ICONA Golden Inn Welcomes the Space Age of Brewing
Cheering with some session IPA.
As the popularity of craft beer continues to rise, so has the number of breweries. It seems as if local breweries will soon be as numerous as Wawas in New Jersey. This new market has spawned a thriving industry of commercial brewing equipment manufacturers, and the days of repurposing old soda machinery and sourcing tanks from defunct European breweries are fading away. In fact, brewing technology has gotten so good that the ICONA Golden Inn is now able to produce tasty ales and lagers with a semi-automatic, in-house, one-man brewing operation. It is indeed at the forefront in what I call the space age of brewing.
The man in charge of this small microbrewery, tucked in the narrow room in the back of the Avalon Brew Pub, is Mike Wear. Wearsy, as he is known, is a longtime local, father of four, and one of the most cheerful guys you’ll ever meet. He walks me past the bathrooms with the awesome converted-keg urinals into his tile-clad lair with four active fermentation tanks and a lot of intricate piping. The room even has a full wall of windows so that the equipment, which is beautiful, shiny and new, can be seen from the outside. At the end of the room stands a touch-screen computer, with images of flow charts of the brewing process. Wearsy walks over and touches the screen. “This thing is awesome!” he says with a smile.
“I can control the whole brewing process from right here and can even check the status of it from my phone. I just add the ingredients when it’s time, and make sure it’s cleaned out when I finish a batch.”
The system is called “Smart Brew” and was developed in New Zealand as a solution for small bars that wanted to have their own affordable brewing operation while alleviating common issues like storage and disposal, fire safety, and high labor costs. There are no brew kettles at the Avalon Brew Pub. Instead, concentrated wort is delivered in boxes and reconstituted with filtered water. Packaged pre-pitched yeast is added to start fermentation. Hops are added toward the end for dry hop flavor and aroma, but the rest of the process takes place automatically. With the push of a button, Wearsy can pump beer through the system and right into kegs.
“I might be a brewer, but I wouldn’t say I’m a brewmaster just yet,” he jokes. His main role is to manage inventories and to keep stockpiling beer for the busy season ahead.
“It all sounds pretty easy, right, but it doesn’t mean everything always goes as planned,” he says. “On the first batch of beer we ever brewed, we ran into problems with the glycol system not working and it ruined the whole batch. That’s when I have to call up to Nova Scotia, where the help desk is, and then we have to wait for parts from Portland, Ore., or someone to remotely log into the computer to troubleshoot it.”
Wear is still having a lot of fun with it. “We can brew over 28 different recipes,” he says. “Our mainstays are going to be Chill Pilz, a Czech-style pilsner; Belgian Beach Bum White Ale, and We Don’t Play IPA. I am excited to rotate in some different styles and I am currently experimenting with making a Belgian shandy.”
The Avalon Brew Pub opened last August and since November has been rotating its beers into the 12-tap lineup along with a nice selection of other local craft breweries like Slack Tide, Tuckahoe, 7 Mile and Cape May. The half kegs lining the ceiling, chic lighting, and beer-style name placards on the walls create a hip, upscale casual setting for enjoying some good beer. The food ranges from seafood to pizza and the plan is to be year-round for breakfast, lunch and dinner, which is amazing for Avalonians and visitors alike. The brew pub also serves wine and cocktails if you have a non-beer lover in your group.
Believe it or not, this little high-tech brewery at the ICONA Golden Inn is the first beachfront microbrewery on the East Coast. But unlike other local breweries, you will not see ICONA beer outside of their establishment at the moment. With a brew-pub license in New Jersey, you may only sell your beer in-house. ICONA hopes to figure out licensing in the hopes it will one day be able to sell its beer at all the ICONA resorts and beyond. Until then, head on over to 79th Street if you want to try Avalon’s one and only brewery.
The Beer
I followed up with Wearsy to try the first batch of beer of the season and was able to sample three of the beers straight from the tanks. All of the beers had fully attenuated, had long-lasting, frothy heads, and there were no off-flavors apparent, meaning the beer was made properly.
Belgian Beach Bum White Ale: This beer poured a golden amber color with a head that stuck around on the glass for the length of tasting. Smooth, mellow and clean, it had mild hints of vanilla, orange peel and coriander. The liquid was clear as could be for a wheat beer, and it reminded me of a light version of Blue Moon.
Half Way IPA (4% abv): Wearsy wanted to experiment with making a session IPA and the result was a crushable amber-colored ale that would be best appreciated while sitting poolside on a hot summer day. Very pleasant and easy drinking, it almost tasted like an amber lager, with hints of crystal malt on the finish. Mike and I both agreed it would be a nice switch-up beer, to go down easier after drinking some heavier ales.
We Don’t Play IPA (6.7% abv): By far my favorite of the three, this beer had the most flavor, and I could smell the citrusy hops from the moment I held the glass. A medium-bodied beer, it went down easy with a smooth finish. Hops and malts were balanced with notes of grapefruit and tangerine. The brew pub should go through a lot of this beer during the summer.
