By Joseph Sapia
COLTS NECK – A micro distillery called Colts Neck Stillhouse could open on Route 34 South by the end of the year, if all goes well for township resident Geoff Karch and his company, GK Distilling, Inc.
Karch, a 54-year old former television advertising professional, is advancing a beer-making hobby into a whiskey and gin distillery business. He plans to brand his products “MuckleyEye,” which is the word he recalls his grandfather using “as a proclamation or exclamation.”
“I’m going to hearken back to that pre-Prohibition time: craft spirits,” said Karch.
On Feb. 18, the township’s Zoning Board approved a use variance for GK Distilling, needed because the B-1 neighborhood business zone does not permit distilleries, and a relocated house on the property would be expansion of a non-conforming use.
Still required is local approval for GK Distilling’s site plans and the subdivision of the lot, as well as state and federal distillery licenses, and state approval to access Route 34.
As the home of Laird’s Applejack for over 300 years, Colts Neck is already associated with alcohol distilling. In 1780, Laird & Company opened America’s first licensed commercial distillery in the township’s small community of Scobeyville. Although Laird’s is still based in Colts Neck, the liquor has not been distilled in the township in decades.
The new distillery would be “sort of a feather in the Colts Neck cap,” said Karch, and he believes the business meets the agricultural priorities of the township’s Master Plan.
Karch would be familiar with the Master Plan and related zoning because he serves as a member of the zoning board. He recused himself from his own application, and all the business before the board that same night.
Karch’s planner, James T. Kyle of Hopewell, said a distillery is “essentially compatible” to the zoning.
Craft distilling – or small-scale distilling of up to 20,000 gallons a year, rather than large-scale, commercial distilling — is newly allowable in New Jersey, only going back to 2013. So, according to Kyle, “it’s not anything communities have caught up with” in their zoning.
Karch plans to take the 2.71-acre Steven Garrett farm and divide it in two parcels. Karch would use .95 acres for the distillery, and Garrett would own the remaining 1.76 acres. The Garrett property would include the relocated single-family house.
The property has Delicious Orchards and a medical office to the north, the Brandywine assisted-living facility to the west and south, and the state road to the east.The distillery would be housed in a new 4,500-square-foot building, divided into 900 square feet for a tasting room, with the remaining 3,600 feet for distilling and storage.
Colts Neck Stillhouse would distill corn, rye, barley and wheat to create up to 20,000 gallons of whiskey or gin per year 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.
Those wishing to buy the product at retail to take offsite would be limited to five liters per person, only in connection with a tour of the operation. Distillery visitors would be allowed to consume a maximum of three one-ounce samples per person per day.
Colts Neck Stillhouse also would be allowed to sell cocktails on tours. While there is no limit on the sale of cocktails, the business would use the “judgment a bartender uses” on selling to patrons, Karch said.
Colts Neck Stillhouse will not be able to operate as a drop-in tavern.
Karch said he hopes to break ground on the distillery in “late summer and open up in the late fall or early winter if all goes well.”
Public business hours would be Wednesday, noon to 6 p.m.; Thursday, noon to 9 p.m.; Friday, noon to 10 p.m.; Saturday, 9 a.m. to 10 p.m.; and Sunday, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
There would be no food sales, but the distillery may sell retail items such as T-shirts and hats.
The distillery generally would employ four workers: the owner, master distiller, salesperson and an assistant worker.
Because of the length of time to create hard liquor – bourbon, for example, takes two years, according to Karch – he would purchase aged spirits he could sell “as is” or enhance.
“So, from Day 1, I have aged spirits to sell,” Karch said.
No members of the public spoke on the application at the zoning board meeting.
“It’s quaint and fits into the Colts Neck there (at the site),” said board member Bruce Bennett, adding he had a concern about traffic, but that could be addressed later.
Board member Edward Sobieski said he would have liked the property to become “all business,” but he understood the house staying on the property. Regarding the house, board member Kenneth Florek said he liked that the house was moving to the rear of the property.
Board member Thomas Sullivan said he liked the business’ agricultural nature. “I like the uniqueness in it,” said board member Candice Burke. “I think it fits.”
The board voted 7-to-0 in favor.
“I’m an advocate to all distilleries opening up,” said Brant Braue, owner of Jersey Artisan Distilling in Fairfield, who attended the zoning board meeting. “If I succeed, they succeed, and vice versa. It’s really a camaraderie.”
He said there are 10 craft distilleries in New Jersey, the closest one to Colts Neck being in Asbury Park Distilling in Asbury Park.
Karch’s attorney, John A. Giunco of Giordano, Halleran and Ciesla, said the township already has a distilling zoned area, which was created around the Laird & Company property at Laird Road and Route 537.
