Appalachian Brewing Co. to open in Lititz, PA?

Finite number of what type of licenses? It's my understanding that brewery licenses and the 'add-on' brewpub licenses are not limited. At least not by the state of PA. Does Lititz have it's own self imposed limits on breweries/brewpubs?

 

Seems to me I remember hearing ABC was close to buying this place a year or two ago, but decided against it due to the lack of adequate parking on the property. Wonder what might have changed ?

 

Litiz is a fun little town, having an ABC there would be excellent!

 

That's why I never go there Friday or Saturday night. I find it much more pleasant there on weekday afternoons.

 

In the beginning the PLCB was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and has been widely regarded as a bad move.

 

I was already looking at re-locating to Lancaster...it just keeps getting better!

 

Oh poor poor Litiz. Please accept my sympathies.

 

Looks like Sturgis Haus got there first.

 

Yeah because local owned and brewed beers are always a bad thing in a town.

 

It is if the beer is about as exciting as styrofoam! As much as I have tried over the past decade plus, ABC will ALWAYS be an afterthought in the world of PA craft beer in this beer nuts brain. Sure, Sus-q Stout and Hoppy Trails, on cask only, are solid beers.....but other than that......crickets! Oh well, at least they can claim to be the best craft brewer in Harrisburg now!

 

styrofoam? (10 letters)

 

While I will agree with you that they aren't putting out world-beating beers, they are still a local brewery and that's always a good thing. If nothing else, they have good/decent beers that help get otherwise indifferent drinkers into craft beer.

I feel like we should continue this discussion over a Speedway Stout at Al's.

 

Whoa whoa, let's not disrespect styrofoam. Deuane you know my position on that "Place on Cameron street." I would rather (and often do) drive 40 minutes west or an hour north for a quality brewpub instead of 10 minutes across the river.

 

Wish i could say i'm excited by this news, but i seriously doubt i'll make the 15 minute drive to go there. Would much prefer to continue to support the Bull's Head and the events they hold there instead.

 

Lititz is a great town but parking has always been a negative for them on the Main Streets and glad to see ABC there.

 

666 was good I have no beef with Appalachian.... they could step up in quality of beer. but the food has been getting better at Harrisburg. Tough competition with the Bullshead in town which has a huge variety of high quality craft on draft.

 

Maybe open in 8 weeks.

 

Is sturgis haus the little place that is going to brew 5 gallon batches of beer and brew 50 gallons a year that was in the newspaper recently?

 

On FB and Web http://www.thesturgishaus.com/

 

This was in the Lititz Record Express last Thursday. It's going to be above Lititz Juction Tavern, which isn't very good by way of customer service from what I heard. I work at a nearby hotel and haven't heard about LJT so didn't realize they were still there.

Sturgis Haus is what was Spill The Beans Cafe, still run by the same people and still worked by all the same high schoolers so I can't really take it seriously as anything but a cafe.

ABC in the Lititz Record:
http://lititzrecord.com/2012/04/wha...-be-making-beer-opening-restaurant-in-lititz/

 

Hey Pit weasel,instead of going on what people say-why don't you stop in and try it yourself? ABC WILL NOT put us out of business, afterall we have been here for over 15 years already! For someone that has never been here you sure do know alot about us! And no, WE ARE NOT A BAR! We are a family run business with hours that suit the family. How many brewpubs open at 7am AND serve breakfast 6 days a week in Lancaster county?!?!?!?! How many 84 hour weeks have YOU worked? If you want to drink to get drunk late at night then go to the Park View or the Hidaway.ABC started out just like we are and so have most of the other small NANO-breweries.

 

How do YOU think all these breweries started?!!?!? By brewing 5 or 10 gallons at a time out of their garage-I don't know if its just me but are people REALLY this dumb when it comes to Nano and micro breweries??? The big guys have had the beer market long enough.Its time for all of us little guys to grab a piece.The craftbeer market keeps grabbing more of the big breweries share-right now about 10%. 5 years ago it was barley 1%. There will be more craft breweries popping up and taking more shares in the future.A "micro- brewery" does up to 15000 bbls a year! and a nano-brewery uses a brewery system of no more then 7 bbl. These concepts are here to stay,and yes we do brew 10 gallon batches AND if you brew MORE THEN 200 gallons a year (more then 6 kegs)you need to be licensed in Pa.

 

I guess YOU haven't been here either recently-what IS IT all you people bashing a NEW FAMILY RUN business trying to make an honest living!?!? We haven't had "high schoolers" here for over 4 YEARS!!!! So if you haven't been here for that long then how do you know who operates it???

