The Brotherton Brewing Company, a beloved local brewery and gathering place in Atco New Jersey, closed in the Spring of 2025. Just about a year to the day later the brewery was sold and was to be reopened by a new owner, Eric De Angelis.
The soul of Atco
On July 23rd, almost exactly on month after their (re)opening day, I sat down with Eric and head brewer Kyle Lieving to talk about their journey to the new Brotherton Brewery in Atco. Eric has been a beer enthusiast for quite a while, doing some home brewing and visiting craft breweries including the beloved original Brotherton. He has worked in the hospitality industry for over 20 years, most recently in a financial management position in Philadelphia. As he put it, he was fed up with his corporate job, and after one particularly trying day, he worked through the financials of the Brotherton brewery which had been listed for quite a while. He decided right then to take the plunge. He contacted the previous owners and made an offer, they accepted.
Come on in to the brewery…
Brotherton was a great local brewery with a great reputation – Eric knew that would give him a leg up over a new start up. He bought the whole package, real estate (the old Atco volunteer fire house), brand name, equipment and recipes. Eric told me: “Good beer is the anchor” and the environment, reputation and location was just what he was looking for. “We are creating a hospitality first space, inviting in the community, including young families with kids.” Eric told me that first and foremost, word of mouth in the Atco area was important. “After the fire inspector finished his work here, he told me ‘I’ll be back for trivia tonight’. Local support is crucial, and the respect and attachment people had to the Brotherton name is a great start for Eric and his team.
To spur even more local interest, Eric set up a farmers market and vendor night in his parking lot, with live music outside. “There are a number of ways to connect like this” he said, and taking advantage of the 1/2 acre of grounds surrounding the brewery is part of that. He also plans to bring in a golf simulator and later food trucks.
“I would like to add a small kitchen, but people are really into the food trucks, they follow them”, so he will start with that. “There is also a diner next door ‘Off the Tracks’ and we will work out a food arrangement with them. We are trying to be creative and think outside the box”. I asked him whether he got any pushback from using the Brotherton name. He said just the opposite, people were very supportive. “Brotherton made a very positive impact on the community, and we always knew we would brew their flagship beer recipe – their IPA as it was very popular in the area.” Eric added -“I still talk with the previous owners, they are very supportive”.
Eric abd Kyle revitalizing Brotherton
Since Eric had the rights to all of the old brewery’s recipes, it was not too difficult for Kyle to brew up a batch. “At first I was somewhat skeptical” Kyle related “but everyone was fine with it.” “We want to brew beers for everyone, so we have a lot of styles”. Eric told him to try making some flavored hard seltzer, and it worked out really well. “Yeah, when we had our opening day party, I was surprised to see biker dudes happily throwing back our Gatorade flavored seltzer”. I am getting some grief about not having any darker beers on, but it’s summer time – yet they still ask for it.” “Eric added: “And he makes a really good root beer, people ask me if we will can it.”
Since there was a time lag from Kyle signing up as head brewer and final clearance to reopen, Eric told Kyle to go and check out some of the local breweries and brewery events. Kyle said that a number of people were helpful, and highlighted Erich, the brewer of Medford’s Magnify as a good resource.”He gave me a lot of good feedback”. He also talked a lot to Mark Russel, the head brewer at Philly’s Dock Street Brewing. “They were all helpful, everyone is nice, it’s not quite as open as it was for me in the brewing community in South Carolina. There we used to all get together and go out, hang out, its not quite like that here”.
Kyle ended up at the new Brotherton after 8 years of brewing at a few breweries in the Charleston area when he and his wife decided that they wanted to live near a larger metro area. After looking at a couple of opportunities he connected with Eric via social media, and they then got together to talk about brewing at Brotherton. “I have to thank my wife for her support”, he confided, “…as without her active support I would not have made it to Brotherton”. He enjoys the freedom Eric gives him, as all of the brews on tap are Kyle’s recipes, except the Flagship Brotherton IPA.
“Our expectations are reasonable” explained Eric, “We are looking for gradual growth and we are trying to reactivate some of the old Brotherton relationships. We are paying attention to what we are selling, what people want”. I asked him about canning their beer – “We don’t have a canning line yet, we will use (onsite canning service) Iron Heart starting in mid August, but we hope to add our own canning line.” I asked Eric if he planned to use the old Brotherton can labels, he said “Have you seen them? They are very basic – more or less the same label for every style with different colors, I think we will do something a bit more creative than that…I met with a Philadelphia distributor the other day and he said if we want to get attention, “change the cans”.
More great brews from Kyle to come
I asked Eric if he had any specific mentor and he said, “I have to say my wife. She has a good job, with health care and all, and she has encouraged me – pushed me along to do this – my dream job, she agreed that we were in position to take the risk now”. When I asked him if there was any message he wanted to share with the local NJ beer drinking community he said, “Well, we respect the name Brotherton and all that they did, and we protect their reputation, but with a new vibe and a new energy”. Kyle the brewer then leaned in and said “Eric – what was that you said in the promo videos? ‘Old beers with new energy’, right?” Eric then pointed out – “You know, the old brewery wasn’t run into the ground, they had good product and good people and that helped us, as their reputation was still very good. Unfortunately for them they had some problems with distributors and managing with five partners, things just sort of became too difficult for them.”
As we wrapped up our conversation over Kyle’s really delicious Kolsh (“that’s my favorite” noted Eric) Eric pointed out that until a couple of weeks ago he was still working at his old job in Philly. “This is not a hobby, and now that I am on it full time, there are about a million things I want going to do”. I asked him about the current negative vibe about the beer industry and he said, “we believe that quality and community commitment will carry us to success.”
I suggest you drop by the brewery in Atco this summer and experience the new vibe yourself.
