Kane Brewing Company – Ocean Township, New Jersey

What a shock! Kane Brewing Company may not immediately impress you from the outside, but just like all things “Jersey” – it’s easy to stereotype from looks alone…

Smack in the middle of Monmouth County and tucked away behind a traditional Jersey shopping complex here’s an inconspicuous office sign at 1750 Bloomsbury Avenue.

Where:  Ocean Township, New Jersey. See map.

In the same complex as a design company and an Engineering Associates office, we parked and followed some other curious customers inside. At first glance, the reception area felt remarkably similar to my regular dentist’s office I visited as a child.

But first impressions are sometimes deceiving…keep walking and you will be in for a wonderful surprise!!

Jim at the tasting bar at Kane Brewing Company

Why you should visit:  First, the beer and a close second for the Saturday afternoon tap room experience. After we stepped inside the brewery, the atmosphere was transformed! From a boring office space and industrial section of town…to a room full of brewery tanks, casks, two bars and a packed warehouse full of beer geeks (most who were well equipped with their own growlers to fill up before leaving).

Overall experience:  Our first visit was a bit less auspicious coming just a few months after Kane’s launch in 2011. A colleague of mine in NYC told me about a friend’s new brewery opening at the Jersey shore, nearby to my in-laws’ house in Belmar. We cycled to the office park, convinced that it was either the wrong address or a Google Maps error, finally seeing that the brewery was part of a low-rise office park. We dropped in and had a few of their first beers in production (at that time only three), checked out the brewery by ourselves and left thinking that there was still quite a bit of work left. We couldn’t imagine how Kane expected to grow. 24 months later – we couldn’t have been more wrong! The place is cool! The beers are getting wild and delicious and the vibe in the tap room was palpable the entire time we were there.

The selection of beer seems to growing each month, as the brewery picks up customers, momentum and recognition. Over 30+ bourbon and oak barrels were neatly stacked up next to the bar and customer seating area. Four barrel-aged series have been released and from the information I found on Kane’s website, it looks like there will be more to come…

I sampled two of their American-style IPA varieties; Head High IPA and Overhead IPA, both full of flavor and tasty.  Hopefully the beer we brewed at the Brewer’s Apprentice (see my previous post about making beer there) will get close to this amount of hoppiness. Solitude was equally delicious and unique – a Belgian-style dark strong beer with an ABV of 9.5%.

Their smaller batch series also sounds intriguing, though I have yet to try any of the beers.  Kane Brewing has 750ml bottles available that they’ve named Corked and Caged, as well as a Mysterioso series, beer brewed in their half-barrel pilot system to test new beer recipes.

My father-in-law Dave enjoying a 4 oz. sample-sized beer

Kane Brewing is currently using a self-distribution method and only supplying their beer to bars, restaurants and bottle shops in the state of New Jersey.  This was a clear choice and decision made in the President Michael Kane’s approach (as noted on the website).

If you’re not one of those lucky people to be living in the state of New Jersey, but you’re in a nearby state or planning a visit, I highly recommend searching out a place where you can taste the Kane Brewing Company beer.

Cheers to Kane Brewing, and your continued success…

At Kane Brewing in August 2013