 

"uncomfortable atmosphere...poor service" Just my opinion but, drinkkingg you aren't doing yourself any favors with the scolding attitude, all caps, exclamation points, multiple question marks. I applaude anyone who tries to start up a business and realize their dreams but reading your posts doesn't want to make me go visit there.

 

Time to relax and have a brew in Lititz; hope I don't get wet today !

 

The remarks were not ment to make you want to "go there".Just can't stand bashing a family owned,Main Street business for which they haven't visited.When someone spends 99% of there time trying to build a business to make a better life for their family and you have this kind of negitivity you kinda take it personally.Maybe this is why Main street busineses are slowly disappearing.

 

I can understand you would take it personally but how one presents themselves on a discussion board is still the public persona and reflection of the business. If I were standing at the host station waiting for a table and heard a version of the above rants I would be out the door. Posting on a board isn't all that much different. I think you can defend yourself and educate others without the attitude and thus promote your business and some good will at the same time. As an urban planner for over thirty years I can assure you Main Street has not gone downhill because people post rumors and innuendo on the internet.

 

you need to take a chill pill dude. IdesofMarch89 is a true advocate who works in the industry, and he was asking a legitimate question, you are reading too far into it. So let me do the same: this response screams "finally jumping on the bandwagon" to me - yeah, we know the stats because WE'RE THE ONES CREATING THEM! You want to come on here and lecture us about the growing craft industry? LMFAO!
I was on your side with your response to Pitweasel but to lecture us that craft beer is here to stay - that's what some of us were saying in 1996 while drinking Red Feather. Welcome to the club! It might be new for you, but its not new for the rest of us.

I've said it before and I'll say it again - a "brewpub" that can't guarantee a glass of beer is silly. I wish you the best of luck though. Let me know your name so I can say hi when I stop in

 

So back to ABC, my wife and I had been temporarily living near and going to the Collegeville ABC for a change of pace from Craft Ale House and Railroad Street. We've gotten very good food and service there each time. As for beers, no they don't blow me away but, Hoppy Trails is our go to pick and it's pretty good. The stout is pretty good too IMO. I have had a couple pils that I really did not like. Refreshingly I had a frank discussion about them with a server who was very much interested in customers' opinions and was willing to share his less than glowing critique as well. All in all ABC deserves a little more credit than it sometimes gets.

 

I guess that's a "yes" then, huh?

 

Inviting Pitweasel to stop by and give your place a try for himself is a great idea, especially since he's relatively new to the area. Hubert Humphrey was once asked "How do you win an election?" His reply was "One vote at a time." I suspect you already know that that is also how one builds a loyal custimer base. The important point you should be reflecting on is not that Pit Weasel was reporting things he had been told but that there are/were former customers of yours telling him those things second and third hand.

Also, to reinforce RC51Mike's point about public self-presentation, when I read your various comments about all your hard work and the 84 hour work weeks, all I could think of was hearing a little boy explain to my daughter that his mud pie would taste better than hers because he had spent much much more time making it. While I do fully appreciate how much hard work is involved in setting up and operating a place like yours, you should also be asking yourself if there aren't more ways to be working smarter as well as harder to accomplish your goals, to promote yourself and your business, while building more good will.

Finally, having looked at your web site, I for one do plan on making a trial visit one of these weeks when we are in the Lititz area because the menu looks great!

 

I understand that there will be naysayers-it is a lot easier to be negitive then positve and we do appreciate all the community support we have recieved so far. We do have some really good promotional ideas we hope to do in the future and hope to make some new customers.Anyone here have any positive ideas,throw'em my way,or check our facebook page for the newest updates.

 

To clear everything up-
The building was the Lititz Juction Cafe for about a year,closed Jan 1st 2011.Clare brothers had this building years ago before that. ABC is leasing the restaurant floor for 28 years from the current owner which lives on the 3rd floor.
Brewery/brewpub licenses are available to anyone anywhere under certain conditions.Total cost from Pa? Around $1500yr-you then can register up to 20 beer brands with the state for an additional $150yr.Plus Sunday sales are an additional $300 yr and don't forget the extended hours permit for $50yr.And don't forget the TTB,(used to be the ATF)You must also fill out a registration packet with them too,but that is free.A licensed brewpub will pay about $2000 yr just so they can sell their beer and Pa wines in PA.

 

From the "Brewsletter"...

 

ABC in Lititz opened last night FYI.