LEWISTOWN - A local family-run honey company is about to launch a whole new venture and add a brewery to its facility in the Mifflin County Industrial Development plaza in Granville Township.
"Fisher Honey Company has been here for a while," MCIDC President Rob Postal said.
The company dates back to 1935 and it has had a facility in the MCIDC plaza since 1993, where the second and third generations of Fishers continue to produce their bee keeping and honey products.
"They wanted to branch out into some other things, they have been exploring beer ... sort of neat, it's interesting," he said.
Even though the company is known for its bee keeping and honey products, Aaron Fisher, one of the owners is looking forward to the new venture.
The Fisher Company has a 20,000 square foot building and Fisher said the company currently has two 50-gallon fermenters.
"This was a hobby of my brother's (Wade Fisher) for years, he has been home brewing," Fisher said.
"I have been a home-brewer of wine and beer for over 20 years and I am enjoying taking this adventure to the next level," Wade Fisher said.
Wade Fisher said they are still in the process of filing with the Tobacco Trade Bureau and Pennsylvania Department of Revenue.
"The paperwork is moving along at a good pace," he said. "Most of the machinery is in place with only a few more pieces needing installed. These items will be in place by the time the government licensing is complete. We hope to have our brews available to the public by May."
Wade Fisher said the recipes are his own that he has been working on for years.
"Our mission is to produce fine ales and lagers for the central Pennsylvania area while keeping our little brewery as green and as local as possible," he said. "We are trying to source as much of our hardware and ingredients as close to home as we can. Also we are implementing procedures to reduce our impact on the environment as (much as) possible."
Some examples Wade Fisher points too are the grains used to brew the beer will be reused as cow feed by local farmers.
"We are making plans to grow hops for our brewery in the central Pa. area," he said, adding that the kettles they will use to boil the wort (beer before it is fermented) are recycled.
"We even have aspirations to try to malt local-grown barley, although this idea may take a good bit of research and time, recycling cooling water and possibly using solar heat to preheat our hot water," Wade Fisher said.
The Fisher brothers said they plan on brewing a little bit of everything, light beers, dark beers and specialty beers.
Wade Fisher said the first brews will tentatively be a pale ale, summer wheat, cherry wheat and light lager.
"We already have verbal commitments from several local bars to put our beers on their menu when we go live," Wade Fisher said.
