USA, PA: Three Little Birds Distillery and Hop Hill Brewing Company to open second locations alongside each other in Lower Saucon Township

A Lehigh Valley brewery and distillery are expanding operations and bringing craft beer, cocktails and fun with friends back to a familiar site, 69News reported on June 15.

Three Little Birds Distillery, at 1955 Willow Lane in Lower Macungie Township, and its sister company, Hop Hill Brewing Company, at 1988 Blair Ave. in Lower Saucon Township, are planning to open second locations alongside each other at the end of June at 201 N. Main Lane in Lehighton, according to owner Greg Smith, who operates both businesses.

The Lehighton building previously housed Insurrection Distillery, a micro-distillery offering grain-to-glass spirits, which announced its closure in April and held its final inventory sale on June 10.

"We're hoping to do a couple of weekend pop-up nights, starting June 23 or 24, and then we'd be open the entire week of Fourth of July before starting our regular hours," Smith said.

Three Little Birds, a nod to Smith and his wife's three children, opened a year ago in a renovated, 120-year-old barn that the distillery shares with Rising River Brewing Co., while Hop Hill opened in 2017 in an updated garage bay off of Route 378.

Smith had been looking to open a second location of Hop Hill for a while and found the recently vacated Lehighton venue to be a "great fit."

The new location will operate under the Three Little Birds license, but both business' products will be available for purchase and both business' names will be featured on signage, Smith said.

"We've been doing really well at our original location and wanted to expand our reach in the region," Smith said. "In Lehighton, we'll be continuing the same concept, making it a family-friendly spot for the community to gather, relax and have fun. That's the most important thing for us - making people feel welcome."

"We'll be in a really great location, on the way to Jim Thorpe, where there's a lot of fun events happening, especially in the fall with the foliage and leaves changing. So, we're looking forward to meeting new friends in a new area. We're also hoping to do some beer festivals or food truck festivals on the property that bring even more people together and take advantage of the area's scenery."

Minor cosmetic work is planned for the space's interior, and Smith is looking to create a large outdoor seating area, featuring string lights, tables with umbrellas and space for cornhole and other games.

For hungry guests, food trucks will visit the property on a regular basis.

"There's a lot of green space that hasn't really been touched behind the building," Smith said. "So, we want to make it a really cool space where we can host musicians and other fun activities."

Inside, Smith plans to maintain the space's main bar along with barrel tables and other furniture. Seating for approximately 60 guests will be available.

Customers will be able to enjoy six to eight draft beers, including Hop Hill's three flagship varieties - House IPA, Morning Blonde (coffee blonde ale) and Drinking Games (cream ale).

Rotating varieties include Black Magic (oatmeal stout with notes of vanilla, chocolate and oats), Walter Street (American wheat ale brewed with orange and vanilla), Strawberry Dream'n (strawberry cream blonde ale) and Gravity Well (West Coast-style IPA brewed and dry-hopped with Mandarina Bavaria, Citra and Sabro), among others.

Glasses of beer and beer flights, featuring four 4-ounce pours, will be available. A sour and seltzer always will be available, Smith said.

"We also want to keep the legacy and name of Insurrection alive, and so we are thinking of doing a beer called Insurrection - possibly a stout or barrel-aged beer," Smith said. "We want to pay tribute to what came before us."

Beer and spirit production will continue at Hop Hill and Three Little Birds' respective sites in Lower Saucon and Lower Macungie, but Smith plans to use part of the Lehighton property for barrel aging spirits.

The new venue will offer Three Little Birds' full lineup of spirits, including its whiskey, vodka, rum, gin, brandy and flavored vodkas such as coffee, raspberry and "Chernilla" (cherry vanilla vodka).

It also will offer flagship and seasonal cocktails, including a hard iced coffee (available in flavors such as salted caramel, French vanilla, dark chocolate and coconut), Cosmic Squeeze (orange creamsicle cocktail featuring vodka, orange juice, vanilla, ginger ale and whipped cream), Manchild Elixir (gin, house-made lavender simple syrup, lemon juice and club soda) and Blueberry Watermelon Smash (fresh blueberries muddled with watermelon syrup, vodka and club soda).

Three Little Birds also offers a monthly cocktail special, with June's drink being the Summer Saga (house-made mango puree, vodka or gin, strawberry syrup and tonic).

In Lehighton, cocktails, spirit flights (four half-ounce pours) and limited bottle sales will be available.

"We haven't gotten there yet, but we also want to do cocktail flights and Bloody Mary flights," Smith said. "Those are both coming soon."

Insurrection Distillery, which was known for its hand-crafted, small-batch spirits, including rye whiskey, spiced rum, violet American dry gin and Grandpa Jack's Pennsylvania apple jack, opened in late 2019 in a mid-19th century building that originally housed Lehigh Stove and Manufacturing Company.

As a result of health issues, owner Rod Walck announced the distillery's closure in April.

"This is a very hard decision to make but unfortunately has to be done," Walck wrote on the business' Facebook page at the time. "After suffering a stroke, I need to discontinue operations at the distillery effective immediately."

This past weekend, Walck thanked patrons during a final inventory sale and extended warm wishes to the building's new tenants.

"Thank you all for your past support and for sharing our final day today," a June 10 message reads on Insurrection's Facebook page. "We have passed the baton and hope you will treat the new regime as well as you did us. Three Little Birds Distilling and Hop Hill Brewing. Give them some love!"

Tentative hours for Hop Hill and Three Little Birds' new location are 3-10 p.m. Wednesday through Friday, noon to 10 p.m. Saturdays and noon to 8 p.m. Sundays.

During the winter, those hours will likely be condensed, Smith said.

16 June, 2023