For Cricket Hill, summer starts now, runs longer

Rick Reed pours at Brewer's Plate event

The news out of Cricket Hill is their newly acquired 30-barrel fermenters have been put into service – an imperial IPA and their hot-weather seasonal, Jersey Summer Breakfast Ale, are the brews that the Fairfield beer-maker announced last week had christened the tanks.

Going beyond that tidbit of news, owner Rick Reed says Cricket Hill will bump up its production run of the summer seasonal this year and make some packaging adjustments.

New 30-barrel tanks

"We'll do 20 batches; that's up by two brews. We'll do more draft and less bottles. We'll cut back the bottles and increase the sixtels," he says.

Speaking of those two fermenters (bought from Switchback Brewing in Burlington, Vermont), Rick says the extra tank space will boost annual production capability to almost 4,000 barrels, up from 2,600.

The brewery has also added a new chiller to handle the additional tank load, plus a grain silo that is forecast to help trim operating costs.

On the festival trail this month, you can expect to run into the Cricket Hill folks at Beer on the Boards in Point Pleasant Beach (March 24) and the Atlantic City beer festival (March 30-31).

The Cricket Hill crew beneath Springsteen pic at the March 11th Brewer's Plate at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia.