NJ beer: New brewery comes to downtown Toms River

Beer is booming across New Jersey, and there are few places where this is clearer than in Ocean County.

Earlier this month, Heavy Reel Brewing Co. opened to lines down the Boulevard in Seaside Heights.

Heavy Reel is in illustrious company, joining the likes of the laid-back pleasures at Last Wave Brewing in Point Pleasant Beach, the innovative heavy hitters Icarus Brewing Company in Lakewood and relatively longtime players Rinn Duin Brewing, who have been in the scene since 2014.

Now it's time for Ocean County to get ready for Hops on Main.

Gary Morrison said he and his four fellow business partners all had a simple reason for entering the beer industry for the first time.

“We’re just five good friends that drink beer together,” Morrison said.

Speaking last week, Morrison said the five partners are currently in the process of interviewing brewers and optimistically hope to be open at 69 Main St. near the Washington Street intersection in time for the town's incredibly popular Halloween parade.

As its name implies, Hops on Main will mainly focus on hop-forward beers such as India Pale Ales. But Morrison said the brewery also plans on a wide variety of offerings, including shandies and other light beers, "to hopefully reach as many people as we can."

"What we wanted to bring to the (local) scene," Morrison said, "was variety."

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In addition to its place in the statewide beer scene, there's also the question of what Hops on Main can bring to downtown Toms River.

Morrison, born and raised in the township, said he hopes the brewery can help revitalize the area.

“We want to be a destination, and we think most revitalizations of a downtown have had a common theme, and that was a new brewery,” he said.

Nick Zorojew, executive director of Downtown Toms River, agreed with the theory put forth by Morrison and his partners.

"You're giving the people what they want, in essence," Zorojew said.

Hops on Main is moving into the Main Street spot formerly occupied by the River Market restaurant before that establishment left Toms River for Point Pleasant Beach in May 2015.

The brewery has the potential to be the focal point of an interconnected Toms River social scene.

It's currently a sprawling environment anchored by The Office Restaurant and Lounge to the northwest and Baker's Water Street Bar and Grille to the southeast with little in between.

Opportunity for growth came with a January adjustment to municipal zoning laws allowing breweries and distilleries, previously only allowed in industrial zones, to open for business downtown.

Currently, downtown Toms River is dominated by legal, professional and governmental offices.

"At the same time, we still want culture," Zorojew said. "The residents want good restaurants, we want reasons to go downtown."