South Jersey Beer Scene

Welcome back to the Bridgeton Beacon. I am here with the associate editor and senior staff writer and podcast host for South Jersey Beer Scene. I've got Tom Renzulli and Vick Sbailo.

Vic SJ Beer Scene (01:40.322)
Here we go.

Tom (02:07.087)
Did I get that, Vic? Nailed it. Aw, what?

Vic SJ Beer Scene (02:07.726)
You got close enough sure I Say it's spay low I say it's spay low like JLo

Tom (02:16.345)
That's way better, actually. That's got a ton more cachet. Well, welcome to the Bridgestone Beacon.

Vic SJ Beer Scene (02:17.57)
Yeah, real quick, stay a little like J -Lo. Yes, it done.

Tom (02:24.707)
Found you guys, think probably once in a while, I Google South Jersey podcast, just see what's out there for this purpose to find people who might come on a beacon and shine a light on some things that we don't have a ton of expertise with. And you guys have a really cool one. South Jersey Beer Scene is a website that is basically a news site for the niche Jersey beer industry, but also you guys run a podcast and I think have a couple of flavors of.

of what that is when different people are hosting and it's been doing it for a little bit. So with that being said, take it from there, South Jersey beer scene and sort of, well, I'm gonna have to cut the mumbling part, just lay it on.

Vic SJ Beer Scene (03:11.202)
right, well, Tom, why don't you talk about the founding and stuff.

Tom Renzulli (03:13.054)
Sure, sure. So it was March of 2017 when John Kishu approached me. His wife and my wife are in the same medical field, radiation oncology, and my wife actually worked with his wife's sister. So we kind of knew each other and he said, I'm thinking of starting a website because what brought it about is nobody knew what was going on and breweries were just starting to hit.

pretty hard in 2017. And we come in to work on Mondays and be like, did you know I didn't know that was going on. So that's what we really started it to try to get the information out for people to go to these places. And then, you know, we would never rate the beers or anything like that. That wasn't our job. That's your job to do. And so we started

Diving more into the breweries themselves, we started 10 Questions with a Brewer and get a little backstory on everything and just try to bring more of the brewery South Jersey beer scene to the people.

Tom (04:23.759)
How much of your activity is out in the field, so to speak?

Tom Renzulli (04:31.27)
it's actually, it's slowed up until when COVID hit. mean, we were jamming. We were just starting to break loose and COVID hit and it kind of stalled everything. we, you know, like everybody else, we had to take the exit and try to find different ways to do things. And we did the one thing that was pretty cool. We did do a virtual beer festival where

We went around to all the local breweries that participated and got beers from them and we hosted it. We would bring them on throughout the day. And it was about four hours and by the end I was pretty lit up. It was pretty funny. If you ever get to see it, it's really funny.

Vic SJ Beer Scene (05:17.976)
Yeah, Tom and John started it and I joined shortly thereafter. I was and am a home brewer in Ocean County and there wasn't a lot of coverage up in Ocean County as far as interviews, you know, talking about the breweries up there. And I was also the president of the Ocean County Home Brewers Association. So what I brought into it is a little bit of a

Tom (05:18.307)
That's a good format.

Tom Renzulli (05:20.092)
Yeah.

Vic SJ Beer Scene (05:45.842)
Northern South Jersey, so to speak, area. And, and we started, and as Tom said, we were doing those podcasts fast and furious. We were probably doing at least one a month back until COVID hit. And then we switched gears a little bit during COVID and we did a number of Zoom podcasts, which got us onto the YouTube. And Tom, we were talking about YouTube earlier and that got us into YouTube and

You know, for a while we were doing a lot of YouTube video shows, which we tried to keep to a half hour or so. Normally you'll find the video format is a little shorter than audio format, because once we got on podcasts and it's audio with the, never know what direction that that's going to go in. But it's great because it got, you know, we got to know a lot of these, a lot of the folks in the breweries, you know, became very friendly with them.

gave us a way of promoting the breweries but also gave us a chance to try some fantastic beer.

Tom (06:53.355)
It's a cool hobby. And it's also like the coolest networking thing. Like if it's something you're clearly interested in, what better way to get out there, press the flesh, meet some people who are like involved in a niche where you have some passion than to plant your own flag and say, hey, okay, we are the local publication for X, Y, or Z.

Tom Renzulli (07:15.89)
Yeah, and you're not going to find better people on earth than brewery owners and brewers themselves. Especially in Cape May County area, all those breweries, really...

Vic SJ Beer Scene (07:28.268)
Ha ha ha!

Tom Renzulli (07:30.674)
What was the Mets and Mets and what was that? But I mean, everybody does get along. I mean, it's great when we have the big festivals, it's great seeing everybody. a lot of collaborations are formed at some of these festivals between two breweries.

Vic SJ Beer Scene (07:37.73)
Yes.

Tom Renzulli (07:49.278)
It's just a good vibe. It's a really good vibe.

Vic SJ Beer Scene (07:51.298)
Yeah, it's nice. It's a great, great community. Wonderful people, like I said, that we've met throughout South Jersey and outside of South Jersey too. Now, the one year I know we were doing some podcasts and doing some YouTubes from the Atlantic City Beer Festival and Kelsey Grammer has a brewery, Faith American, and actually did get five minutes or so to sit with Kelsey Grammer and to do an interview with him, which was pretty cool.

Tom (08:11.31)
kid.

Vic SJ Beer Scene (08:19.886)
That's probably the most famous person that we've ever had on except, yeah, that's probably the most famous person we've ever

Tom Renzulli (08:25.682)
Me?

Does he send you Christmas cards back?

Vic SJ Beer Scene (08:30.508)
He sends me a Christmas card, invites me to his Christmas dinner and Thanksgiving and everything. So we're like this. We're like this.

Tom (08:43.371)
It's, shoot, what was I gonna say? I got swept away in Kelsey Grammer just like you.

Vic SJ Beer Scene (08:50.89)
and threw you off on the celebrity there,

Tom (08:54.009)
Well, no!

Tom Renzulli (08:54.098)
he's going to be he's he's going to be somewhere soon. Where's he going to be?

Vic SJ Beer Scene (09:00.098)
I don't know, was, he, actually, I should know, hear from him all the time. He was in Atlanta, wasn't he in Atlantic City last month?

