Joseph P. Smith

@jpsmith_dj

MILLVILLE - The work week is getting longer at Glasstown Brewing Company, which marked its third anniversary in December, but the customer list also is growing.

Owners Paul and Jenifer Simmons bubble with optimism but have found that growing their micro-brewery a slower process than they first hoped. Incrementally, though, the volume of draft beer, product variety and outlets keeps increasing.

Glasstown Brewing brews 93 gallons of beer at a time presently. On average, every week 28 barrels each holding 31 gallons of beer are filled.

Eagles soar over Cumberland County

So is the brewery where it should be in the owners’ minds?

“It’s an interesting question,” Paul Simmons laughed. “You always, in your mind, envision and think about where you want to be and what you want to be doing. We started off so small, brewing 12 gallons at a time. It took a little bit of time to grow that. The demand was there. But we still needed to make money to buy more equipment.

“We’re doing very well, in some ways exceeding any expectations we ever could have had for ourselves,” he said. “But in the back of your mind, you are a business owner. You always want to do more.”

The brewery generally is open afternoons into evenings from Thursday through Sunday. It’s a full-time job at this point, Simmons said on Sunday.

“For the most part, I’m here seven days a week,” he said. “We brew an average four days a week and we’re getting close to starting to brew five days a week. And between brewing, there’s kegging, cleaning.”

In 2016, Glasstown Brewing began putting out canned and bottled beer. The product previously had moved out in kegs to liquor stores or restaurants around South Jersey. Their distributor tries to keep a presence in about 30 establishments at any time.

Home to the business is 10 Peterson St. in a historic building at the municipal airport. The Simmons want to add more equipment to the operation, something that would immediately double production, and over a couple years allow it to triple.

“Every week, we constantly get that phone call from the distributor: “’How much can you give us this week?’” Simmons said. “It never seems that we can keep up with it. We’re always trying to buy a little more equipment when we can. And we’re hoping that will really help us really get a good base of product across South Jersey and, at that point, a year or two from now, maybe start creeping farther north, maybe into Burlington County and north.”

Glass artworks reflect Vineland's history

If you have a micro-brewery, one problem in terms of equipment is that manufacturers still are geared toward serving large-scale operations with large and commensurately expensive equipment lines.

Do-it-by-hand is one alternative but it’s a tedious, time-consuming option. The Simmons went with building a production line that can do canning or bottling.

Paul Simmons said the ability to send out cans and bottles, rather than just kegs, is important because it accommodates customers’ busy lives. “So even though we can’t do it on a regular basis, we do try to do it at least once or twice a month,” he said.

Joseph P. Smith; (856) 563-5252; jsmith@gannettnj.com