Twin Lakes Brewing Co. opens its Newport tasting room

Twin Lakes Brewing Co., began producing beer more than a year ago at its new Newport facility, but it did not immediately open its tasting room.

That has changed.

Five days a week, beer lovers now can go where the suds are produced and taste its famed Greenville Pale Ale and other Delaware-themed brews, such as Caesar Rodney Golden Ale, Tweeds Tavern Stout and Winterthur Wheat, a seasonal beer.

In late August, owners began quietly welcoming customers to the Twin Lakes taproom at 405 E. Marsh Lane in the Newport Industrial Park. It's in the same warehouse as the brewery's production area.

This past weekend on a rainy Saturday afternoon, a handful guests, who saw Facebook posts about the tasting room, came to see the new location that's hidden deep in the industrial park.

The warehouse is near Tile Market of Delaware and faces the railroad tracks. A few small signs point to the entrance. 

J. Burke Morrison, a new Twin Lakes partner, stood behind the taproom's large stainless steel bar, filled glasses and answered brewery questions. He offered tastes of its unpasteurized, unfiltered beers such as Blue Water Pilsner and old favorites like Twin Lakes' Oktoberfest and Jubilicious, a holiday ale. Twin Lakes also serves a non-alcoholic root beer.

Morrison said the tasting room has had a low-key opening, with little notice, so employees could get comfortable using the cash register and other equipment.

But co-owner Matt Day said a grand opening for the taproom is set for Friday, Sept. 8, from 4 to 9 p.m. with burgers, shakes and frozen custard provided by the Shack Shake.  

He said the companies joined together for the opening because of their similar philosophies. "We're both producing unprocessed food," Day said.

Twin Lakes, co-founded in 2006 by Day, Jack Wick and Sam Hobbs, whose great-grandfather was DuPont Co. Director Eugene E. du Pont, has undergone some major changes in the past few years.

The brewery was originally located inside a historic barn retrofitted into a brewery on privately-owned land off Kennett Pike. The 1826 barn once was the art studio of Hobbs’ uncle George “Frolic” Weymouth, the late founder of the Brandywine River Museum in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, who grew up on the property.

The brewery’s name comes from two ponds, known as the “twins,” that were on either side of the driveway of the more than 250-acre Hobbs family farm. 

Twin Lakes produced American-style ales, stouts and lagers, which are named for Delaware landmarks and historical figures.  

Not long after opening, the Twin Lakes beers earned a large following, and were sold at Delaware liquor stores, pubs and restaurants and distributed to nearby states. It also sold canned beer.

But in 2015, the partners had a falling out about the future of the business and Hobbs parted ways with Twin Lakes.

“We had different ideas where to take it. I didn’t agree with them,” Hobbs told The News Journal in 2015 about the split, but he declined to get into specifics about his departure other than to say it was a difference of opinion. 

The craft brewery temporarily stopped making and canning beer after leaving the Hobbs' family farm in Greenville.

Twin Lakes eventually moved to a Newport warehouse owned by HDC Inc. and managed by Harvey Hanna & Associates and started beer production again in July 2016. Cans of Greenville Pale Ale, Caesar Rodney Golden Ale, Blue Water Pilsner and Tweeds Tavern Stout are expected to return to liquor stores soon.

Despite the move, the company retained the Twin Lakes name, but had to find a new water supply for its beer. One of the company's selling points was that it made its beers with water gathered from a deep rock aquifer located on the Greenville farm.

Wick, who is now Twin Lakes’ head brewer, told The News Journal water used to make the beers now comes a well from southern Chester County in Pennsylvania.

The company is no longer located in a refurbished barn on a bucolic farm in tony Chateau Country, but owners say the new brewery is three times larger than old site. 

The tasting room, inside the 3,000-square-foot building, has a large bar along with several separate and communal tables.

The open space also includes leather couches and bar stools along walls. Dartboards dot the walls and the taproom features a shuffleboard table.

Pints cost between $5 to $6 and growlers ($15-$18) are available. A flight of 4 to 5-ounce beers is $5. 

The tasting room is open from 4 to 8 p.m. Wednesday through Friday; from noon to 8 p.m. Saturday; and Sunday from noon to 4 p.m. Visit the Facebook page or twinlakesbrewery.com/

Contact Patricia Talorico at (302) 324-2861 or ptalorico@delawareonline.com and on Twitter @pattytalorico