Tom Renzulli (09:02.002)
You should know, yours. And he's got four beers now. He was at the Irish pub, but he's gonna be, where's he gonna be? I just saw it. He's gonna be somewhere pouring beers.

Tom (09:16.431)
Kelsey Grammer pouring beers in South Jersey.

Vic SJ Beer Scene (09:16.524)
Okay.

Tom Renzulli (09:19.184)
Yeah, I it might be up by you, Ukraine. I wish I could remember. I just saw it on Facebook. He's going to be somewhere. No.

Vic SJ Beer Scene (09:28.046)
Down here in the basement

Tom (09:32.035)
I'm pretty sure anybody who's listening could Google that and figure it out pretty quick, but there's a nugget right there. That's why it's good worth knowing beer guys. And I guess that was going to lead me right to actually the question I think I forgot, which is like what New Jersey, and name a brewery or name a specific beer. Like what's your favorite thing? What sort of tickles you right now? And you're like, Ooh, that's just good stuff. Or either what they're doing or how they're doing it all except

Tom Renzulli (09:35.931)
Yeah.

Tom Renzulli (09:40.456)
Yeah.

Tom (10:00.303)
a pretty wide range of answers. And figure you guys have seen a lot, maybe that's even a tough question to narrow down.

Tom Renzulli (10:08.936)
There's quite a few. Yeah, there's quite a few. Like right now, the Seed, Living Beer Project in Lancet City, they're really doing some really good stuff. Slack Tide.

Vic SJ Beer Scene (10:08.974)
I'll let you go first.

Tom Renzulli (10:23.41)
They do some good stuff. Gusto, there's, I think almost every brewery can go into and at least find one beer that kind of knocks your socks off.

Tom (10:33.711)
What do you like about that? Who's the brewery in Atlantic City you mentioned? I wasn't familiar with the name. And frankly, if you want to name drop and give me 30 seconds on each one of them, those will make great clips for this that we can tag them in on Instagram. They might love you guys. But I don't know. So feel free to take the floor and expound on each one a little bit. Give me a little color and sell me on them because I'll be back in South Jersey shortly.

Tom Renzulli (10:38.823)
The Seed.

Vic SJ Beer Scene (10:38.926)
the scene.

Tom Renzulli (11:01.4)
Yeah, so where the seed is located, it's kind of like in the inlet part and they're part of a building that also houses Little Water Distillery, which is really as make really good spirits and axe throwing. So that's a weird combination, but kind of good.

Vic SJ Beer Scene (11:20.192)
Now, the seed is known for really the quality of their beers. What was that, two years ago they were voted best brewery in the United States? Yeah. Yeah. That was a couple of years ago. The beers that their beers are, you know, speaking as a brewer, they are just superb. They're served properly. They are beautiful, beautiful beers.

Tom (11:20.367)
Ugh.

Tom Renzulli (11:20.466)
But.

Tom Renzulli (11:29.342)
USA Today, top 10, top 10. USA Today, yeah.

Tom (11:32.857)
Wow.

Vic SJ Beer Scene (11:46.006)
Now, one thing that they do use is down there in the Bridgeton area. You know, beer starts with the malt that goes into it, the grain that goes into it. And they, for the most part, I don't know if every all of their beers, there's a malt producer down by you. There's a farm, Rabbit Hill Farm, which is in Shiloh. And most of the grain that they get comes from Rabbit Hill Farm.

Tom (12:15.279)
That's very cool.

Tom Renzulli (12:16.733)
Yeah.

Vic SJ Beer Scene (12:16.842)
and it shows in the quality of the beer. But the beers are served perfectly. you see a cartoon picture perfect photo or drawing of a beer with the perfect head on top, that's the way they serve their beers all the time, like that.

Tom Renzulli (12:37.754)
And somebody other, yeah, that's a great description,

Tom (12:37.967)
Damn, that's a...

Tom (12:41.967)
That's a glowing endorsement.

Tom Renzulli (12:44.83)
as far as like slack tide, they were like the kind of model that all the other breweries wanted to, you know, they started out with a three barrel system and went to a 10 barrel. Now they built a beautiful facility down in Claremont, I guess, exit 17 off the parkway. Big, beautiful facility outside, inside, and still putting out great beers.

Gusto Brewing is all the way down at the end, right before you get on the ferry. Bear Brewing.

There's probably well, think right now and just keep me counting.

Vic SJ Beer Scene (13:25.774)
can't, down there in Cape May County, Tom, can't you just go right down that Route 9 corridor? You just hit a lot of terrific breweries right along the way. Our last podcast was from Ludlam, which is in Woodbine, which moved from a small location out, and that's actually a brew pub now.

Tom Renzulli (13:30.503)
Yeah.

Yeah, yes you can.

Tom Renzulli (13:38.162)
Yep. He just moved into.

Tom Renzulli (13:43.858)
Yep, he serves food. serves spirit, mixed drinks, cocktails from Little Water Distillery. He tries to keep everything local, local wines. They make their own birch beer. So they get a bourbon from a distillery up north near Tom's River, I believe. And they make a bourbon and birch beer. And the barbecue is really good. It's an old, it's an old bowling alley that he transformed into a beautiful, beautiful place.

Tom (14:13.465)
Where's that located? Slack time?

Tom Renzulli (14:15.934)
Slacktide is on route nine in Claremont, I believe. Yeah.

Vic SJ Beer Scene (14:20.258)
think that's Claremont there, Yeah.

Tom Renzulli (14:23.838)
But yeah, as soon as you get off exit 17, you go up to route nine, make a left, and it's about five miles down.

Tom (14:32.793)
this is all good. Yeah, because I'm hanging out in Cumberland County quite regularly. And I've got a lot of love for the glass town around the corner of Mobile.

Tom Renzulli (14:41.566)
Glastown, love Paul and Jen, they're great people.

Vic SJ Beer Scene (14:41.784)
Thank

Vic SJ Beer Scene (14:45.346)
Very, very good. Sure. Sure. And you got a lot of them around them. But the great thing about that is you also got, like I said, you also got the producer where everything starts right down there in Rabbit Hill. This is actually a brewery that's going to be, I guess I give them a plug, Tom, that's going to be in Vineland called Wander Back Beer Works.

Tom (14:45.635)
But variety is the space of life.

Tom Renzulli (14:47.869)
Yeah.

