Bergen County, NJ

It will be called Alementary in Hackensack:

https://www.facebook.com/TheAlementary?pnref=lhc

http://www.alementary.com/

 

Great news! I am drinking some Brix City Porter Authority Porter (growler fill) right now. I sampled everything while there and they were all great. Took home a growler of the KTK Double IPA. It was excellent.

Another brewery in Hackensack will be sweet!

 

This is awesome news. I'm in wood ridge so this is so close. Can't wait!!!

 

This may be as close to my place as a brewery will get. Very happy!

 

Bringing this one back to life with some updated info. They have finally received their brewing license and will be opening in a few weeks per facebook quote below:

The Alementary Hrm... let's see.... Not yet! We are going to open with 8, and the brewing staff are still making tweaks. Announcements of the opening lineup should be coming in the next couple of weeks.
Like · Reply · 2 · February 22 at 9:57am

 

Will keep an eye on this as it looks like I'll be moving to Bergen County within the next 2-3 months.

 

Are these guys homebrewers turned pro? Previous experience? Anyone know?

 

All good questions. And hopefully we get those answers before announcement of their bottle club membership.

 

Saw couple of photos on NJ.com. The tap room looks pretty nice. Hopefully the beer is as good

http://www.nj.com/camden/index.ssf/2016/02/new_nj_breweries_to_look_forward_to_in_2016.html#2

 

Very funny.
Then I was flipping through the slides of the NJ.com article and I see that ATCO brewing which will start brewing in the next few months is selling memberships.

 

Super excited for The Alementary to open its doors as I live extremely close by in Little Ferry. The space looks great from their Facebook pictures and both owners are actually scientists by trade. One is a chemical engineer and other is a microbiologist. Can't get two better backgrounds than that if consistency and quality of their product is the number 1 goal.

Now, with that said, my only slight bit of critique is that they're planning on opening with 8 beers according to a Facebook reply from one of the owners. That's waaayyyy too many in my opinion to start out with and, unfortunately, a lot of new breweries these days make this mistake when they launch. Even with their scientific backgrounds, there's simply no way they can continue to brew 8 beers with consistency this early on the game. This is the exact issue that plagued Brix City in Little Ferry in their first few months of operation. They've since worked out a ton of kinks, but several of their beers still fluctuate widely in terms of consistency.

In my opinion, 4 is the max number of beers a new brewery should be launching with. And it should stay that way for quite some time until you master those 4 recipes on a consistent basis. Then and only then should you move on to more offerings.

 

I would rather see a brewery have 4 beers that range from solid to great than have 8 beers that are Meh to pretty good

 

Exactly. Start off with a great pale ale, an IPA or DIPA, or both, and maybe something simple but well done like a brown or saison. Get those recipes nailed down and consistent, then maybe have a little fun by tinkering with different hop additions to keep things fresh and exciting for your locals.

The above should be done for at least the first year, maybe even the first two years. In that time it's totally cool to have a few one off bottle releases.

But barrel programs, memberships and canning in the first year is just silly.

 

So, I hit up Brix City for their first barrel aged bottle release yesterday and I have to say that I walked away impressed. I live literally down the street from the brewery and have hit it up probably twice a month since they opened.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, their biggest issue since launching has been consistency. I've enjoyed several of their beers only to come back a month later and have the new batch of the same beer taste completely different and not for the better. Only beer that doesn't apply is Porter Authority as they've always brewed that beer consistently well, in my opinion.

Happy to report that everything they had on yesterday was super solid. Just Another IPA is in my opinion the best beer they've ever brewed and it tasted exactly the same yesterday as it did the first time I had it last November. Thug Bowman, a variant with all cascade of their black IPA Chuck Bowman, was solid as well. And lastly, Silk City, their first barrel aged imperial stout, impressed me as well. A bit on the thinner side than I would like, but the familiar, vanilla, roasty, chocolate, boozy, goodness was all there.

 

Interesting article
http://www.nj.com/bergen/index.ssf/2016/03/hackensack_brewery_starts_production_eyes_april_op.html

 

I just found out that I work with one of the owners of the Alementary... I have a bunch of his home brew, they are going to have some great stuff.

 

The Alementary in Hackensack will be having their grand opening on April 16 at noon

 

What beers do they have? Unable to find anything on their offerings.

 

On their facebook page, they mention an English mild, but I haven't seen anything else mentioned.