tree.

While it won’t be ready when the brewery opens the doors to its new home at 131 Kings Highway on Wednesday at 3 p.m., it will become a permanent fixture of a business that has successfully rooted itself in one of South Jersey's most historic downtowns.

“(The tree) was there when the British soldiers marched beneath it, and there are stories that Washington read beneath it,’’ says King’s Road’s Manager Director Bob Hochgertel, a partner in the business, which had to do some convincing that a dry borough should welcome a craft brewery.

The wood was purchased by the brewery and the table is being crafted by local woodworker Jeff VanderKuip, who also built the tables and bar in both the original and new locations.

A plaque in the new space will inform guests that a nearby drink rail and the table came from a tree “that was witness to the Revolutionary War; it ‘saw’ the retreat of the British troops after they evacuated Philadelphia on June 19, 1778 on their way to Monmouth Courthouse. George Washington passed under this tree routinely when visiting Haddonfield. The tree originally stood just a few yards from where you stand now, along Kings Highway from the early 1700s until it was taken down in 2017.’’

A temporary table will greet guests on Wednesday, Thanksgiving Eve, the unofficial holiday also known as Drinksgiving as so many people gather with old friends to toast the season.

It’s a fitting day to open the doors on the new brewery that is offers exponentially more space than the one a few doors down where King’s Road launched as a business just two years ago. There are 2,800 square feet on the ground floor alone, where the tasting room and brewing equipment are housed. “We also have keg storage and a cold room in the basement, so the aggregate is 5,400 square feet,'' Hochgertel says.

The 2,200 square-foot tasting room includes a large three-sided bar, beer garden-style space with a view of the brewing process, expanded retail area, large windows and the original King’s Road mural, painted by Hochgertel and moved panel-by-panel to its new home.

“I moved it over for two reasons: sentimental reasons for one, but also because I wasn’t going to do it again!’’

A double-sided taps system means tasting room servers can more easily serve more guests and a new refrigerator will offer crowlers to take beer home.

.Next spring, guests also can expect to sit outdoors on the covered porch, where four tables will provide seating for 16.

King’s Road was founded with five original partners and two more have joined them as investors to make the expansion possible. Three of the original owners, including Hochgertel, manage the day-to-day business of the craft brewery.

The new space will allow for far more customers at one time and also greatly increases the brewery’s ability to make more beer, he says.

The old location housed a three-barrel brewhouse with three-barrel fermenters. The new brewery boasts a seven-barrel brewhouse with 15-barrel fermenters.

“So, if we double batch,’’ says Hochgertel, “we can make five times as much in a single day as we did previously. What that means for us first and foremost is keeping up supply to meet the demand in the tasting room. That’s a good problem to have and we’ve had it since our first day.’’

The brewery will also explore offering kegs of King’s Road beers to area bars and restaurants, he says. After that, they may bring in mobile canning units to package limited release brews for sale to be offered for sale in the tasting room.

Guests who visit on Thanksgiving Eve will be enjoying beer brewed in the old location, drinking down that inventory.

The first beer brewed in the new location will be ready in about two weeks. Persistent One Pale Ale speaks to the tenacity of the King’s Road team as they worked to launch in the dry borough in 2017 and then to expand and relocate to this historic building.

While the new brewing equipment will maintain the availability of core beers, King’s Road brewers also will be able to use the smaller equipment to experiment with boutique and additional seasonal brews, Hochgertel says.

“The last beer they brewed at the current space is our NePlus Ultra sour … They added vanilla and lactose and dry-hopped the heck out of it. It’s unlike most sour beers you are familiar with. It’s delicious.’’

The basement in their new home will afford brewers the opportunity to experiment with barrel-aged beers in collaboration with area wineries and distilleries.

King’s Road Brewing Company beer is made by head brewer Connor Pensiero, formerly of Neshaminy Creek Brewing Company; and part-time brewer Matt Revier from Stoudts Brewing in Pennsylvania, and Brandon Crouch, who is studying beer making and now interning at a brewery in Belgium. The brewery also has a team of about 15 servers.

As the brewery vacates its old space at 127 King’s Highway, a new tenant is ready to step in. The address will be home to a William Heritage Winery retail wine location as early as late winter.

“We have been working as closely as possible (with the Mullica Hill-area winery), so we could get out and they could get in. We thought it would be really cool to announce their arrival with a special beer. I mentioned it to (Rich Heritage), and he said, ‘We are going to give you some of our used French oak wine barrels.’’

A barrel-aged saison was brewed this summer and Heritage Saison will be tapped in about two weeks.

King’s Road is also expanding its hours, staying open until 11 p.m. on Friday and Saturday nights. (The brewery closed earlier in its old home out of respect for an upstairs tenant.)

Newly installed TVs will mean sports fans can cheer on the Eagles and Flyers, while candlelight shoppers can come in from the cold during the holiday season.

While King’s Road's license allows for the sale of some pre-packaged snacks such as pretzels and nuts, King’s Road owners encourage guests to bring in food from the borough’s many restaurants.

“Haddonfield has experienced a bit of restaurant renaissance recently,’’ Hochgertel says. “A dozen new restaurants have opened since we opened our doors.’’

If you go

King’s Road Brewing Company, 131 Kings Highway, Haddonfield. (856) 427-8100; http://kingsroadbrewing.com/

Tammy Paolino covers restaurants, breweries, food trucks and arts events for the USA TODAY New Jersey Network. She’s an award-winning reporter and editor who has covered the Garden State for more than 30 years. Reach her at tpaolino@gannett.com or 856-486-2477 or on Twitter @CP_TammyPaolino. Help support local journalism with a Courier-Post subscription.