Spring House Brewing Company
Perhaps few people understand this concept as well as those in Lancaster, PA, a small city that’s bursting with a strong sense of community and a burgeoning beer scene, where breweries like Spring House Brewing Company can flourish among its peers
GOOD NEIGHBORS
In 2006, when Matt Keasey opened the doors to the Spring House brewery-which is located in the barn on his property outside the city limits-he learned a valuable lesson about just how magnetic a beer can be.
“Down at the brewery, I actually had a tasting room going, and my house was just getting swamped with cars and people,” Keasey says. “I couldn’t really control it. My property was getting to be too overwhelmed. The brewery has a typical driveway with an oversized parking area. It was getting so packed with people coming down for tastings, that’s what made me decide to open up the brewpub a few miles away. The location wasn’t set up for that many people coming in and out.”
Congested traffic at your brewery-whether it’s on your own property or not-would be classified by most people as one of those good problems. Still, it was a problem. So, Keasey decided to divert the traffic away from his property by opening a brewpub within Lancaster in February of 2011.
Although the 1-barrel system located on the premises is more for experimentation than anything else, it allows Keasey to sell Spring House beer on site and join a vibrant community of brewers and beer drinkers who were eager to welcome a new face in the crowd.
“It is a really good beer scene. Our brewpub is packed nonstop,” says Keasey, talking to BA on his cell phone over the din of customers that could be heard in the background despite the fact that he was outside the building and it was the middle of the afternoon on a Thursday. “There’s probably about ten good beer bars and two other breweries within walking distance from here. I think Lancaster County has maybe eight to ten breweries located in it. For the part of Pennsylvania where we’re at, that’s a lot of breweries.”
I HATED MY JOB
Keasey’s interest in beer was nurtured in the same way as so many other modern brewers. He began as a home brewer, but it didn’t take him long to figure out that he would rather spend his days shoveling grain out of a mash tun than waste hour after mind-numbing hour at his day job.
“My job sucked. I hated it,” Keasey says. “I met my wife, we were both with a pharmaceutical company, and she came up to me and was like, ‘I can’t take it anymore, I’m going to go apply to a PhD program and I’m leaving.’ I was sitting there and said, ‘Well shit, I better figure out something, too’ We were sitting at work and I said, ‘What do you think I should do?’ She said,’Well, you love beer,’ and I thought, ‘That’s not such a bad idea.’ I love drinking beer and brewing beer, so I started looking into it.”
That was around 2000, and he steadily progressed toward his goal of opening his own brewery. He knew it would be a dramatic leap to go from a kitchen operation to a full-fledged production brewery, so he turned to the area brewers for help. Keasey volunteered at various area breweries to get the feel of the professional systems before he ventured out on his own.
“That was fun,” he says. “You get to meet a lot of people, and a lot of people help you out when they find out you’re trying to start a brewery. They want to help you and see you succeed. That’s nice about being in the industry. I open my doors to everybody. If somebody says they’re looking to start their own brewery, nine times out of ten, I let them in. It’s fun.”
But Keasey still wasn’t sure where the brewery would be located. He had recently moved to his current home, which was first settled and built in 1794 with a functioning spring in the basement that was tapped up until 1970(hence the name “Spring House”). Keasey was brewing a home batch in his barn when his home brewer helper, a friend from high school, suggested he build the brewery in the barn.
The idea stuck, and Keasey adapted his business plan to accommodate a rural location instead of an urban one. So far, it’s worked out well, providing plenty of space for the brew house and an ideal setting for special events, such as the annual parties that accompany the brewing of the Spring House Pumpkin Ale.
“What I do is get a pig roaster, and I’ll get if for about two months,” Keasey says. “By the end of August and into mid-November, it will stay at my house and we’ll roast pumpkins throughout two months. It’s pretty much a party down at the brewery. Whoever wants to come out can come cut pumpkins, and we’ll throw them on the roaster…We’ll have a few beers, roast pumpkins and shoot the shit.”
MORE ART THAN SCIENCE
One might assume Keasey’s background in chemistry and pharmaceuticals would make a natural fit for brewing. It’s easy to picture someone with his background bending over a microscope, analyzing yeast cells and scrutinizing procedures and efficiency reports. One might assume that, but one would be wrong.
“Seeing that I was in chemistry and I have a chemistry background and work in the industry, I try not to rely on science,” he says. “I go more for the art of it because I was just scienced out. I just do what I want to do down at the brewery. I will throw whatever in to see what happens. One batch might not be the same as the batch before because I’m continually tweaking my beers. I’ll have a recipe that I think is really good, and a lot of people will tell me it’s good, but I won’t be satisfied. So I will go back and make a change or two here-changing my recipes just to see what I will get, what will happen if I do this, this or this.”
Keasey says the one beer he does not constantly adjust is Seven Gates Pale Ale, which is Spring House’s flagship and is one of the beers that finds its way to the bottling line located at the brewery. Most of the others served at the brewpub or other accounts-where demand has Keasey and his small team brewing beer four or five days a week-beers like the Gate Series, a series of beers based on the Seven Gates recipe that will showcase a single, different hop with each batch.
For now, Keasey is enjoying the freedom of being a small brewer. Although demand suggests that the market could support it, Spring House’s plans for expansion are modest (they include adding a barrel-aging room to the brewery and increasing production on the bottling line).
“We have a small group, me and two other guys in the brewery. We just crank out special beers that we want,” Keasey says. “I don’t know if we want to get into managing more people and producing beer. I like the size we’re at…I’m not looking to get rich. I just love what I’m doing.”
