By Philip Sean Curran
COLTS NECK – Along Route 34 in Colts Neck, beers with names like Hoppy Farmhouse Ale and Colts Necktar are on tap at the latest brewery to open in New Jersey, inside of a renovated 19th-century barn reflecting the history of a community and its future.
“We’re grateful and we’re excited,” said Source Farmhouse Brewery owner Philip Petracca at a ribbon cutting ceremony Aug. 2, with his family, politicians and others attending. But instead of using ribbon, Petracca’s wife, Keri, cut a hop vine that had grown in Colts Neck.
“To the Source,” she said to cheers.
Philip Petracca is an entrepreneur who had been a co-owner of Fizzics, a product that improves the taste of beer. He also had appeared in 2016 on the ABC show “Shark Tank.” But he left Fizzics to start a microbrewery, a place that would be different from others in New Jersey in offering a “farm to glass” and a “truly authentic farmhouse experience,” in his words.
“The Source embodies beer first, community, authenticity and delivering a great beer-drinking experience,” Petracca said. “That’s the focus, each and everyday, in everything we do.”
Locally grown produce goes into the beverages. Source, he said, aims to make beers “that showcase the essence of Colts Neck” and brews with the local harvest. He said that for instance, 100 pounds of locally produced honey were used in one of the beers that Source has on tap, the Colts Necktar.
“And given the agricultural history, I think we’ll tie right in nicely because we have partnerships with a lot of local farmers already,” said Greg Taylor, co-founder and director of brewing operations.
“Their business aim is truly Colts Neck,” Colts Neck Township Committeeman Michael Viola said at the event. “It fits in Colts Neck. It’s a part of our agrarian past. And, obviously, we welcome them and look for ward to them to be an integral component of our future.”
Taylor worked for Petracca at Fizzics. The self-described “hard core beer geek” talked of the experience Source wants to provide.
“It’s more than just your senses of taste and smell,” he said. “It’s coming to this authentic barn, hearing the story, having the right beer poured in the right glass at the right temperature at the right density of foam by a knowledgeable beer tender,” he said. “We want to curate that here.”
Source takes its place in what is a growing industry in the state.
In New Jersey, there are 110 breweries including Source, said Alexis C. Degan, executive director of the New Jersey Brewers Association, at the event. The industry in the state took off in 2012 when the law changed to allow production breweries to have retail space for a tasting room, she said. For a time, most were located in south Jersey, but the northern part of the state has caught up, she said.
“We’re a young industry, so we’re getting our legs under us,” she said in calling New Jersey beer “fantastic.”
Nationally, New Jersey ranks 47th in the country for breweries per capita, Degan said. But she said that in 2018, the state tied Kentucky for fastest growing industry.
“We haven’t made our mark as much as we could be,” she said. “But a lot of our breweries are beginning to get accolades and awards on the national scale.”
Source occupies an erst-while barn from the 1800s that was part of a farm in town. The structure needed to be renovated, even as the old silos and interior were maintained.
Sam Petracca, Philip’s father, said work began in October and ended in July. The barn had to be under-pinned and raised on a footing, while work happened at a section at a time.
“It was quite a feat to get this building back into the state of being used as habitable,” he said.
“Well, I don’t know if this is a template for what to do with older structures, but it’s an absolutely fabulous redevelopment of an old structure,” Viola said. “It could have easily been razed or turned into something else.”
The timing of Source opening in Colts Neck comes with changes in store for an old community that traces its history to colonial times, before the Revolutionary War.
“You’re going to see some huge development up and down Route 34 in the next few years, for sure,” said Glen J. Dalakian, president of the Colts Neck Business Association.
“Basically, we’re a rural town and have kept it that way for many years. But now, we’re enticing new businesses that are like destination spots.”
He said Source and the Colts Neck StillHouse, a distillery located in front of Source, are examples of that.
“The great thing,” Dalakian said, “is this facility fits right into the feel of not only the roots of the town but the natural change we want to see happen, that continues to be that rural feel.”