Vic SJ Beer Scene (15:13.614)
I don't know if you can see the can here, but right now they're contract brewing someplace else. Their place isn't ready, but this is actually their Pilsner, which is delicious. And you know, we talked about beer and beer trends and I think that's where a lot of breweries are getting much more into Pilsners and, well, a Pilsner is a lager, lagers and Pilsners and lighter type beers.

Tom Renzulli (15:15.678)
There you go.

Vic SJ Beer Scene (15:42.796)
Now I work at Manifurcan up in Ocean County and last year we moved into a new brew house which gives us the capability of producing more lagers and pills which are a little more complicated to make than some of the ales. They take a lot longer and they're much more particular, much more delicate type of beers.

Tom Renzulli (16:06.322)
Yeah, I people don't realize that a pilsner is probably one of the hardest beers to make because there's really nothing to hide behind. It's the ingredients and the recipe and it better be good or people aren't going to drink it.

Tom (16:22.265)
Yeah, actually, very good point. I never thought of it that way. And I've painted myself into a corner at Glass Town with IPAs when I visit.

Tom Renzulli (16:31.218)
Yeah.

Vic SJ Beer Scene (16:31.982)
Well, that's good. They have their place too, if you like them. He's got some terrific beers. He actually produced this year a delicious Mexican lager that he did. Do you remember the name of that one, Tom?

Tom Renzulli (16:46.096)
I don't, but I know that the Czech Pilsner that he made is really good too.

Vic SJ Beer Scene (16:54.264)
Yeah, that's really good. But more breweries are getting into that one. The breweries first open, Breweries first open. know, a lager takes a lot longer than an ale to brew. You can have an ale ready to go in the tap in two weeks, from time of brew until the time it's ready, sometimes quicker than that. A lager is going to take a lot longer because the lager yeast works slower.

So that's actually fermented at a lower temperature, which takes a lot longer for the yeast to reach its maturity than an oil.

Tom Renzulli (17:30.352)
And when you would have a smaller brew house just starting out, you really couldn't tie up your tanks for six weeks when you could bang out three beers in that time. But now that people are getting bigger and have more stuff, then they can take the time to do.

Vic SJ Beer Scene (17:33.91)
Right. Right, you'd have to tie up a fermenter.

Exactly.

Vic SJ Beer Scene (17:47.115)
That's why when you see some of the macro advertising cold lagers, lagers are cold. That's the way they ferment cold. Lager yeast is not going to survive at a high temperature, so it has to be done cold.

Vic SJ Beer Scene (18:06.9)
Sorry I had the blue geek out there a little bit.

Tom Renzulli (18:09.82)
No, thanks, Parker.

Tom (18:11.279)
That's exactly perfect. No, geek out some more. It's further, if you like. think the niche here, the better because it's, you that's, that's essentially you guys are the correspondence for beer for the Bridgerton Beacon this week. anything you want to drop that's head of your niche, we appreciate the exposure to the audience because we don't generally deliver that level of beer discussion.

Tom Renzulli (18:38.492)
Yeah, I mean it's and also we do like traveling to other other, you know, just outside of New Jersey too. I've done a few articles on breweries in Pennsylvania. One hidden river. If you like IPA's. Hidden River is one you gotta hit. It's in Potsdam, actually Douglasville, but it's considered Potsdam.

Tom (18:59.439)
Do you feel like New Jersey or South Jersey has a style in aggregate?

Tom Renzulli (19:10.216)
I don't know so much as a style, but it's hard not to find a good beer. I everybody is really, I mean, everybody's so competitive and get along so well, but that's what's good. They're trying to outdo each other and we're gonna re -benefit from that as beer drinkers.

Tom (19:19.341)
That's true.

Vic SJ Beer Scene (19:29.814)
Exactly. And that's the one thing, Tom has been doing this a long time, and me also, is the quality of the beers has gotten so good. It has gotten so good at the local breweries. Every brewery, I cannot think of one brewery that produces bad beer. Every brewery produces good, consistent beers.

Tom Renzulli (19:56.168)
Yeah, you're going to find one or two that really, you're like, I'll come back for that one. And then you'll find another one.

Vic SJ Beer Scene (20:04.632)
For sure, for sure.

Tom Renzulli (20:07.118)
Let's see, Summer's Point, they have a brewery. That's my hometown, born and raised Summer's Point. And actually it was the old ice building. I grew up a block and a half from it. Thank God it wasn't there when I was younger, because I'd be stumbling distance from home every night.

Tom (20:28.335)
What's the name of that brewery?

Tom Renzulli (20:30.256)
Summers Point Brewing Company. So Po. So Po for short.

Tom (20:36.299)
So far for sure.

Tom Renzulli (20:38.227)
Yeah.

Vic SJ Beer Scene (20:38.382)
And you could find a lot of times these breweries helped revitalize a downtown area just by being there. I can think of an example. I worked in downtown Tom's River for 40 years and it was always very, the businesses were always very transient. You know, you'd have a business here, a business there. Restaurant would be here this month, three months later it would be gone. Battle River Brewing opened there a few years ago.

And that just brings people downtown all time now. That's there, there's a distillery now next door to it. There's a lot of terrific restaurants. So a lot of times the breweries can help revitalize a downtown area. know, not saying it's the sole thing that people are looking for, but you know, it's something that would bring them down there. And like I said, the breweries don't survive unless you're making good beer.

That's one thing that we can always agree on, Tom, myself, and John, is that the beers have just gotten so much better in South Jersey and all across. Like Tom says, we like going outside of the state too. I love Dogfish Head down in Delaware. It is always a fun, fun place to visit.

Tom Renzulli (21:58.6)
Yep. There's dogfish down there. Big oyster is really good. They make a Mexican lager. It's a play on Pacifico. It's called Atlantico. That is delicious. That's very good. Actually, I think I had a can, one can left of it from the last time we went down there. Crooked Hammock is a cool place down there. Yep. Yep. And Revelation is...

Vic SJ Beer Scene (22:02.766)
Mm -hmm.

Vic SJ Beer Scene (22:21.592)
That's right near the ferry, correct,

Tom Renzulli (22:26.212)
what you would think a brewery should be. It's a little off the beaten path. It's right near Dogfish East in on Rehoboth Boulevard. About a three quarters of a mile walk. It's just a little tiny brewery, but what's cool is you walk in, they have a chalkboard, have the bartender, or beer tender's names written on it so you know who you're talking to. And it's just very, brings you back to the original how breweries started out as. It's very small, very quaint, and great beer.

