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The handcrafted Asbury Park Distilling sign signals what is to come in March [if permit and licensing remains on track], but for managing partner Andy Karas, it’s a 2½-year long journey based in family roots.

“My grandfather was a bootlegger during prohibition,” said Karas, a Ridgewood resident. “I never in my life could have imagined I’d be running a distillery, never. But you never know where life is going to take you.”

It was a passing conversation with a distiller that sowed the seeds some years back, and after the craft distillery state laws relaxed in 2013, Karas and five partners [which includes his brother-in-law] formed an LLC.

“I put a group together, got the zone amendment [allowing for the distillery at the corner of Emory Street and Lake Avenue next to the popular Asbury Festhalle & Biergarten], and the space was available,” he said. “It just took off. I started doing a significant amount of research on it; learning about gin, the equipment, the entire process, the licensing, and the legal aspects of it. It’s been a journey.”

Asbury Park Distilling will be the state’s fifth craft distillery to open since Prohibition ended in 1933. The country’s oldest distillery – Laird & Company in the Scobeyville section of Colts Neck was founded in 1780.

But Asbury Park Distilling will be the first of its kind along Jersey Shore in the center of the city’s ever transforming downtown.

“I just want to get it open,” Karas said. “There is still a lot to do get this thing open but I’m anxious to get it open and looking forward, obviously, to getting this thing going.”

Asbury Park Distilling will focus production on gin and whiskey. The state law allows for up to 20,000 gallons of distilled alcoholic beverages, provided that at least 51 percent of the raw materials used in production is grown in New Jersey. Patrons can purchase up to 5 liters of alcohol to take offsite.

“We want to start producing,” Karas said. “It’s been such a long [journey] and we are so close at this point to opening up that we just want to get to that final step so we can start producing. It’s  like our baby is being born.”

With the installation of a custom-built hammer mill and handcrafted, brass-accented still from Eislingen, Germany as well as a grain auger, mash tun, cooling tanks, and the custom built sign now in place, focus shifts to the finishing touches in the Tasting Room, which overlooks the 3,000 square foot production space. The partners chose carerra quartz for the bar top and a traditional black and white patchwork tile for floors. 

“We went with a classic look for the bar,” Karas said. “Gin and whiskey are such timeless products that we wanted the image to be classic and timeless.”

Karas is an attorney in Paramus who has handled several development applications for downtown Asbury developer Carter Sackman. The distillery site is owned by a Sackman Enterprises entity, and Karas’s group. They have a long-term lease for the property.
“The city grows on you; something about it captures you,” he said.

For more about Asbury Park Distilling, visit their website, Facebook and Instagram pages.

[Photos courtesy of Asbury Park Distilling]

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