Built on a shared passion for craft beer, a father-daughter brewhouse and taproom in New Jersey is nearing completion.
Royal Bine Brewing, owned by Kenny and Gab Ward, will open at 102 New Jersey Ave. in Absecon.
“We both worked for other breweries on LBI, and I realized what I like to do is sell beer, be in the beer community. My daughter, she’s a beer person too. She knows the industry. She’s been in hospitality forever, so we started the process, and that was six years ago,” Kenny Ward told Whatnow Philadelphia.
The duo found the Absecon location in January 2020, but the pandemic put the project on hold. Once businesses began reopening, they resumed work, completely restructuring, rehabilitating and building out the property.
“It’s such a cool vibe when you walk in. It’s not this big warehouse industrial thing. It’s a 5,000-square-foot facility. When you’re in the taproom, you don’t see the brewhouse, but if you walk around a corner, you’re in the brewhouse. That’ll be open to the public to check out the fermenters and brewing process,” he said.
The name “Royal Bine” is rooted in the hop.
“We went to a New Jersey farm for hop-picking. I’m talking to the gentleman, and I’m like, ‘What’s a bine?’ I learned that a bine is what a hop grows on. It’s a long, flexible steam of a climbing plant,” Kenny Ward said.
During the build-out, the team partnered with Pinelands Brewing Co. to release a Kölsch called Worth the Wait, introducing Royal Bine Brewing to the community ahead of its opening.
Head brewer Mike Stark of Carton Brewing will lead the taproom’s beverage program, which is expected to debut with 10 drinks on tap.
“I want to open with at least eight beers, a hard tea and a hard seltzer. We’re going to make that [Worth the Wait] our mainstay and promote it highly since a lot of places don’t do Kölsches on a regular basis. We’ll also do a standard IPA, West Coast IPA, hazy IPAs, a porter, a fruited beer and a wheat beer,” he said.
The taproom plans to offer prepackaged snacks and partner with nearby Absecon restaurants, allowing guests to order food from local eateries and enjoy it in-house with a brew.
Kenny Ward said he looks forward to introducing Royal Bine Brewing and working alongside his daughter every day.
The team is awaiting approval from the New Jersey Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control. Once it receives the green light, brewing will begin, a process expected to take several weeks.
Royal Bine Brewing is targeting a late fall opening.
Visit the website and follow along on Instagram and Facebook for the latest updates. Stay tuned!
