Tripel checking

That big, pro-am Belgian tripel brewed at the Tun Tavern for the Atlantic City beer festival is coming along.

Tun brewer Tim Kelly (shown at left taking a sample on Thursday) projects the beer will come in around 9 percent ABV or a little higher when it finishes out fermentation.

Come Monday, Tim says he'll begin to step the fermenter temperature down, with filtration of the beer set for March 30.

The beer, brewed with Tim's guidance by homebrewers Vince Masciandaro and Evan Fritz earlier this month, will be served at the AC beer fest on April 1-2, as well as at the Tun Tavern itself.

Vince and Evan took first place in the homebrew contest sponsored by the Tun, winning the opportunity to re-create their tripel on the Tun's 10-barrel Newlands brewing system.

The end to the 2 six-pack maximum?

Two South Jersey lawmakers are pitching the idea of letting Garden State production brewers retail directly to the public from the confines of their breweries.

For a long time now, those brewers have been allowed to sell a maximum of two six-packs or two growlers directly to individuals who stop by their breweries for tours.

But it looks like bill A3520, apparently eases that two six-pack/growler limit and forgoes requirements that retail sales occur during brewery tours. That is to say, there isn't language specifying maximums or occasions in the measure sponsored by Democratic Assemblywomen Celeste Riley (Cumberland County) and Pamela Lampitt (Camden County).

If that is the case, then the legislation addresses a concern among several Garden State production brewers who have long wished they could sell a case of beer (or more) to people who stop by their breweries.

What wouldn't change under the bill is where you can drink the beer you've just bought: you can't crack open a cold one at the brewery. The measure doesn't turn the breweries' sampling/tasting rooms into bars.

(The bill was introduced in late November and referred to the Assembly Law and Public Safety Committee; Assemblywoman Riley is also the sponsor of a bill to create a farm brewery license.)

Kane Brewing equipment in house

The components arrived just over two weeks ago, and now they await being slotted into place to become the brewery that will produce ales under the Kane Brewing brand.

But before that can happen, founder Michael Kane says officials in his host town, Ocean Township in Monmouth County, must green-light the site plans for the 7,000-square-foot industrial park space that Kane leased last August.

The brewhouse, trio of fermenters, bright beer tank and hot liquor tank were delivered Feb. 28. That's a little later that Kane had forecast back in January, but establishing a brewery is, no pun intended, a fluid process.

Stay tuned.