E-Malt.com News article: USA, PA: Tired Hands Brewing Company expanding with a new facility in Ardmore

Tired Hands Brewing Company in Ardmore has anounced they are expanding with a new production facility, Main Line reported on March 21.

Would Jean Broillet, founder and master brewer of Tired Hands Brewing Co., have imagined that, less than two years after opening his brew-café he would be planning a major expansion?

“No, not at all,” he said. He recalls that, in meetings with investors then, “The question came up, ‘What comes next, Jean?’” His answer would have been that the fledgling business “is special because it’s in a place that’s special.” He and his wife had decided, “We will put our entire being into this.”

“That lasted about a year,” he adds.

What has opened up the view is that, in the meantime, the café has become a wildly popular destination for craft brew enthusiasts. “We are full all the time,” Broillet said. Fans line up around the building, those growlers in hand, for a new beer release.

So here Broillet is on a brink-of-spring morning, having just signed the lease on a second location that will serve as a production facility for up to 10,000 barrels a year of his “strange and beautiful beers,” as well as a second brew-café that he said will offer “a different culinary concept.”

He isn’t traveling far. The new building is two or three blocks away. And the first Tired Hands café is staying right where it is.

“This is precious. We built this ourselves, so we wouldn’t want to give it up,” he said. “So the decision to go to a larger facility was born out of a notion of sustainability.”

“We get so crowded on a Friday or Saturday that we have to have a door man. I don’t like that,” Broillet reflected. “We want to be able to sustain our business.”

Broillet said the two-story building totals about 13,000 square feet, large enough to contain production for up to 10,000 barrels, or 20,000 kegs, per year. By comparison, the fermenters and other brewery equipment at the existing Tired Hands have a capacity of 1,000 barrels or 2,000 kegs per year. Broillet said there can be a “sizable kitchen” to handle food preparation for the two cafes.

What will be different is that Tired Hands, with greater production, will be able to sell kegs to two locations in Philadelphia, as well as continue to offer a frequently changing menu of brews to Ardmore fans. Broillet said there will be six beers on tap at each of the two brew-cafes. Two will be the “house beers,” HopHands, described as a hoppy pale ale, and SaisonHands, a farmhouse-style ale. The other four will be different at each location, all given one of Tired Hands’ fanciful, even poetic names.

Broillet said the choice for beers-to-go will continue to be the refillable growlers, but he is thinking, looking ahead, to canning some of the brews.

Broillet said work to renovate the building would begin within days with interior demolition, and follow an “aggressive construction schedule” so that the new facility can open in about 10 to 12 months. Ordering and obtaining the specially-fabricated tanks and other equipment can take nearly that long.

At the same time, the second location will build on Tired Hands’ success in creating local jobs. The current location now employs 23, Broillet said; he expects the new facility will provide jobs for another 30.

Tired Hands’ announcement of its expansion plans comes as plans for an Ardmore location of the popular area brewpub chain Iron Hill Brewery are again moving forward for an opening by the end of 2014.

Broillet, who was a brewer for the chain for about 5 years, is happy to hear it. He thinks it will boost Ardmore’s status as a destination for discerning beer-lovers, recognizing that Iron Hill has a different business model with a full bar and restaurant focus. “Our focus is beer,” he said.


26 March, 2014