Kane Brewing Company

Kane Brewing Company is using West Coast–style ales and Belgian-style beers to bring craft beer to New Jersey.

WHEN MICHAEL KANE LAUNCHED

Kane Brewing Company (Ocean, New Jersey) in 2011, he brought more than fifteen years of homebrewing experience, national and international travel, and business savvy to the brewhouse. Appropriately named, Kane Brewing is an embodiment of Kane himself with a sense of place specific to his hometown.

“I didn’t leave my day job to start the brewery until I was thirty-five,” says Kane. “The beauty of what I wanted to do is a long-term approach, to open a brewery and do my own thing with no partners or investors. I’ve spent a lot of time focused on being able to do this on my own, and I have a clear vision to bring craft beer to New Jersey. I don’t say that without the knowledge of great breweries in the area,” Kane continues, “But more to bring awareness to what is not exactly a ‘craft-beer’ state.”

Kane, who grew up in New Jersey, says that the state has an educated consumer base for craft beer without a lot of craftbeer production. “It wasn’t [about] getting consumers on board,” he says in reference to the European-beer-style-loving East Coast beer drinkers. “It was getting retailers and wholesalers to realize there was a market for this kind of product.” So Kane decided he would use his two favorite beer categories—west Coast–style ales and Bel- gian-style beers—as a platform local craft beer to New Jersey.

Kane’s West Coast focus was inspired by traveling, when he was blown away by the differences between East and West Coast IPAS. “Compared to English styles [in the East], I was blown away by the really dry, hoppy, aromatic IPAS [in the West]. It was a whole new world.”

West Coast–style IPAS have scaled-back malt profiles and are focused on bright flavors and aromatic profiles, says Kane. “That’s our philosophy with hoppy beers: a lot of pilsner malt, a tiny bit of crystal, and the rest is just the hops.”

The Kane IPAS, including the Head High American IPA and the Overhead imperial IPA, have the slightest “clean bitterness that hits you in the beginning,” says Kane. They use neutral yeasts to maintain the focus on the flavor of the hops and are usually dry hopped for big hops aroma.

“We brew what we like,” Kane reminds me when he describes the other beer style for the brewery. A lot like his IPAS, his Belgian-style Single Fin Belgian-style blonde ale is clean, bright, and crisp. This year-round offering from the brewery is one that beer geeks love, Kane says. “We modeled it after a Belgian single—super low alcohol, drinkable, flavorful, dry, and crisp on the palate. Light in body, Belgian

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