Day one of our N.J.'s best craft brewery showdown takes us to one big-name and two lesser-known breweries.
With a brewery named Village Idiot and such beers as Monkey's Breath Banana Bread and Thong Remover Tripel, Vince Masciandaro doesn't take himself or the beer business too seriously.
The story behind Village Idiot Brewing's name, though, is one worth telling.
Seems like Masciandaro and his late partner, Rich Palmay, showed up at a local bank for a meeting about loan financing. They were on time, or so they thought.
The first words out of the bank president's mouth: "You guys are a week late. The meeting was last week.''
"I turned to Rich and said, " ' We're idiots,' '' Masciandaro recalled, laughing.
Village Idiot, one of eight semifinalists in our search for N.J.'s best craft brewery, opened in the former Bridgetown Pub in December 2013. It's not the only brewery in Mount Holly; Spellbound Brewing also calls the county seat home.
Mount Holly is one of a growing number of small towns across New Jersey opening their arms to craft breweries - Pitman, Hackettstown and Medford, among others, have multiple craft breweries.
Village Idiot is likely the state's smallest craft brewery; the entire brewing equipment consists of three tanks, which look like stainless steel 55-gallon drums propped against a wall in a back room. It's a stark contrast to the two giant warehouses full of gleaming, expensive equipment at Cape May Brewing Co. in Lower Township, another of our semifinalists.
Like many brewery owners, Masciandaro is a former home brewer who decided to jump from basement to brewery. In Mount Holly, Village Idiot found a willing partner. "The town basically said, yes, whatever you want,'' Masciandaro related.
"A week doesn't go by without a mayor or city administrator reaching out to us inquiring how to attract a brewery to their municipality,'' said Jason Carty, executive director, Garden State Craft Brewers Guild.
Masciandaro says his beers are "pretty much all over the map'' - blondes, pale ales, IPAs, porters, stouts, tripels. He even named a beer after Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Carson Wentz - the Wentzstephaner, a hefeweizen.
I'm sampling eight beers at each stop in this round. My favorites here: Overcast Double IPA and the Blood Orange Gose.
CAPE MAY BREWING CO., LOWER
The brewhouse at Cape May Brewing is the beer version of Willa Wonka: tanks bubbling, centrifuges spinning, assembly lines whirring, bottles clinking, with enough noise to rival an airport runway.
Oh, wait, the brewery is headquartered at an airport - Cape May Airport, which not only is home to planes but a taco joint, designer soap store, printing shop, an auto repair garage and gym, among others.
I last saw Ryan Krill in 2011, when Krill; his dad, Bob, and Chris Henke opened the brewery. The space then was not much bigger than a storage unit; today, Cape May Brewing consists of 8,000-square-foot and 15,000-square-foot buildings, which include a tasting room, outdoor patio, offices, and merchandise shop.
"And we're out of space,'' says Krill, leading a tour of the facility. "We started with one employee and one account; now we have hundreds and hundreds of accounts all over New Jersey and Pennsylvania, and 50 employees. We now brew more beer in one day than we did our first year.''
They even make their own soda (try the white grape and ginger ale sodas).
"Andrew - what are you brewing today?'' Krill asks brewer Andrew Ewing.
"Tide Table,'' Ewing says of the pale ale, one of the brewery's six flagship brews.
Krill, president of the Garden State Craft Brewers Guild, smiles like a kid at Christmas showing off some of his beer "toys'' - a centrifuge that clarifies beer, resulting in a higher yield; and an Invisible Sentinel system, which essentially tests a beer's DNA for foreign bacteria.
And you thought beer was simply a matter of throwing together grain, water and yeast.
Last year, CMBC made 75 different brews, and this year promises to be as creative and adventurous. A total of 21 beers were on tap when we stopped the other day. "In New Jersey, IPAs are still king, but we're not an IPA brewery,'' Krill said.
My favorite beers here: Snag & Drop Imperial IPA and Turtle Gut American sour.
EIGHT & SAND BEER, WOODBURY
Yell "Chris'' or "Kris'' at Eight & Sand Beer, and someone's bound to answer.
Both owners are named Chris (Chris Burke and Chris Mazzone). One bartender is named Kristina, another Kristen. The latter is Kristen Wilson, who likes the brewery so much she's getting married here - on April Fools Day, no less.
The name Eight & Sand? It's railroad slang for "quick and safe travels.''
The tasting room at Eight & Sand Beer, Woodbury (Ed Murray I NJ Advance Media for NJ.com) Burke and Pazzone found a former pasta factory the perfect space for a brewery, which opened in September, 2016.
The biggest obstacle was procuring a bank loan. New Jersey breweries find themselves in a bit of Catch-22: the state does not issue licenses until all equipment is in place, and banks are reluctant to offer loans until licenses are secured.
Eight & Sand's emphasis is on "classic European session beers,'' plus ever-popular IPAs and other brews. A kettle-soured Berliner Weisse is on the near horizon.
The tasting room is spacious, and there's nonstop train videos on a big screen: trains snaking through the Alps, trains rolling through country crossings, trains, trains, trains.
With 83 breweries and brew pubs in operation in the state, and many more on the way, Burke was asked if a shakeout in breweries is inevitable.
"The market is still so immature, there's plenty of room to grow,'' he replied.
As usual, I sampled eight brews. My favorites: The smooth, silky Dry Irish Stout and the potent, honey-ish barleywine.
Peter Genovese may be reached at pgenovese@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter at @PeteGenovese or via The Munchmobile @NJ_Munchmobile. Find the Munchmobile on Facebook and Instagram.