Spring House The Astounding She-Monster
ABV: 7.0%
Category: Craft
Seasonal Availability: Year Round
Beverage Type: IPA
Mango IPA
Our juiciest beer features ripe mango and tropical hop aroma on the nose followed by a mild bitterness from the Simcoe, Chinook and Falconer’s Flight hops and some alcohol warmth to balance out the sweetness of the fresh mango.
Spring House Big Gruesome
ABV: 8.5%
Category: Craft
Seasonal Availability: Year Round
Beverage Type: Chocolate Peanut Butter Stout
Creamy, malty, and full-bodied, the Big Gruesome Stout is scary good. The intense, roasty flavor comes from two types of chocolate malt and raw cocoa nibs. The stout is then aged on whole vanilla beans and more raw cocoa nibs to enhance the chocolate flavors. Rich peanut butter is introduced throughout the entire brewing process to make this stout even more Gruesome.
Spring House Blood Lust
ABV: 11.4%
Category: Craft
Seasonal Availability: Limited
Beverage Type: Russian Imperial Stout
Blood Lust is our delicous dark stout aged with vanilla beans, cacao nibs, cinnamon sticks and habanero peppers. This intense stout is incredibly complex with notes of dark chocolate, rich espresso and toasted coconut seamlessly blended with hints of pepper heat.
Spring House Braaaiins
ABV: 8.3%
Category: Craft
Seasonal Availability: August-October
Beverage Type: Pumpkin Ale for Zombies
Our pumpkin ale is brewed with generous amounts of real pumpkin blended into the mash. The subtle fresh pumpkin flavor is enhanced by the addition of a touch of traditional autumn spices and sweet dough, thus creating a beer with an orange amber color, warm pumpkin aroma, a bold malt center and a crisp finish. We are proud to offer you a balanced and delectable fall treat. Suitable for zombies.
Spring House Lexicon Devil
ABV: 5.8%
Category: Craft
Seasonal Availability: Limited
Beverage Type: Grapefruit Pale Ale
This Citra-heavy pale ale is loaded with grapefruit zest and cold-pressed grapefruit juice giving you a tart and refreshing beer.
Spring House Lil’ Gruesome
ABV: 8.3%
Category: Craft
Seasonal Availability: Retired
Beverage Type: Peanut Butter and Jelly Stout
Lil’ G is not intimidated by his larger counter-part, Big Gruesome. An extremely rich and complex beer, the addition of raspberries during the fermentation process results in an reddish opaque color with nice chocolate notes. Like the Big G, rich peanut butter is introduced throughout the entire brewing process to make this stout even more Gruesome.
Atomic Raygun Imperial Red
Atomic Raygun Imperial Red is a big, aggressively hopped Red Ale. It starts out with piney aromas and citrus flavors courtesy of the generous hops, and finishes with a nice rich, malty sweetness that balances the crisp hop bitterness.
Spring Hill The Martians Kidnap Santa! Egg Nog Stout
ABV: 8.3%
Category: Craft
Seasonal Availability: November-December
Beverage Type: Egg Nog Stout
Rich, creamy stout with an extra dose of holiday cheer.
Spring House Robot Surf Factory Pineapple Pale Ale
ABV: 5.8%
Category: Craft
Seasonal Availability: April-July
Beverage Type: Pineapple Pale Ale
An American-style pale ale hopped up with hefty amounts of Ahtanum, Amarillo and Citra hops. This hoppy ale is aged on fresh pineapple wedges and juice.
Spring House Satan’s Bake Sale Mint Chocolate Chip Stout
ABV: 8.7%
Category: Craft
Seasonal Availability: November-December
Beverage Type: Mint Chocolate Chip Stout
This stout is smooth, dark, full-bodied, and satisfyingly rich. This brew is aged on fresh peppermint leaves and dark Wilbur Chocolate, giving this stout a powerful aroma and pronounced mint chocolate chip flavor.
Spring House Seven Gates Pale Ale
ABV: 5.6%
Category: Craft
Seasonal Availability: Year Round
Beverage Type: Pale Ale
The story of the Seven Gates comes from rural Pennsylvania, not far from the Spring House Brewery. According to the legend, a mental asylum for the criminally insane stood in the middle of a dense forest. Surrounding the asylum were seven concentric gates, preventing would-be escapees. One terrifying night, the asylum caught fire, causing the inmates to flee into the menacing forest. As the tale goes, the former asylum residents were trapped by the seven gates and eventually succumbed to the perils of the forest. The locals swear that the tormented souls of the inmates will torture anyone brave enough to attempt passage through the Seven Gates of the forest. Spring House Brewing Co. honors the local legend by producing a terrifyingly delicious brew that is as familiar as a friendly forest, yet possesses a mysterious quality that will haunt you from the first taste. The enormous, hopped flavor and the meticulous craftsmanship that goes into each bottle will have you believing that the master brewer must be a direct descendent of the former asylum residents. Seven Gates features Centennial, Citra and Amarillo hops.
As with all our Spring House beer, it is brewed in Lancaster, PA.
Spring House Simcoe Must Be Destroyed!
ABV: 10.5%
Category: Craft
Seasonal Availability: Limited
Beverage Type: Double IPA
Our newest Double IPA showcases one of our favorite hops: Simcoe. A big, bitter, dank ale that is dominated by the citrus flavors of Simcoe. The use of Chinook, Amarillo and Simcoe in this ale were no match for the Simcoe Brute. Simcoe Must be Destroyed!
Spring House Spinal Remains
Pumpkin Stout
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