BOOZE NEWS: Our ongoing look at the craft beverage industry in South Jersey.
After years in development, the Sons of Barley Beer Company in Woodbury Heights has become one of the newest craft breweries to enter the South Jersey scene.
With a soft opening last November, they officially launched in December of last year and things are already off to a booming start.
The project began about five years prior, and the tasting room on Bridgeton Pike sat empty while the brewery team dealt with repeated setbacks.
“We ran into a lot of problems,” said John Kelly, one of the brewery’s owners. “Everything took a lot longer than what we thought.”
Kelly said it was a frustrating process for sure, but said things are now off to a better start than he imagined.
“We got through it and we’re here now,” he said.
Kelly said the idea for the brewery began to take shape even further back, when he was working at Shoprite with Scott Rigilano, who would become his partner in the project.
“Scott has been a home brewer for years and years,” he said. “One day he said he was thinking about doing this, and I said, ‘well, when you get ready and you think you want to do it, give me a shout, maybe we’ll do it together.’ And years later, here we are.”
Kelly’s background and experience is in retail sales, so he handles the business side of things while Rigilano focuses on the beer.
The tasting room is currently running twelve taps – one with a hard tea, one with a hard seltzer, and the rest with various beer styles ranging from hefeweizen to coffee stout.
“We try to have a real friendly atmosphere,” Kelly said. “We have entertainment all the time. We do things like bands, karaoke, music bingo, trivia, open mic nights.We’re gonna make great beer, and have a great, friendly environment.
“We have a great, knowledgeable and friendly staff.”
Bar manager Marilyn Bezotsky immediately concurred with her employer’s performance assessment.
“I agree with that,” she said with a laugh.
Bezotsky said that so far their West Coast IPA, The Warrior, seems to be their best seller.
“That’s a big hit,” she said. “It’s not your typical run of the mill, hoppy, hazy IPA. It’s really nice – crisp. But all of our beers are absolutely solid.”
She said things have been off to a great start, and that they’ve been receiving lots of support from the local community and from others in the local beer industry.
“The craft beer community is great. I think it’s really unique,” she said. They always want to help each other. We always have lots of other owners, and people who work in other breweries come in and support us.
“If you need help, you can always call another brewery. They’d be right there if you need supplies, if you have questions. It’s just a really loving, great community.”
For more information on Sons of Barley, follow them on Facebook, where they post frequent updates on their beer offerings and entertainment schedule.
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