OLD FORGE, Pa. -- Some local businesses in our area are brewing up a new business venture: Brew Devil Beer, a beer series that will only be served in certain restaurants in Lackawanna County.
When you think of Old Forge, you're likely to think of the traditional tray of Old Forge pizza, but business owners Pat Revello and T.J. Cusumano are hoping you'll stop by their Old Forge restaurants, not just for a cut, but also for a beer.
"I had an idea a few years ago about getting a beer just locally sold in Old Forge, and some breweries local said, you know we only do big quantities," said Pat Revello.
Enter Tim Brice who opened Bearded Barrel Brewing Company in Plymouth earlier this year. The business is so new he doesn't even have a taproom, but Brice hit the ground running
"We had about five or six different holiday beers on the table and sampled those to see what we liked, and basically what it came down to was Pat and T.J. pouring about four or five different beers in the same glass and saying, 'This is what we want.' So from that, we kind of went backwards and tried our best to reproduce that beer," Brice said.
The product is the limited-batch brew "Let it Snow, Baby Joe, Baby Joe."
"People are happy with the quality of the beer," Cusumano said. "A lot of people are noting that the cherries have such a fresh flavor in it, and a little bit of spice adds a nice Christmassy feel to the beer."
The Brew Devil line pays homage to Old Forge's history. Brew Devil is a play on the Blue Devil mascot of the Old Forge School District.
The first beer pays tribute to a fellow pizza maker who has passed on, but this is just the beginning of this collaboration.
Sooner or later, we want to come up with one staple beer that we can keep on tap at all times, like an all-day drinking beer. But we're still going to stay with our five or six that we want to do seasonal beers," Revello said.
As for where you can get a taste of the Baby Joe beer, other Old Forge restaurants are already picking it up.
"To go to the neighboring restaurants and to ask them to carry it on their taps, that a really exciting part of it, too. We're really Old Forge-centric, we're all about the town, and we're all about the beer," Cusumano added.
The next Brew Devil beer is still in the works and will come later this winter.