Story and photos by Joseph Sapia
COLTS NECK – The Colts Neck Stillhouse, a craft-style alcohol distillery proposed for Route 34 South, has received local approvals and is in the process of completing alcohol licensing with the state and federal governments.
On Thursday, June 16, the township Zoning Board of Adjustment unanimously granted GK Distilling Inc., owned by township resident Geoff Karch, the subdivision, site plan and minor variance approvals needed to open the distillery just south of Route 537. In February, the board approved a use variance to GK Distilling, needed because the B-1 neighborhood business zone does not permit distilleries and a house relocation on the property would be an expansion of a nonconforming use.
Ground could be broken for the building of the distillery in late fall, said GK Distilling’s lawyer, John Giunco. No timetable is in place for opening the business.
Craft distilling – or small-scale distilling up to 20,000 gallons a year, rather than large-scale, commercial distilling – has been allowed by New Jersey law since 2013.
Colts Neck Stillhouse would distill corn, rye, barley or wheat for wholesale and retail use. To be considered a New Jersey distilled beverage, it must either grow or buy locally 51 percent of its raw material.
The distillery’s property of about 200 by 200 feet, or nearly one acre, is situated south of Delicious Orchards and A Woman’s Place medical clinic. The Brandywine assisted-living facility is to the west and south, and Route 34 to the east. The distillery would be housed in a new 4,800-square-foot, barn-like building.
Colt Neck Stillhouse will offer tours of its working distillery to visitors, with sales and sampling tied into the tour. The business also would be allowed to sell liquor as is or blended as part of its tours. But it would not be allowed to operate as a drop-in tavern.
GK Distilling, the contract-purchaser of the Garrett farm, is dividing the farm into two pieces: using .95 for the distillery, with the Garrett family owning the remaining 1.76 acres. A farmhouse now on the property would be demolished and a new house built in a different area of the property.
The board voted 5 to 0, granting GK Distilling its approvals. Karch is a member of the Zoning Board, but has recused himself from board workings on his distillery proposal.
There was some discussion over arsenic being found at 20.7 parts per million, or slightly over the federally approved standard of 20.0, in the soil in one spot of the property. Arsenic, a metalloid, could occur naturally or could be associated with pesticide use on farms, among other reasons for being there. The arsenic is to be encapsulated by the improvements being made to the property.
“It’s such a minimal amount,” said Board Member Bruce Bennett, adding “throughout Monmouth County, there’s many farms” with arsenic in the soil.
No objections have been voiced concerning the proposal at the recent or February hearings.
Karch, 54, has said he is advancing a beer-making hobby into the distillery business. Karch is to brand his products “MuckleyEye,” a word he recalls his grandfather using “as a proclamation or exclamation,” he has said.
