Ship ahoy! Delco’s Ship Bottom Brewery is riding the wave to the Jersey Shore this summer.
Rob Zarko is the mastermind behind the small-batch brewery tucked in the garage of his Wallingford, PA, home. Zarko’s passion for home-brewing began in the mid-1990s and has flowed steadily ever since. Now, he said, it’s time for bigger and brighter beer business adventures. The new brewery and taproom, located on Long Beach Island, NJ, is set to open its doors, and taps, this June.
Zarko said the new facility gives the company room to grow and the ability to produce more volume and experiment with new recipes.
“Right now we have very limited distribution, so this will give us the opportunity to make our products more highly available,” said Zarko. “I’m going from a one-barrel nanobrewery in my garage to a 15-barrel microbrewery in Beach Haven. It’s very exciting.”
Zarko added that the new Ship Bottom Brewery will produce six year-round, two seasonal and two limited brews, all uniquely named and branded with a cool, hip seashore vibe.
The most popular, he said, is The Shack IPA, which Zarko described as a “7.6 mildly bitter IPA with hints of citrus, mango, tropical and stone fruit aromas.”
He recently brewed Blueberry Bikini Bottom Wheat Ale and test-sampled it during a local beer fest. He said craft beer connoisseurs went wild over it. That’s no surprise, given that nearby Hammonton, NJ, is known as “the blueberry capital of the world.”
Then there’s The Chicken or the Egg. Which came first? In this case, The Chicken or the Egg 24-hour eatery in Beach Haven. It’s known, well, for all things chicken, from fried to tossed in wing sauce, as well as eggs any way you like ‘em and a whole lot of other beachside goodies.
During a community festival, Ship Bottom and the restaurant saw a serious opportunity to collaborate and hatched The Chicken or the Egg Killer Bee Sting IPA.
“We took components from their hugely famous Bee Sting hot sauce, added some peppers and honey and created a new IPA. It went really well and people really liked it,” Zarko said.
Other widely popular brews include Beach Patrol Hefeweizen Ale, Barnacle Bottom Stout, and Stupid Paddle Boat IPA.
The beachy branding and bottle labels are the brainchild of Goodwin Design Group, also out of Wallingford. Their commercial work spans the likes of Campbell’s, Colgate, Herr’s and Hershey’s.
“Brian Barto and Terry Montimore have done all of the artwork and have done an amazing job,” said Zarko.
So this Delco home-nanobrewer hired a marketing team from the same township. What’s the Long Beach Island connection? Well, there is a method to this brew master’s madness.
Zarko’s wife’s family had a home on LBI and he got to really embrace the shore towns. “In the summer of 1995 in Ship Bottom, my brother and I made our first batch of beer using a home-brew kit. We dumped a can of malt into a big pot and boiled it and let it cool down. Definitely not by the book, but surprisingly it came out pretty decent,” he laughed. “So I began playing around more with different recipes. I upgraded my equipment and put more money into the production.”
Twenty plus years later, he said, the beers tasted better and better.
“I couldn’t drink it all, so I made a bunch of friends. I’d give it away and see if their feedback created demand,” said Zarko.
Those friends, family and folks at community beer festivals welcomed Ship Bottom brews with open arms and seasoned palates.
Today, Zarko continues to work his day job as an IT tech and concentrates on brewing on nights and weekends. He has the support of his wife, who’s an attorney, and four children from elementary school to college age.
“I guess I’m burning the candle at both ends sometimes, but love it,” he proudly said. “While I have the energy anyway I’ll keep working at it.”
Zarko hopes his regular fans will take the proverbial boat ride with him to support his growing business. Keep tabs on Ship Bottom’s happenings:
- Taste Ship Bottom Brews in Delco, including at 320 Market, Pinocchio’s Beer Garden and Sligo in Media.
- Catch Ship Bottom at beer festivals throughout the region, including in Media and Kennett Square, PA, and Long Beach Island and Atlantic City, NJ. Get all the latest info on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Find the new LBI Ship Bottom location at 830 N. Bay Ave #23 in Beach Haven, New Jersey.
- Photos and renderings: Ship Bottom Brewery
