Coming soon to Franklin County: Brewpub to offer local beers, wines

SHIPPENSBURG - Residents will soon have another place to get craft beer in the area. 

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The Appalachian Brewing Company is scheduled to open a new brewpub in late February or early March at 15 W. King St. in Shippensburg, according to a partner of the brewery and its director of operations, Artie Tafoya. 

This is the seventh location for the company, which currently has brewpubs in areas including Harrisburg, Gettysburg and Mechanicsburg. It will offer traditional pub food like sandwiches, burgers, quesadillas and desserts, and will have about 12-17 beers available in addition to the seasonal beers the company produces. The brewpub will also feature a banquet space, and comes with a fully-operational liquor license, which means it will serve other Pennsylvania beers, as well as wine and spirits. 

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"I think what people have to come to know about us is the consistency of what we do," Tafoya said. "'Great beer, great food and great service' is sort of our motto that we use in-house for our staff, and in training and everything else. We work toward that every day, and we just continue to try to get better as we get older." 

However, unlike the other locations, Shippensburg's brewpub's license does not allow for it to have a fully operational brewery. 

"It's going to be a little bit more of a scaled-back version, but all the same quality foods, quality service and quality beers that we have at our other locations," Tafoya said. 

The company, which was founded in 1997, had looked into opening a location in the area before, when it finally found a space after Knutes Pub and Grill closed. 

Construction on the new location began last week, and will include remodeling the inside and doing some work on the storefront. The fact that the space was already a pub with a full kitchen and a bar will make remodeling the building a little bit easier, according to Tafoya. 

"We're moving on a quick turnaround," he said. "We think we're going to be able to push it out pretty quickly." 

The brewpub is coming at a time when craft breweries continue to gain popularity in the state. According to the Brewer's Association for Small and Independent Craft Brewers, the number of craft breweries operating in the state has increased over the past couple of years - from 178 in 2015 to 205 in 2016. In addition, the association also said the state ranks first in the country for the number of barrels of craft beer produced a year (3,905,620), and ranks second for the number of gallons produced per adult over 21 years old (12.9). 

For more information, visit Appalachian's website at abcbrew.com. 

Ashley Books, 717-262-4764