Columbia Kettle Works

We are Rod Smith and Bill Collister. We have been working together for 13 years at Farason Corporation. www.farason.com We became friends quickly due partly for our love of engineering and automation, as well as, our love and passion for craft beers. Our favorite past time has been traveling around visiting craft breweries, brewpubs and taprooms together, along with our wives, for 10 years now. Rod took up home brewing 5 years ago and has become quite proficient at brewing delicious beers to the delight and enjoyment of his colleagues, friends, and family. Rod's talent for brewing and Bill's business experience seemed like a good match for a brewpub that would allow us to continue enjoying Rod's hobby to its fullest extent and share it with many more fellow craft brew enthusiasts. We expect the creation, operation, and continuing evolution of the brewpub to provide us another outlet for our passions by providing a quality product and environment in which to enjoy it, along with meeting and enjoying the company of many people with the same love and passion for high quality craft beer.
Originally we looked all over for a good location starting within a few miles of our homes and extending out as far as Columbia hoping for a place within reasonable driving distance from our homes. We believed the market would, to some extent, come to us. Over several months we looked at numerous potential sites and due to one reason or another couldn't find an acceptable location. We ran into floor restrictions, ceiling height issues, limited parking, zoning issues and unaffordable rent. When we eventually met and talked with David Doolittle, Doolittle Investments LLC, he showed us two potential sites in Columbia. David seemed very interested in bringing our type of business into Columbia and offered us reasonable lease pricing and an honest willingness to work with us to bring our dream of a microbrewery to reality. The drive is 35 minutes from our homes, but after considering the location as fairly equally distant between Lancaster and York (both of which have more than one brewery), and the fact we would be first in Columbia and nearby Marietta and Wrightsville, plus the proximity to Route 30, we were sold on the location. We have since discovered that Columbia Borough is quite willing to help us establish our business in their wonderful town. We are thankful and grateful for their assistance and cooperation and look forward to being a part of the community.
Our brewing equipment consists of a 5bbl brew kettle, a 5bbl mash tun, and a 5bbl hlt. We will have three 5bbl or larger fermenters. We are ale people so we will have blondes, pale ales, IPAs, Porters/Stoudts, bitters, and a variety of Belgian versions as well. We will open with 4 taps and gradually expand to 8.
We expect to open this winter, Nov/Dec., but that is dependent on receipt of the brewing equipment and completion of the site as tentatively scheduled. We will open quitely and plan for a more elaborate grand opening at a later date. This venture is a new experience for us and the people assisting us so we need to start out slowly. Our initial hours will be 5pm to 9pm Thursday and Friday and 12pm to 9pm on Saturday. We are planning a lite menu using seasonal local ingredients whenever possible.