Co-Hops Brewery; Pennsylvania’s First Craft Beer Incubator Opens In Hatfield

With an industry that can date its roots back over several hundreds of years, it is rare to see innovation in the more modern era. This is why we are excited to share that Co-Hops Brewery and Cannery (Hatfield, PA) has opened with the goal to provide services not regularly seen in the craft beer space.

Co-Hops is the brainchild of Joe Modestine who locals may be familiar with as the architect of Doylestown Brewing Company. We recently sat down with Modestine to understand what makes Co-Hops so unique.

Unlike traditional brewing operations, Co-Hops did not open with the intention to produce their own product. As Modestine said to us “roughly 95% of our production is for contract purposes“. Meaning almost all of the liquid produced from this location is meant for other breweries to sell and distribute.

For those not familiar, contract brewing is a process where the host brewery is manufacturing the beer on behalf of another brewing company. There could be many reasons why a brewery may utilize the services of a contract brewing operation. They may not have a large enough brewing system of their own to yield the amount of liquid they would like for a beer. Or maybe they have been producing so much beer that they have no room in their tanks for more.

In Co-Hops case, there are a variety of reasons they are offering their contracting services. One of which involves helping new or smaller breweries get off the ground. For example, you may be a homebrewer looking to go professional. But you do not have a brewing system large enough to support a commercial operation. This is the case with many of the brands that Co-Hops is supporting. Modestine confirmed they are working with a variety of different up-and-coming breweries including Jim Thorpe Brewing, Drips Burger House, LoSo Brewing, Sutton Brewing, and Radiant Beer Project to name a few.

The current Co-Hops brewing and canning operation

The aforementioned are all breweries you may not be familiar with, but they are all working with Co-Hops in an effort to have their beer canned, kegged, and distributed. All of the breweries above have the ability to produce their beer for the public on a commercial scale while they continue to work towards building their own brewing operations. There is no telling how many breweries in PA Co-Hops will end up launching.

Helping new brands get off their feet is not the only goal of Co-Hops services. They are also actively working with well-established brands to help produce their beer. As mentioned above, a part of the contracting services the brewing location offers is kegging and canning other breweries’ products. With their own canning line onsite, they are able to work with breweries that may not have canning capabilities of their own to package and distribute their beer to local bottle shops and distributors. Currently, they are working with established breweries such as Moss Mill, Bucks County, Steel City, Floating Feathers, Blueprint, and many others with the intention to add even more.

What should also be noted is that Co-Hops is not strictly a packaging facility, but offers a taproom for guests to enjoy a craft beer much like any other brewery experience. Inside of the brewery’s 10,000 plus square foot facility, sits a 100 person capacity taproom with eight draft lines to enjoy from.

The Co-Hops taproom is set in a large, spacious industrial themed setting

And because Co-Hops is manufacturing all beer onsite, guests can enjoy anything produced at the brewery in either cans or on draft. As of right now, Co-Hops offers a small food menu paired with the large variety of craft beer available. Modestine did inform us that as a part of their expansion they will also be adding an onsite kitchen to expand the food offerings available to customers.

Their expansion does not stop at the kitchen. The brewery will also eventually introduce its own outdoor beer garden. Currently, they offer a few picnic tables for anyone who would like to enjoy a beer outside of the facility. But will soon be breaking ground on a more robust beer garden for outdoor enjoyment.

A small sample of the canned beer Co-Hops had available during our visit

While Co-Hops is extremely active currently, they also have a bright future ahead of them. The brewery operates on a 7 barrel brewing system. However, as Modestine shared they will eventually be expanding their presence and taking over the entire 30,000 square foot building (currently operating out of just a third of the space). This expansion allows them to introduce more brewing tanks as well as more than triple their operation by installing a 30 barrel brewing system. No immediate plans have been confirmed on when this will take place.

Additional long-term plans are not just increasing brewing operations. Co-Hops eventually plans to introduce a quality lab for breweries to test the quality of their beer. In addition, they also intend to offer brewing education services. Currently, options for entering the professional brewing industry are very limited. Most of it is done by being hired in an entry-level role and working your way up through on-the-job training. Co-Hops plans to offer official brewing teaching services with the goal of helping more individuals enter the professional brewing industry.

You can enjoy the wide variety being manufactured by visiting their taproom at 2262 N Penn Road in Hatfield. And be sure to follow Co-Hops on Facebook and Instagram as they continue to grow and expand their operations and incubate the craft beer future in Pennsylvania.

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