Tom (22:57.301)
And I think they occupy a more destination oriented rung on the hospitality ladder than bar slash restaurant. So I think it's fair to say that they're going to be more of a draw because I think when people are in town, every restaurant's pictures look great, but I don't know, brewery kind of puts it over the top. It's like, even if it's just okay, it's going to be pretty great if we go to a brewery and see where it's made and stuff like that. So it.

Tom Renzulli (23:26.525)
Yeah.

Tom (23:26.731)
I think it has way more of a destination and I haven't looked up the Google searches, but that's an assumption that I'm willing to look foolish if I'm wrong about.

Tom Renzulli (23:36.144)
No, I bet you everybody that's at the brewery, that's either, it's not going to be their first or last stop of the day at a brewery because it is people say, there's too many too close. No, people line up and say, I'm going to go hit this one, this one, this one. And you can't have too many breweries.

Vic SJ Beer Scene (23:51.374)
Sure, That's why I was mentioning before, know, Tom was talking about the Cape May County breweries. Zoom right down Route 9 and you got terrific breweries all the way down. You even where I am in Southern Ocean County, you know, we have Manifurcan, which is right by Long Beach Island, right before you go over the bridge. You have Pineland, which is a little bit further south, more toward Atlanta County.

Tom Renzulli (24:19.429)
Plan is very good.

Vic SJ Beer Scene (24:19.438)
You got Oyster Creek right up, Battle River, and Icarus, which was in Lakewood, New Jersey, they just moved into a brand new huge facility, actually increased their size probably 10 times. And it's a gorgeous two -level, beautiful, beautiful brewery.

Tom Renzulli (24:35.068)
Yeah, it's gigantic, massive.

Tom (24:42.991)
You're describing what would make a visitors map for vacationers at the welcome center. It's just breweries, by the way, but all the breweries down Route 9. Yeah, shoot, you're killing me because this is something I haven't taken advantage of and I've crossed Route 9 several times in the last few months. so I'm like, shoot, I got to get on the ball.

Vic SJ Beer Scene (24:53.806)
you

Tom Renzulli (24:58.683)
and

Vic SJ Beer Scene (25:06.638)
You gotta go to the other side. The other side too in Wildwood. Tony be mad if we didn't mention Mud Hemp. Mud Hemp Brewing in Wildwood. Not only terrific beers with a terrific brewer, they've actually won medals at the World Beer Cup year after year, but they also have some fantastic food there.

Tom Renzulli (25:13.648)
No, mud hen growing in the wildwood. Anglesea.

Tom Renzulli (25:21.49)
great food.

Tom Renzulli (25:27.336)
He just won a medal for his We Heavy.

Vic SJ Beer Scene (25:29.74)
Mm -hmm. And that's the second one that he's won for that particular beer.

Tom Renzulli (25:32.978)
Yeah. Yep. So.

Tom (25:35.523)
Now you're raving about the menu, expound on that a little bit. Let's feel free to take a hard left turn into the food side of the menu. What are they doing there that has you both clearly pretty fired up about what they're doing?

Vic SJ Beer Scene (25:45.32)
Tom, you're the foodie guy more than me. The fried pickles are terrific.

Tom Renzulli (25:49.262)
Yeah, I yeah, I mean I love the wings. Their brisket is really good. Everything I've had their salads. Pretty much every single thing they make is delicious.

Vic SJ Beer Scene (26:02.646)
It's really good and it's nice. There's a lot of parking today and they had a extension that they were building on the station house. They finished that.

Tom Renzulli (26:08.304)
It's it's it's it's completed. It is completed. He tore down an old Chinese restaurant on the corner and built this big, beautiful station house. It's called but it's just another catering hall, separate kitchen and everything. But it's all connected. All the properties are connected. Beautiful outside area. Mud Hen Brewing. Mud Hen. Yep. They named it after the the train that used to run.

Tom (26:26.403)
And what's the name of this establishment? Mud Hen, that's right.

Tom Renzulli (26:37.298)
because it would have to go through some mud sometimes. There was a train that ran through in Wildwood and they called it the mud head. There's great artwork in there.

Vic SJ Beer Scene (26:47.083)
And I guess is Cape May, is that the largest craft brewery in the state now, Tom?

Tom Renzulli (26:50.451)
No

As far as production, I would say as far as production, yeah.

Vic SJ Beer Scene (26:54.516)
Yeah, I think it is now, isn't it? Yeah. That's in Cape May, and I remember going there when they had the one room bar.

Tom (26:58.895)
Wow.

Tom Renzulli (26:59.996)
That's at the airport in Kamei County. Yeah, it was tiny before they first opened.

Vic SJ Beer Scene (27:05.592)
You know, so a lot of great growth of the breweries as long as, just like any other business, Tom, as long as it's managed properly. As long as it's managed properly and as long as your product is, as long as your product is good.

Tom (27:14.905)
Cape May is great.

Tom Renzulli (27:20.338)
Yeah, if you make it five years, you're making good beer. That's how I feel. If you've lasted five years, you should be able to continue on. Another thing we were doing right before COVID hit as I started doing, jetney tours, the South Jersey beer scene. I would, I think it was a hundred bucks, a hundred bucks. would hit four breweries for that hundred dollars was the jetney ride. You would get a flight at each place.

Vic SJ Beer Scene (27:22.808)
Yeah.

Tom (27:24.749)
I believe it.

Tom (27:39.055)
That's awesome.

Tom Renzulli (27:50.91)
I would have pretzel and cheese cracker trays and everything like that, water, and I would pack another cooler with ice empty to encourage buying packaged goods at these places and you put it right in the cooler. And that was just starting to really take off. And that was quite the COVID hit. The last one I did was

I January we hit Bonesaw, Achenaro, Neck of the Woods, and Core 3. And that was a great one.

Tom (28:24.409)
Well, I know for a fact that those sort of brewery caravans are back, whether or not you guys have jumped back into it, because I just intermittently, if I can pop into Glass Town and they'll have one on the schedule or there'll be one there where it's like, you know, a whole busload of people will unload and they're, you know, it's not going to be their first or their last stop and they're not going to spend all day. So

Tom Renzulli (28:30.334)
Right.

