Rinn Duin gets OK from federal regulators

Tokens on tasting room bar

 Rinn Duin Brewing cleared a key hurdle last week, with federal regulators signing off on the company's brewer's notice.

That happened on Monday (July 8th); Rinn Duin's application to the state for a brewing license is still pending.

Founder Chip Town says once the ongoing brewery buildout wraps up, he hopes state regulators will be able to inspect the brewery and issue a license quickly.

"I'm expecting by end of August, beginning of September we'll be out on taps," Chip says. "We're that close now. It's a matter of finishing this (buildout) in the next couple of weeks and getting the testing done. Once that's done, a couple of weeks to make the beer, keg it and get it out the door."

Rinn Duin founder Chip Town in the
Toms River brewery's tasting room

The 25-barrel brewhouse, mash tun, 50-barrel fermenters and other tanks began arriving at the brewery in Toms River (Ocean County) late last month. The fermenters and other tanks are upright; the brewhouse is in place, but still needs its scaffolding erected, plus some other installation work.

"Everything is approximately where it should be. Now what we've got to do is tweak the exact position because the piping is all premade," Chip says. "The technicians are here. One is doing the piping, the other one is doing the electrical installation, all the control panels, all the motors. It's probably going to be 15 to 20 days to do the complete installation.

"Once we've got all the piping and the wiring done, I can call for a (certificate of occupancy), and then the ABC will come in and do their inspection."

Brewhouse, assembly required

Forty-four draft accounts have been expressed interest in Rinn Duin's session brews – a blond, a brown, Irish red and smoked Scottish ales. Getting those brews into bottles is going lag behind the draft business a little bit, Chip says. He forecasts bottling to get going in the fall.

Rinn Duin's six-tap, 500-square-foot tasting room was finished during the springtime and is stocked with glassware (shaker pint glasses and growlers). Beer drinkers can expect plenty of brews exclusive to the tasting room.

"Those taps are going to have a lot of different beers in them that you aren't going to see in the bars right away," Chip says.

The new name is Rinn Duin

Rinn Duin is now the name for the brewery being built along Route 37 West in Toms River. 

The company announced the name change via email on Saturday after encountering a trademark conflict with Blackthorn Cider.

Owner Chip Town says they knew about the English cider company but did not think there would be a conflict because of the differences between the beverages. 

The matter bubbled up when logo work was being done last month. While in Washington, D.C., for the Craft Brewers Conference, Chip and daughter Jacqui ran the problem by some trademark attorneys doing conference seminars.

"They told me I was dead in the water," he says. "Cider, for trademark issues, is on the same level as wine, beer, spirits ... (It's) is all first-level conflict as far as trademarks go."

(Name overlaps do happen: Climax Brewing in Roselle Park, incorporated in 1994 and launched in 1996, uses Climax in the name of all of its ales. California's Eel River Brewing made a now-retired  lager called Climax California Classic around the same time.) 

Chip says they're not thrilled about having to walk away from the Blackthorn Brewing name, but they're relieved the issue didn't happen after product had already gone out the brewery door. 

The new name comes from a brew that will be among the company's planned lineup of English and Irish ales. 

"Rinn Duin was going to be the name of our red ale. It's the name of my mothers ancestral home in Ireland, Castle Rinn Duin," he says. "It certainly has a tremendous connection to us. It was just the logical choice for us to make the name change to."

The new logo will use the same typeface as their former and will feature a line drawing of the ruins of Castle Rinn Duin, which is located in County Roscommon in Ireland.

Meanwhile, the brewery buildout is moving along, and the company continues to pilot their recipes.

"The (taproom) bar started going in yesterday. The floor is down; it's all Sheetrocked. It's starting to look good," Chip says.