The Lehigh Valley’s latest brewery, Funk Brewing Company, has been pumping out tasty brews since February, when the company held its first product launch at The Trapp Door Gastropub in Emmaus during Lehigh Valley Beer Week. Since then, the crew of the Emmaus brewery has been working on expanding their line-up and readying their tasting room. We got a sneak peek inside of the brewery prior to the public unveiling and chatted with the co-owner Kyle Funk and head brewer (and now partner) Joe Percoco.
The brewery, a nearly 2800 square foot facility, is just blocks away from the Emmaus Triangle, and features a 15 barrel (or ~472 gallon) brewing system that currently feeds into four fermenters, with the possibility of expansion. Focusing on IPAs, saisons, and sour beers, head brewer Joe Percoco has already created a very solid line-up of beers. After stints around the area at Weyerbacher, Saucony Creek, and Barley Creek, Percoco has taken over the brewing helm at Funk. His creations include Citrus IPA, brewed with Mosaic, Citra, and Simcoe hops, Savage Sour Saison, Efflorescence saison, Crimson Kriek Saison, Redolent Rye Pale Ale, Brood Farmhouse IPA, Table Beer, a sessionable IPA/kolsch hybrid. Percoco also mentioned he hopes to start wine barrel aging some of their beers in the near future.
So what about that tasting room? According to the owner and more recent reports at WFMZ (we visited in late May), Emmaus is currently reviewing an ordinance that would allow the tasting room to finally open. Currently brewpubs and tasting rooms aren’t permitted under Emmaus’s zoning, and a decision on the new ordinance should come in early September. Afterwards the brewery will have to present their tasting room plans to the council to receive approval, after which the tasting room can open. As long as everything goes to plan, the taproom should be open not long after.In the meantime, the Funk’s beers can be had all over the Lehigh Valley as well as Philadelphia. While the brewery doesn’t currently have an intention to bottle (their beers sell fast enough through keg distribution that it doesn’t make sense right now), plenty of bars are carrying their line-up through Shangy’s distribution, also in Emmaus. Some local bars that typically have at least one of their offerings on draft or rotate them on and off include the 2nd Street Tavern in Emmaus, Broadway Social in Bethlehem, Strange Brew in Allentown, The Mint in Bethlehem, and the Keystone Pub in Whitehall. We’ll keep you updated on when the tasting room will be open to everyone.