Tom Renzulli (28:52.974)
Most breweries hope that they are the first or second step. They never want to be the last stop They never want to be the last stop because then you know Brewies, I mean I bartended at Tuckahoe Brewing which has since closed and you really never had the problem of Stop serving somebody because normally they would come in they wouldn't belly up to the bar for five hours They would come in have a beer or two and then move on

Vic SJ Beer Scene (28:58.28)
Ha ha ha!

Tom (28:59.299)
Yeah, no doubt.

So.

Tom Renzulli (29:21.798)
or go to dinner or whatever. you really never had to, you know, there were a couple of times I had to cut people off or take their keys or one time, a couple of times I had to drive one person home twice. He lived right down the street and I'm like, nope, I'm driving you home.

Vic SJ Beer Scene (29:40.11)
See, that's why I work in a brew house, Tom. I don't have to be out with the public.

Tom (29:40.463)
That's fair though.

Tom Renzulli (29:42.334)
yeah, absolutely.

Tom Renzulli (29:48.466)
Well, I... yeah. No, I like the public. It's funny. They're funny.

Tom (29:49.047)
I'd much rather hide in the back for sure.

Tom (29:58.159)
I'm part of the public and I know what I'm like.

Tom Renzulli (30:02.608)
Like I said, most of the breweries,

Vic SJ Beer Scene (30:07.81)
Yeah, that's a one. Yeah. Yeah, there are several of them now. know, we also, there also still is, you know, throughout the beer festival season, sometimes as a way to get acquainted with some breweries that, you know, you may not be familiar with and may not be, you know, may not be aware of, you know, like in Stafford Township every August, there's Manahopkin.

is a beer festival there. They usually have about 30. And I've been stewarding the beer judging, know, because we judge the beers that the breweries and Tom has judged for the last few years there. And the winner two of the last three years is actually a brew pub up in Aberdeen, which is in Monmouth County called Alternate Ending. So

Again, without a festival like that, there's probably a lot of people in Ocean County that wouldn't even be aware of that particular brewery, which makes fantastic beers.

Tom Renzulli (31:15.784)
I mean, I do love festivals, but you know, it seems like some of the breweries, it's like more of a hassle for them now than it used to be, which is a shame, but I get it. I mean, it is festival overload, but I just love them. I love all of them. I mean, that's the whole point is to try, find something that you haven't had before.

Tom (31:40.227)
Yeah, it's true, I mean...

Tom Renzulli (31:40.254)
I Atlantic City Beer and Music Festival was pretty much like the godfather of it. It started 17, 18 years ago, and it was called the Celebration of the Suds originally. And it was at Convention Hall, it was, I think it was $25 for eight hours, 10 hours or something. And then they realized that, you gotta cut it into four -hour sessions. Can't give people unlimited beer for 10 hours.

Tom (32:09.999)
Peace.

Tom Renzulli (32:10.076)
That's still going strong. I look forward to it.

Tom (32:13.751)
I've been to that.

Tom Renzulli (32:18.802)
You've been to that one? Have you been in the outside one and inside?

Tom (32:23.511)
I think it was inside when I went.

Tom Renzulli (32:25.138)
Yeah, he just brought it back and said he went outside for COVID and he liked it at Bader Field in Lake City and. Because of COVID and kept it out there for a couple of years and people wanted it back inside. So this year he brought it back inside in April. And it was well attended and then he had one. He had a double session on a Saturday in July. And.

Tom (32:32.147)
okay.

Tom Renzulli (32:53.894)
The ticket he had to cancel two weeks out. The ticket sales just weren't there. But if you remember, there was a lot of hot weather before that. Like summer started off extremely hot. And for me, I've there's always a breeze on Baderfield. It's always cooler there. I didn't see a problem with the heat. So it was a shame that we had to cancel, but. It'll be back. I think he already he already dropped some hints that it's definitely inside. Not sure if it's going to be outside.

next year inside at the end of March. March 29th, I believe, was he just put March 29th and left it up to us to figure out what he's talking about.

Vic SJ Beer Scene (33:24.374)
I think he did something, it's gonna be March or something, correct?

Tom (33:35.917)
I understand the pain of the brewers who are like, geez, it's almost like they're like they're in a band. They got to load up the van with a bunch of stuff. It's like, you know, hospitality slash manufacturing is either one of those is a big enough pain in the neck. But then you throw in, now we have to, you know, get a van and do the garage band thing next weekend with a crew like that's like, that's a workout.

Tom Renzulli (34:01.096)
Yeah, it's, know, was originally it was a way for people to find out about these places. But now with social media and everything, you know, that's free advertising there. And it's like you like, kind like you were saying, a garage band that kind of made it. They don't need to play the smaller venues anymore. Or it's a hassle. And it's a shame because it's that's the spirit of it all. The festivals are what I like the most. I really enjoy them.

Tom (34:31.715)
Which is Atlantic City the can't miss festival or is there a specific festival that you think is, because you can only get to so much stuff anyway. So if there was one and somebody said, pick a festival in Jersey for me that would be really cool and fun.

Tom Renzulli (34:47.293)
Once they started adding music to it like two summers last summer The Sunday he had 311 playing so people people bitch about pay you're paying $75 for a ticket You pay that more than that just to go see 311 now you're gonna throw four hours of free beer and fun and activities and it's it's a

And it was a great show. And the day before that was the dropkick Murphy's. I don't, once he started adding the music into it, that was just a whole other thing. But yeah, I would say the Lancet Deep Beer Music Festival is the, can't miss.

Vic SJ Beer Scene (35:28.45)
that's the granddaddy. Yeah, Tom, when we actually had John on a podcast, he kind of helped the state make the rule for other beer festivals in the state.

Tom Renzulli (35:30.642)
That's the Godfather.

Tom Renzulli (35:41.298)
Yeah, he was, yep. John Henderson, who runs that for Good Time Tricycle Productions, he sat with the state and penned a lot of the rules for these festivals because they really were just starting to, he did one and everybody wanted to do one.

Tom (35:58.415)
full niche.

Tom Renzulli (35:58.728)
So that's pretty, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, we say that one does the man a Hopkins one is pretty nice. It's a smaller one Glassboro beer festival

Vic SJ Beer Scene (36:14.211)
I think Burlington has one coming up too in September.

