A rendering of the King’s Road brewery in the Community House’s library room. The space is expected to open to the public later this year.
The Community House of Moorestown, Rowan College at Burlington County (RCBC) and King’s Road Brewing Company announced plans to bring New Jersey’s first education-based microbrewery to Main Street last year and now, that project is ready to see the light of day.
“We are excited that we are going to be having a full-time tenant; one of the goals of this was to have financial certainty in having a long-term lease agreement with King’s Road,” said Haynes Hendrickson, vice president of the Community House board of trustees, also a lead on the project.
“I am starting to feel very optimistic about the vibe of people realizing this is actually going to be open on Main Street and what that’s going to do for restaurants and shops and foot traffic on Main Street,” Hendrickson said.
“It’s going to be wonderful.”
Rowan College’s certificate program for students interested in a career in craft brewing launched its classes this fall. The microbrewery will allow students the chance to earn hands-on, authentic brewery experience with the accommodations of the space, including stainless-steel tanks used in brewing and fermenting and a bar and tasting room.
That hands-on experience for students also allows the Community House to be more involved in one of its core missions.
“The educational component certainly allows us to be more involved in one of the core tenets of our mission: education,” Hendrickson explained. “If we can have an educational component to it, that helps us to continue to deliver on our mission.”
Plans for the brewery – expected for opening on Saturday, Dec. 20 – started with the closing of the Community House pool and how to use that space. But since the cost and the timeline to get a shell of a location ready for someone to rent kept growing, things shifted. The tasting room for King’s Road Brewery will be located in the Community House library, and the brewing space is going to be right below in the basement.
In the back of the building is a segmented space that can be used as an outdoor seating area. Brewery hours are expected to be Monday through Thursday, 3 to 10 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, noon to 10 p.m.; and Sunday, noon to 8 p.m.
“The needs for gathering are different today and they were different 20 years ago, so we’ve continued to evolve,” Hendrickson noted. “Most importantly, we want people to be able to be on site with us, and that’ll help us share our purpose and our mission and get people more involved in ultimately continuing to be the core fabric of the community.”
The Community House is still getting the space tenant ready. Those interested in joining a Founder’s Club will not only have access to membership benefits, but be remembered as a dedicated resident who helped bring this project to life.
For more information, visit www.communityhousebrewery.com/founders-club. Founder’s Club memberships are donations to the Community House to prepare the space.
