Kelly Green Brewing Co.

 

Nice little place. Seats about 20, standing room for more. Had 8 beers on tap, predominantly of the British styles. Got a flight of 4: ESB, brown, porter, rye pale ale - all very serviceable. The fruitiness and bitterness of the ESB were enjoyable enough to warrant a full pint for round 2 to go with the tacos I'd ordered from a nearby joint (which is a sit--in place, but will deliver to either of the two breweries up the street). They did have a variety of attractively-labeled large-format bottles on display of their sours and saisons, which seems intriguing - was told they don't offer any of those on draft.

Unfortunately, I was the only patron for the roughly hour or more I was there. Early Saturday afternoon in late August on a nice day, can't blame anyone for not being indoors. My bartender, however, was quite personable and we chatted throughout the time I was there. It was even quiet enough to have the volume turned up on the TV.

I like the area and the street on which this and Human Village are located, enough so that with the beers being pretty decent I'll surely return.

They are around the board on styles with a heavy focus on IPAs but a solid offering of stouts, browns, etc. Their bottled sours are killer and often sell out quickly!

 

Man, going through the streets of Pitman was a blast from the past. It's been at least 10 years since I've gone down these roads. I was actually in Swedesboro getting a bottle of wine from a local small winery owned by a friend (DiBella Winery, if you must know), and I just happened to notice this brewery was having its grand opening. I showed up unannounced and without reservation, and whatever weird Jersey law is in place...basically they were restricting the tasting room entry to groups of people per hour. And believe it or not, there was quite a crowd. I managed to get in with no problem and grabbed a 4-sampler flight.

As far as vibe, this place is very small, basically just a shop on Main St. converted into a tasting room. Bright and airy though, small bar, some seating room. There was a good range of beers to choose from, with a few IPAs, wit, brown ale, quad, coffee porter, and the like. I gotta say, I expected a general run-of-the-mill average flagship brewery here, but I was pleasantly surprised at the quality of the brews. I've become sort of an IPA snob in the past couple years, but their Off Broadway was really clicking for me. On the other end of the spectrum, the Endgrain coffee porter was very good as well. Service was good, everyone seemed psyched and in the zone, not to mention knowledgeable.

I'm going to be watching this brewery. I'm kind of sorry I couldn't stay longer and sample more on my first visit, but I will definitely try to get back here again. Check this place out! NJ desperately needs more quality breweries like this one.