Tom Renzulli (36:19.602)
The Central Jersey Beer Fest, I've worked at a couple times. That's a cool one. That's like a sporting complex, fairgrounds type place. I mean, it's like a whole city inside this place. And that's pretty good too.

Vic SJ Beer Scene (36:22.04)
Mm -hmm. Yeah.

Tom (36:36.195)
Yeah, I need to get to one of these. The other one I have been to was, think there's, isn't there one at a racetrack? There was, shoot. Trying to say the racetrack was, it was in Atlantic City. I thought there was a racetrack in Jersey that had a beer festival there that accompanied races. And this is going back at least a decade, but I remember it being quite the rip -roaring good time.

I didn't even occur to me until right this second and have no idea exactly which racetrack it was at.

Vic SJ Beer Scene (37:11.586)
I remember maybe Momma's Park up north further north or south Jersey. Momma's Park did one a while ago I believe.

Tom (37:20.875)
It might have been. It might have been. I think it probably was. Good time.

Tom Renzulli (37:25.992)
Yeah, I don't know. the the Millville? Did they do one? The sport, the racetrack there? I don't I don't remember one being there.

Tom (37:35.957)
I'm sure that they probably get trucks or something from breweries for events, would be my guess. Like they probably get breweries in. I'd be surprised if they didn't. And of course they've also, yeah, they do have food service themselves. Who knows what they do in terms of supplying beer over there. Yeah, that's quite an operation. That place, that's a really neat addition to the countryside is.

Tom Renzulli (37:40.915)
Right.

Tom Renzulli (37:48.627)
Right.

Tom (38:06.147)
like music to my ears on a Saturday morning and you just hear those engines whining like a synth like, yeah, like an orchestra.

Tom (38:18.617)
Alright, what else you got? there anything, any new breweries or any new kids on the block? And then the other question I had that you can take a swing at if there aren't any new kids on the block was if somebody says food and brewery, what's the short list? It just pops in your head that have that combo.

Tom Renzulli (38:35.422)
There's only a couple that you know, really, you know that mud hand and Ludlum right off the top of my head of the only two that I know of. There is now there is a new brewery in in Cape May County Myers Lighthouse Brewing. And that's that's in Oceanview, which it's really it's right on Route 9. It's about. About five miles from slack time. They have a mini golf. It was a mini golf place. Yeah.

Vic SJ Beer Scene (38:41.486)
in South Carolina, yeah, previously mentioned.

Vic SJ Beer Scene (39:00.302)
And it's also, that's fun. Tom and I, failed miserably at our tournament.

Tom Renzulli (39:07.678)
Actually, we won most honest because we didn't cheat Yeah, nobody would put down a 67 over if they didn't really shoot that

Vic SJ Beer Scene (39:10.594)
because we didn't cheat.

Tom (39:12.195)
That's why you failed.

Tom (39:18.061)
Hahaha

Vic SJ Beer Scene (39:18.146)
Yeah, that's actually the newest brewing Cape May and there's Meyer brewing in Philadelphia. Mike Meyer's the owner. He lives around by that area in Cape May County and he wanted to open one there. he's actually got your old brewer from Tuckahoe is the head brewer there, Andrew. Andrew is the head brewer there. And the one thing he think of, I think,

Tom (39:22.031)
Tom Renzulli (39:22.29)
Yeah, that's new. Yeah, he's in Philly too.

Tom Renzulli (39:39.422)
Yep, Andrew, yep, yep.

Vic SJ Beer Scene (39:48.598)
The brewers are kind of, you know, and the folks at work are kind of, it's kind of incestuous. Am I using the right word? Because most, no sir, I'm not. I was a bad accent. Sorry, sorry people from Kentucky. But, you know, one brewer will move from here to another one and everything. And it actually, and Manifur can, our head brewer we have there.

Tom Renzulli (39:56.862)
if you're from Kentucky are.

Tom (40:05.517)
I rather enjoy it.

Vic SJ Beer Scene (40:17.622)
was the Hebrew at Tuckahoe. Tuckahoe closed and he's the Hebrew of Manifurkin now. So like I said, very incestuous. A lot of people, know each other and like I said, the community is fantastic.

Tom Renzulli (40:28.542)
It's not odd for a brewer to call another brewer and say, hey, I'm short. I need this hop. What do you have? And then they'll swap. They'll trade off or they're always willing to help. And that just proves that they know they're confident in their own beer. They don't mind helping somebody else because they know their beer is solid. They're not threatened by it.

Vic SJ Beer Scene (40:36.45)
Mm -hmm, sure.

Tom (40:52.323)
Not only that, the more good, the more good breweries a good brewery has in its neighborhood, the more you just became the Disneyland of breweries instead of just a place where there is one brewery. So it's like, if it gets crazy weird how many great breweries there are in South Jersey, fantastic. That's not a threat to you as a great brewer. That's just the cum sign becoming more illuminated to a broader

Tom Renzulli (41:19.761)
Right.

Tom (41:22.059)
larger audience who lights beer.

Tom Renzulli (41:24.67)
Like I said, rarely does a group of people go out and say, we're going to one brewery today. Usually they're hitting two or three, at least. Or six or seven, or is that just me?

Vic SJ Beer Scene (41:38.626)
And like I said, it's such a great sense of community. as I said, I run the Ocean County home brewers and we have our monthly meetings and we go to a different brewery in Ocean County. So the brewers not only, we not only get to meet and talk about our own brewers, et cetera, but we'll have the head brewer, the owner of the particular brewery. They'll talk about their process. They'll talk to the brewers about.

Tom (41:40.099)
It's not.

Vic SJ Beer Scene (42:06.818)
different beers that they're making. So it's an educational experience for them. Plus, like I said, it's a great way to get to know the owners and the folks that do work at these brewers.

Tom Renzulli (42:19.792)
And I've judged some of Vicks Clubs beers. Like you'll have like at the other breweries, they'll have a judging contest. it's amazing. Like home brewers are putting out some really, really good beers. Really good beers. I remember the one that he wasn't so happy about, but I liked was when you guys did the California Common, which is basically the first original American recipe for beer from Anchor Brewing, which is.

Vic SJ Beer Scene (42:40.045)
Yes.

Tom (42:48.917)
interesting, very interesting.

