Fame, fortune, your face on the cover of a popular magazine, these are the things some hungered for, not just those in the craft beer world. Others keep things more local, more personal, that’s the story of Tower Hill Brewery owner Stan Kreft.
Introduced to the brewery through his daughter, a waitress for the previous iteration of the location. In years past the restaurant was a seafood house that placed a much smaller emphasis on its beer selection. Local to the area for well over two decades Kreft had considered buying what would become Tower Hill for several years and in October of 2014 became its new owner before it reopened for business in the summer of 2015.
While new to the brewing Kreft has considerable experience in the food industry as a graduate of a culinary institute in 1987 and spending several years as a chef in downtown Philadelphia as well as owning his own deli in the Flourtown Farmers Market. It’s this savvy that Kreft wants to bring to Chalfont through Tower Hill, “our main focus is to make the immediate community happy with beer,” he remarked as part of the brewery’s goal.
Currently considered a nano-brewery Tower Hill keeps their batches small allowing them to shift their offerings quite often. It’s this aspect that Kreft believes creates a relationship between the brewery and its clientele, “we’ve got a number of regulars now and they can see how the beers change over time and feel like they’re a part of the brewery themselves.” The brewery’s current lineup features a raspberry Hefeweizen, an English oatmeal stout and a Scottish ale to name a few.
Live music acts also play on Thursday nights to serve as a soundtrack to the fresh brews and wide array of dishes offered. It’s this atmosphere and excellent beer that Kreft hopes to use to propel Tower Hill to furthered success in an around the Chalfont area that he loves.
Q) With a cooking background, how did you get into craft beer and brewing?
A) I have dabbled a few times in home brewing in the past, and once again my daughter got me into it. To think back in the day going from knowing not much more than Yuengling to what I have today, it’s real exciting. I really like the brotherhood of breweries where there are several breweries within a 20 mile radius of us and no one is like ‘oh we’re not going to give you this recipe or help you with that.’ It really is a community and there’s camaraderie in this area and Pennsylvania in general.
Q) How does your unique knowledge of both cooking and brewing come into play at brewery?
A) Over time I’ve learned that when people try a certain dish they like being told what would be a good beer to pair with it. It really makes people take a step and say, ‘wow these guys know what they’re talking,’ and it gets people excited to try new dishes and tell their friends about it. Our future plans definitely involve a direct beer pairing with menu items, for instance if you’re going to try this (menu item) make sure to pair it with our saison and things along those lines.
Q) What do you feel sets Tower Hill apart from other breweries?
A) I want them [customers] to know how different the beer is than anybody else’s. I want people to come for the uniqueness of it all and being a nano brewery allows us to change things up. We want people to say “oh I need to come and try or this one” and not just have the same five beers on tap all of the time. Being small, one of its benefits is that we can be flexible in what we offer.
