By Muriel J. Smith

ATLANTIC HIGHLANDS – Carton Brewing, the four-year-old brewery located in the heart of the community the Carton cousins call home, has plans for expansion.

Augie and Chris Carton opened their independent craft brewery in a turn-of-the-century brick warehouse on E. Washington Avenue in 2011. The brewery serves on-premise beer and distributes to more than 250 bars, restaurants and liquor stores in the tri-state area.

Now, with a $1.25 million line of credit under written by the NJ Economic Development Authority, Carton Brewing can grow to meet the growing demand for their beers.

Where the Cartons will build their next expansion is still in the planning stages. The original plans to keep it at the present location went awry when engineering studies show the sand base beneath the soil isn’t sturdy enough to withstand the weight of their equipment. They’ve looked at a few other sites and are still investigating other possibilities, but the loan, Carton says, will be put to outstanding use and continue to employ local personnel.

At the brewery Friday, where he came to announce the loan, EDA President and CEO Timothy J. Lizura said he has “absolutely no doubt this business is going to be even more successful than it is. They are doing just fine.”

The EDA’s Premier Lenders Program partners with more than 30 banks to lower the cost of borrowing for small businesses. In the case of Carton Brewing, the line of credit enabled the company to secure a loan with an interest rate of one percent over prime.

In order to be eligible for the loan, a business must be operational for at least two years and must commit to creating or retaining at least one new full-time job within two years for every $65,000 ensured by the EDA.

Councilman Peter Doyle, who was present for last week’s announcement, praised the brewery, calling it a “great corporate neighbor not only to their closest neighbors in the area but to all of Atlantic Highlands.” The company has to renew its license annually to continue operations in the borough, and “their excellence, their cooperation, their diligence to running a first-class operation we can all be proud of” ensures the annual renewals.

Started by cousins Augie and Chris Carton, the men are sixth generation Monmouth County residents, with ancestors who came from Ireland to farm in Middletown, a later generation who went from farming to New York financial business, but returned to Monmouth County to continue farming during the Depression. Lawrence II, earned his law degree at Harvard and came back to the Bayshore to practice law, later becoming a Superior Court Judge in Monmouth County. His two attorney sons, Peter and the late Lawrence III, are fathers to the cousins who passed on the legal field and decided, among other businesses in which they’re both involved, to open their brewery.

Augie – the late Larry’s son and in reality Lawrence IV – doesn’t mind saying he’s a college dropout, but easily shows his vast knowledge, creativity and expertise in numerous ways. Unlike most breweries, which generally operate in an industrial or business zone of a larger city, Carton Brewing is a half a block from two churches, around the corner from the Borough Hall and across the street from the elementary school. Both cousins wanted to stay in the community. They were born, raised, and still live in Locust and followed in their parents’ footsteps in conducting their business here.

“We wanted our business to be by our home and Atlantic Highlands is the perfect town,” Augie explained, “we have great neighbors and we feel we too are great neighbors.”

For example, the brewery owners have stipulated incoming and outgoing deliveries can only take place between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. on school days so as not to interfere with students. They concurred readily with the request from the borough not to post any huge sign advertising their business; indeed, there is only one small sign on the door of one of the two buildings the company now owns.

“This is our town, our home, we don’t want anyone to do anything bad to it,” Augie said. Their weekly beer tastings are served in typical, but smaller, beer glasses in an upstairs room where local artists are invited to use to hang their artwork for sale.

The cousins have made 54 different varieties of beer since they first opened and pay deference to other local businesses in the clever names and descriptions they give their products. With a slogan of “Drink off the Beaten Craft,” they’ve created Clam Ale with lemongrass, a step above oyster stouts, and an ale that proclaims they are “a clam town.” So they made their brew super pale, leaned on the stoniness of the water, added salt to help push the clam idea, some lemongrass to the boil reminiscent of a pot of steamed clams, and decided it had to be cool for “when it gets nice and hot in July, like a day at a clam shack, in a shaker pint.”

Then there’s their Cactus Sour Ale, which came about when they were taking in the view of their favorite beaches from the top of Mount Mitchill and spotted the prickly pear cactus which abounds in the area. They peeled the prickly little things, added the meat to a sour wheat beer to bring out some vegetable sweetness and encouraged drinking it “to shift that palate back to the sand.”

There’s the Gourd Ale made from roasted butternut squash meal and butter added to the mash of the ale, then fermented on anise cookies from their friends just up the street at the nationally award winning Flaky Tart Bakery, then dry hopped with sage from neighbors at the Homestead at 7 Arrows, a farm and retreat in Locust. Or the Hoppy Wit brewed especially for Bahrs Restaurant and Moby’s in Highlands, the result of the Cartons sitting on the deck there and eating fresh seafood “where you can see the water where it was caught.”

There’s no doubt the Bayshore of Monmouth County is home for the Cartons and their business.

Maybe a key to their success is also because they know how to capitalize on just about everything. Their Monkey Chased the Weasel Sour Ale came about soon after they opened because of the mulberry tree behind the building, which meant that in the summer employees – and there are now about a dozen full time, including two or three brewers along with some part timers – tracked the bright purple berry stain into their new home. If the berries wanted in to the business, then in they’d be, the Carton decided. Adding some green apple, lemon and barley, the beer was designed because “there is more sun than moon at the top of Summer.”