Tom Renzulli (42:48.956)
since close. Yeah. So the only thing I only had seven guys try to make it and I forget who won but that guy really knocked it out of the park. It was by far the best California common out of the group.

Vic SJ Beer Scene (43:04.738)
Yeah, yeah, our brewery, I actually didn't brew it. I actually didn't do that. I usually don't participate in those competitions within the breweries. yes, and went to a tri -state or a tri -county competition. And the brewery that we went to, which I won't mention now because it's not open anymore, they selected a beer that was not a California common because that's the one they wanted to brew. Arr.

Tom Renzulli (43:33.464)
Mm -hmm.

Tom (43:37.603)
I used to anchor, anchor steam was my jam for a bit as a younger man. I thought they made a wonderful beer. Yeah.

Tom Renzulli (43:42.28)
Yeah.

Vic SJ Beer Scene (43:42.776)
Was it? I think it was a good beer,

Tom Renzulli (43:45.438)
Yeah, and like I said, that was the original American recipe. That was the first American recipe of beer.

Vic SJ Beer Scene (43:48.332)
Yeah, yeah, it's not very, it's not very common or well produced. And you know, there's very few breweries that actually make the California common. You know, who does? Okay. Yeah.

Tom Renzulli (44:00.466)
Summers Point Brewing Company makes one. It's called Jetty Jump. Summers Point Brewing, it's called Jetty Jump. It's their California almond. And whenever I see it on the menu, I try to make it in there for one.

Vic SJ Beer Scene (44:10.38)
Yeah. Again, that's a different style of beard is just so many different styles. You know, that's why it's a great hobby and type of business to get into because it's you're always doing something different, no matter what, always doing something different.

Tom Renzulli (44:14.258)
Yeah, it's totally different.

Tom (44:28.889)
Well, it's chemistry, mixology. It's agriculture. It's like winemaking in that respect. You've done several industries before you've got a glass of beer at the end of it.

Vic SJ Beer Scene (44:45.838)
Absolutely, for sure.

Tom Renzulli (44:45.938)
Yeah, yeah.

The timing, the timing, yeah.

Tom (44:49.591)
Is there anything, yeah, where you've got a recipe quote unquote in your head and then Mother Nature brings some sort of weather event to your backyard that changes whatever you can get out of it.

Tom Renzulli (44:54.939)
Yeah

Tom Renzulli (45:01.64)
Yeah, or you change the timing of your hop additions or something. That's why.

Tom (45:06.509)
sure.

Tom Renzulli (45:08.572)
It's nice when you can take your recipe and put it to pan and stop using pencil.

because it's trial and error.

Tom (45:15.833)
Yeah, but then how long does it take to get curious and start messing around with some new recipe and putting yourself through the same rigmarole?

Tom Renzulli (45:26.366)
Probably as soon as you master the one, you move on to the next one. Yeah.

Tom (45:28.334)
That's how I had a feeling. I had a feeling.

Vic SJ Beer Scene (45:30.808)
Well, there's certain even, you know, even as a home brewer, Tom, there's certain beers that you just do every year, a certain time of year, you'll do a particular beer this time of year. Okay. Like I know like come February, I have to do an Irish stout for St. Patrick's day or an Irish red, you know, later on in the fall, it may be some kind of dessert stout that I have to brew or something, but you do like to switch it up and do things a little bit.

differently. was talking to Tom before, I've been doing a beer, a raspberry wheat beer for probably 14 years now. And this year I changed it up. actually did it as a sour to give it a little different flavor, a little different taste. And that's done by using sour yeast instead of regular ale yeast.

Tom (46:22.639)
I've liked a few sours. I've painted myself into the IPA corner, no thanks to Paul and Janet last time.

Tom Renzulli (46:30.366)
Yeah.

Vic SJ Beer Scene (46:32.318)
Yeah, know, IPAs are still, you know, they're still on the top of the sales list. You know, you have to have IPAs in the breweries, but they're still at the top of the sales list. There's some other beers that may be inch up there, but the IPAs are still at the top of the list.

Tom Renzulli (46:48.488)
When people ask me like, what's your favorite beer? I'm inclined to say what's in that season. I'm a seasonal beer guy and fall is my season. I like the fall beers. I like the Mertens.

You know, the darker stuff, the, the October fast.

Vic SJ Beer Scene (47:08.716)
Yeah, this is starting to be pumpkin beer season too. don't love pumpkin beer, but this is the season that people score.

Tom Renzulli (47:14.046)
You know how, you know the best way to drink pumpkin beer?

Tom Renzulli (47:19.996)
You open a pumpkin beer and you dump it out. Now there's a couple that actually I believe it was Pinelands made a sweet potato beer I think that was really good. Kind of like just like a pumpkin. The ones that are like not real strong with the nutmeg I can definitely appreciate but the ones are too spiced or too thick.

Vic SJ Beer Scene (47:31.499)
Okay.

Tom Renzulli (47:49.574)
And that's as me. I that's why everybody's got their own way to make chocolate and vanilla, say. Everybody likes them. Some people like them. Some people don't.

Tom (47:58.999)
Is there anything coming up in terms of short term of events people should look out for? Do you guys have a plan to do another visit on your podcast anyway?

Tom Renzulli (48:09.547)
we're trying to get wonder back to do one. but I'm sure they're busy.

Vic SJ Beer Scene (48:16.536)
Yeah, they're tied up in their production. Actually, we may be out of Glass Town at some time. saw Paul a couple of months ago out there. said, you know, we're going to come out here and do one. that may be one concrete on the schedule right now. Not not right now, but, you know, we probably will have something coming up in the near future.

Tom Renzulli (48:37.904)
And is Glassboro Beer Fest coming up?

Vic SJ Beer Scene (48:41.176)
Glassware will be our festival this next month.

Tom Renzulli (48:43.484)
Yeah, it was the end of September it is.

Vic SJ Beer Scene (48:45.75)
I think that's like the weekend of the 21st.

Tom Renzulli (48:51.25)
The cool one that I love every year, this will be like the fifth year I think, is Witchcraft by the same guy that does AC Beer Fest. It's out in Paradise Lakes Campground. It's a Halloween themed beer festival. It is, yeah, it's awesome. It is awesome. I love getting dressed up, so. And I camp out there for the whole weekend. There's no running water or anything, but it's.

