09/05/2021
It’s sad to realize that the most local governments act like the big guys in DC. It’s all “political”. What’s that mean? It means what’s best for the decision maker, not the people receiving the decision.
*Edit for clarity: Our location on Main Street will remain in operation. You can’t get rid of us that easily!*
🍺 AleCraft Brewery has huge news!
We are expanding our operation and moving our primary production to a 13,000 square foot building featuring a new seven barrel brewhouse, hop farm, taproom, expansive biergarten and restaurant. This location will be a craft beer lover’s haven. The new brewery will be situated on four lush acres adjacent to the NCR trail in Railroad Borough Pennsylvania, complete with a pristine stream, spacious outdoor seating, and a rooftop deck. We’ll partner with the owner of Fox & Fern (formerly in Forest Hill, MD) to serve premium gastro-pub fare and their locally renowned coffee. Our main production and hop farm will relocate to Pennsylvania and our goal is to keep our smaller brewing system and taproom in Harford County.
This news is bittersweet. While we are thrilled for what the future holds, we are beyond disappointed that the reckless, overreaching actions of the Harford County Council prevented us from expanding within the community we care so much about. We poured ourselves into building a business here over the last eight years. We never had wealthy investors or political power. We had passion, a dream, many long days, and missed vacations. Those efforts combined with our valued employees and our dedicated customers carried us from a 700 square foot home brew shop to a 5000 square foot operation, gaining accolades and priceless relationships along the way.
Since our inception, AleCraft dreamt of combining our brewing expertise with our owner’s hop farming passion. We worked for over a year during an economically oppressive pandemic to secure investors and a location just outside of Bel Air for our community and agriculturally friendly brewery. We diligently followed all laws and established processes. We maintained a complaint free and community friendly business. The future looked bright. Then disaster struck: the day before our zoning hearing, Councilman Robert Wagner introduced a moratorium on farm breweries (as emergency legislation).
After learning of the suspiciously timed moratorium we withdrew our zoning application for the farm brewery that we had spent fifteen painstaking months planning. We pleaded with the Council to let us continue our expansion on another property within the county if they were so opposed to the one we chose. They would not relent. They insisted that the existing farm breweries created problems that the moratorium would address. Yet when the bill was passed, every other operating and planned farm brewery was granted an exemption from the moratorium. Despite a willingness to make substantial investments in our county and community; the council and administration refused to make any concessions that would allow us to pursue our dream. After surviving the COVID-19 pandemic, our modest vision was crushed by the five council members that voted for the moratorium and the county executive who signed it.
The Harford County Council’s antagonistic actions toward our small, woman operated agricultural business forced us to search for a more welcoming place to expand. We discovered the idyllic location in Railroad PA, tucked between New Freedom and Shrewbury, just two miles off of I-83. We’ll be able to build the destination that we had planned to offer Harford County (with the added bonus of wine and liquor sales under the more permissive PA licensing).
As for our Harford County operations, we are working diligently to maintain our presence here. We love our customers and we’ll continue to work hard to continue serving you meticulously crafted local beer. We’re so excited to bring our dreams to life. Stay tuned for updates on both locations
