At last! Iron Hill offers new craft beer option at the beach

REHOBOTH BEACH — Yet another temple is going up in this seaside mecca for craft beer lovers.

It's taken two decades and about a dozen new locations along the East Coast, but Iron Hill Brewery & Restaurant is finally beach-bound.

"We're a staple in Delaware," said Iron Hill co-owner Mark Edelson. "Now we can give all our fans Iron Hill in the summer."

On Tuesday morning, the Iron Hill crew wrangled eight 400-pound tanks into their new southern Delaware home, looking forward to when the shiny, steel vessels will be filled with dozens of kegs worth of locally brewed, ice-cold beer.

"And you'll be able to see the whole brewery from the parking lot," said General Manager Rick Whittick as he pointed to the huge glass windows behind the copper-lined brewing equipment.

When the Rehoboth Beach Iron Hill opens just in time for Memorial Day weekend, it will have taken about six months to build the more than $4.5 million, 9,000-square-foot brewery and restaurant along northbound Del. 1 between the outlets and the entrance to Rehoboth Beach.

The new restaurant will be able to seat twice as many people as its original Newark location, which Edelson, along with his partners Kevin Finn and Kevin Davies, opened in 1996.

With a banquet room, patio and massive indoor dining area and a full view of the kitchen and brewing operation, the southern edition of Iron Hill will be able to seat up to 425 people. The building also includes room for two yet-undecided retail stores out back.

Whittick said the newest Iron Hill – the opening in Rehoboth will mark the company's 14th location on the East Coast and third in Delaware – will include many of the same brews and menu items, but with a bit of a coastal twist.

Head brewer John Panasiewicz said he envisions a new twist on Iron Hill's signature White Iron Wit Belgian-style wheat beer by crafting a similar brew with a blueberry-lemon flavor.

Other fruity ales, IPAs and lagers will certainly be on the menu as well, Panasiewicz said, and at least 15 beers will be on tap when the brewery opens in May. The shiny new tanks and brewing equipment delivered on Tuesday will allow Panasiewicz and his crew create about 55 different seasonal styles and more than 900 barrels of beer each year.

"If you want to compare us to Dogfish or anywhere else, that's great, but we'll stand alone," Panasiewicz said. "We'll stand apart and we'll stand out. Just because of service, quality of service and execution."

When Iron Hill Brewery & Restaurant opened in Newark more than two decades ago, there were only a handful of places offering craft beers.

Now people can barely drive anywhere in Delaware without stumbling on an expansion of those original beer pioneers or a whole new set of brewers aiming to create the newest best IPA.

"It's so different than it was 20 years ago," Edelson said. "It was just [a handful of craft breweries] forever, and now it's tremendous. It's a very good thing."

With nearly unlimited dining options competing for customers flocking to the Delaware beaches, many of which now also brew their own craft beers, Whittick said Iron Hill is ready to collaborate.

"It's a small, tight-knit community, the craft brewing world," he said, hinting at future brewing collaborations with a handful of other local breweries.

The new brewery and restaurant also will create 125 new jobs for the area, about half of which still need to be filled.

"We're Delaware people, so this is finally us getting to the beach," Edelson said. "We've been in the state for 22 years. We're jumping in here, but we won't be here and then be gone."

Contact reporter Maddy Lauria at (302) 345-0608, mlauria@delawareonline.com or on Twitter @MaddyinMilford.

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