Vic SJ Beer Scene (49:07.586)
That's pretty cool. Yeah, that's a good one.

Tom (49:08.171)
No way!

Tom Renzulli (49:21.158)
It's cool. It's fun.

Tom (49:22.537)
That's a podcast episode right there. Wow, that's amazing. A Halloween beer festival? man.

Tom Renzulli (49:26.3)
Yeah, I mean he...

Tom Renzulli (49:32.56)
And he's got he's got some good acts. actually have a wooden carved pumpkin. He has this woman out there spandex with a chainsaw carving up stuff and she sells it.

lot of the breweries go all out with their decorations of their tent and it's so much fun and it's only

Tom (49:51.567)
mean, if you can't have fun walking around like drinking beer dressed like Michael Myers, I don't wanna hang out with you anyway. That's what I'm saying. This is the greatest event I've heard of yet. we could have talked about this for 45 minutes. I might have been entertained. This is solid gold. Yeah, what a great niche. Halloween Beer Fest.

Tom Renzulli (50:00.112)
And it's like...

it's awesome.

Tom Renzulli (50:09.63)
Yeah, it's I think October, October. Yeah, October 11th and 12th. It's right off 206. at Paradise Lakes Campground. It's like a defunct campground that they have all kinds of weird festivals out there and it's like a mile and half road all to get back there. So it is kind of creepy once you get back there. Yeah, it's.

Tom (50:25.519)
That's great.

Vic SJ Beer Scene (50:31.736)
Yes it is, yeah. last two years from that, I was at the festival in Denver. This year I'll be in Denver again for the Great American Beer Festival. That's actually the largest one in the northern hemisphere, or in the western hemisphere, the Great American Beer Fest in Denver.

Tom (50:32.281)
Perfect. that's great.

Tom Renzulli (50:50.984)
Yeah, that's the big one where everybody sends their beers to be judged. If you get a medal from there, you're doing something.

Vic SJ Beer Scene (50:53.942)
Riley.

Mm -hmm. Yeah. You are.

Tom (50:59.279)
That's a good place for it. Do you guys have any URLs or social media to share? And is there anything we didn't cover?

Tom Renzulli (51:01.191)
Yeah.

Vic SJ Beer Scene (51:08.664)
Well, I guess it's Facebook, South Jersey Beer Scene. You know, that's really the best place to get us. If you want to find our podcast that we've done in the past, Spotify, Amazon, music, et cetera, you can find past podcasts on there. If you check YouTube, we do have a YouTube channel, too. You could find some of them. Again, everything's under South Jersey Beer Scene.

Tom Renzulli (51:31.326)
Yep, the website's cool too because you can click on the breweries and then it'll break it down by counties. You click on the counties, then it'll give you the list of all the breweries in that county.

You can archive all the stories, all the articles.

Tom (51:44.12)
And Vic is.

Vic SJ Beer Scene (51:47.043)
Yes, sir.

Tom (51:47.983)
Vic, is your t -shirt, is that hashtag, is that a South Jersey beer scene hashtag? Because that's pretty darn clever.

Tom Renzulli (51:53.288)
Yes it is.

Vic SJ Beer Scene (51:53.644)
Yeah, this is the South Jersey Breweries Union. Is this still valid, right? Hashtag enjoy local beer. Yeah, this is a...

Tom Renzulli (51:56.828)
Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah.

Tom (52:02.841)
Well done, well done, proper product placement. was exquisitely executed. And that's a great hashtag.

Tom Renzulli (52:12.722)
Yeah. I'll take credit for that. The NJ.

Tom (52:14.147)
Yeah, enjoy local. I would if I could. That's good. That's great work. Slow clap.

Tom Renzulli (52:22.248)
Cause yeah, I turn around, Vic showing the logo.

Vic SJ Beer Scene (52:25.964)
And around it's got our logo on the back.

Tom Renzulli (52:30.322)
You gotta stand up.

Vic SJ Beer Scene (52:32.588)
I am standing up, Tom.

Tom Renzulli (52:34.194)
Well, least Stevie Wonder can see it.

Tom (52:36.451)
You've got the executive chair back though, Vic. there you go. now we're talking.

Vic SJ Beer Scene (52:39.832)
There we go. That was sick.

Tom Renzulli (52:40.05)
Yeah, there it is. Perfect. Perfect. The hop turtle. Everybody loves turtles.

Tom (52:47.373)
Yeah. And the website is pretty, is, heavily populated with all sorts of different versions of content from text to video to podcasts. So I encourage anybody with the slightest bit of interest to start there because they'll find an avenue of their interest for sure.

Vic SJ Beer Scene (52:55.768)
You know?

Tom (53:03.427)
All right. South Jersey beer scene, Tom and Vic. I would say this, I know for sure I've got permission from the big boss, Meg Horner. If you guys ever for announcement purposes or if there's any way, or form, you see us as a soapbox and megaphone for any sort of conversation. You know, we focus a great deal on history, agriculture, business development and

You guys talk about things that really honestly fall under those umbrellas in some way, or form, if you think about it. So if there's any good stories or you feel like there's an event or a new brewer that just deserves a, give them a shout out through us for free. If you think it's at all useful to anybody. We'd love to get any kind of sort of niche info from you guys, because like I said, we don't, we don't have it. So the more you guys get into the nitty gritty, what it

Tom Renzulli (53:31.07)
Yeah. Yeah.

Tom Renzulli (53:45.159)
Absolutely.

Tom (53:56.131)
we don't do specifically, awesome.

Tom Renzulli (54:00.178)
Yeah, absolutely. That was the whole reason why we started it, is to get the information out to people so they can enjoy what we already know.

Tom (54:08.227)
Yeah, if you guys ever want to promote a, like, I don't know, doing a, you're, promote, want to promote your Christmas episode, come on in January after you post it. Like that simple, we'd be happy to hear about what it is that you're covering. So I guess with that, we've covered, we've covered everything. That's such as a beer scene, Vic and Tom on behalf of Meg Horner, I'm Tom Ritter. I guess we'll sign off. Now, what I will tell you guys is, is don't,

Vic SJ Beer Scene (54:17.838)
Okay.

Vic SJ Beer Scene (54:32.238)
Okay, thanks for having us.

Tom Renzulli (54:34.312)
Cheers.