Cartel Brewing & Blending is the latest brewery to come to Lancaster, PA. The brewery will be opening Thursday 3/11 at 5pm at 928 North Prince Street.

The 2,100 sq/ft building that Cartel is opening in has been quite a few things over the years. From auto detailing to a barbershop, it was also once an antique shop and a bike shop as well.

We spoke with co-owner and brewer Adam Chamberland to get the details so beer fans know what to expect. (see the full Q&A below)

We first asked how did you come up with your name? As Adam explains it, he had a beer named “Vanilla Cartel” that he has been brewing for a while. He also states that the original meaning of Cartel was not always drugs, and he wants to redeem the word for something other than that. In addition, the name also loosely describes small craft beer vs large macro beer, with a lot of smaller breweries going up against big beer.

Any charities that Cartel Brewing & Blendery will donate to will be anti-drug or against human trafficking. As Adam says, “The goal is to take the word and change it to have less of a negative connotation.”

Check out Cartel’s space below

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Below is our Q&A with co-owner/brewer Adam Chamberland

BIPA: Can you describe the space you are opening? What size brewhouse do you have?

Adam: The building is 2,100 sq/ft divided between the production space and the taproom. The taproom has the capacity for 33 seats (outside of pandemic restrictions). We are featuring 16 taps eventually but will have 9 ready to go when we open.

We have a 5bbl brewhouse that I will be brewing on, and currently 4 fermenters.

BIPA: Who is all involved in the brewery?

Adam: There are four of us:

• Adam Chamberland – co-owner & brewer
• Sam Guo – the owner also of Silantra in Lancaster
• Cullen Farrell – the co-owner also of Rijuice in Lancaster
• Kyle Ober – the co-owner also of Rijuice in Lancaster

BIPA: Part of your name is blending, can you explain what you will be doing?

Adam: We may blend beers at the tap. What this means is we could possibly have a fresh daily pulled espresso shot in a stout, or we may tap kegs of juice from Rijuice, make a base sour and blend your choice of juice with that sour.

We also may brew single-hop IPAs with the same base and blend. You could then create your own IPA based on which hops you wanted. Eventually, I want to produce wild ales and this meaning of blending will come into play.

BIPA: What styles of beers will you focus on?

Adam: We will definitely have a variety of fresh beer. We will also have a limited barrel-aging program that I am hopeful will be started soon. I would like to barrel age in bourbon, rye, rum, and other spirit barrels.

Our goal is to have a lot of beers on tap and have them blendable, for endless possibilities.

BIPA: Will you have food?

Adam: We do have a small food prep area, but we don’t see using this much yet. We are stocking Braddy Boyz pretzels, and they are making a special blend just for our taproom. We also have a lot of food trucks lined up to be at the taproom, given that Lancaster’s food truck scene is great.

BIPA: Will you release crowlers/cans?

Adam: We have a crowler machine and will also offer growlers. We may eventually pre-fill crowlers for sale, or bring in a canning line and offer 16oz cans down the line.

Thanks to Adam for talking with us! Make sure you get over to Cartel Brewing & Blending and follow them on Facebook and Instagram as well for all updates.