Chester brewery hopes to hire city residents as it expands

“I hope we’re one of these businesses that people can walk to work and hang for a beer after their shift is over.”

• P. Kenneth Burns/WHYY
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  Kenneth Burns is an anchor and reporter for WHYY. He most recently worked for WYPR where his coverage of the Freddie Gray police trials won a National Headliner Award. He worked for several commercial broadcasting outlets as a reporter, anchor and producer in the Baltimore and Washington, D.C. metro areas prior to joining public media.
  
  The native Marylander is a graduate of Towson University and Anne Arundel Community College.

(Chester) — The Larimer Beer Company is in the last stages of completing its presence along the Chester waterfront near Talen Energy Stadium. A grand opening is planned for some time in November; more than three months after its taproom opened.

Matt Lindenmuth, the company founder, said the space was operational when they opened in a former diesel mechanic shop in July. Just not 100 percent complete.

“We finished about 85 percent of the construction about six hours before we opened the doors,” he said, “there wasn’t even paint on the walls the day we opened.”

The taproom was just the first part of what will be a full brewhouse with three small barrels.  Lindenmuth says the taproom will be like “a R&D fun lab.”

“This is where we are going to do our sort of crazy experimental batches, our new recipe development, our limited-release beers; things like that,” he said.

What is brewed in Chester will stay in Chester. Someday, Lindenmuth adds, some of the beer company’s employees will be residents of Chester, as the company expands.

“I hope we get to that place,” he said. “I hope that we’re one of these businesses in town that people can walk to work and hang for a beer after their shift is over.”

The only hindrance keeping Lindenmuth from hiring right now is that there are no positions open. Currently, he has a staff of seven in Chester. The company has production facilities in Philadelphia and Denver.

“Once we get the logistics program built out a little bit more, once the brewhouse is running on a regular basis [and] building out the production facility here, now we start really needing personnel,” he added.

The Larimer Beer Company is named after Gen. William Larimer, the founder of Denver, Colorado and a Pennsylvania native. The company started in Denver by Lindenmuth, who grew up in Berks County. As he was looking for a place to establish a base in the Philly Region, Lindenmuth saw an opportunity in Chester to create another destination on the waterfront.

“All these things kind of started to come into focus,” he said.  “After ten years of the stadium being here, no one else has come and done anything to invite people in and we have the opportunity right now.”