Highrail Brewing is gone, but a new brewery featuring woodland creatures is coming

Four years after Highrail Brewing Company opened in High Bridge, it announced May 29 on social media that it had poured its last cold one. The closing followed COVID struggles as well as extensive renovations last summer when a car crashed into the taproom.

But what would have been a sad story for the quiet, rustic Hunterdon County downtown has a happy ending: Esker Hart Artisan Ales, a nine-year-old brewing company owned by Hampton resident Bob D’Angelo, is giving his business its first brick-and-mortar home at the former Highrail Brewing Company space at 20 Main St.

“From the day I had the name Esker Hart, I set a goal for myself that before I was 30, I wanted to do this — and that goal was achieved because eight days before I turned 30 (on July 1) is when I got the keys to the space,” he said.

Unfortunately for High Bridge hopheads, Esker Hart Artisan Ales won’t open in the 2,000-square-foot, 50-seat taproom until early next year. But with ambiance changes including black walls, a haunted woodland creature mural, and death metal playing through the speakers, it's likely to be worth the wait.

And true to D’Angelo’s distinct brewing company. An esker is a long and narrow gravel pathway typically flowing uphill. The driveway to D’Angelo’s former home on Hart Drive — which is where he grew up and where he began homebrewing — was gravel and led uphill.

Esker Hart Artisan Ales is known for its high ABV beers named after woodland creatures that are adorned on the beer cans through distorted images from nature shows created by D'Angelo or hand-drawn images. D’Angelo majored in fine arts and specialized in photography and graphic design before he became enamored with brewing.

While D’Angelo was an undergraduate, he completed an abstract photography project using long exposures of television nature shows. Although he soon left his art career dreams behind, he took the project’s idea with him to his beer cans.

“I do my own thing, even though there is so much beer out there,” said D’Angelo. “I don’t take influence from too many people, which is also how I treat art. The more you look at someone’s work, the more you want to copy that.”

Some of D’Angelo’s beers include imperial stout Breakfast With Squatch made with Black River Roasters coffee, cacao, vanilla, cinnamon and maple syrup (originally made for a private "Squatchfest" in Bridgewater); double IPA Belted Kingfisher; Marzen-style lager Scarecrow; and sour ale Malva.

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His goal is to have a variety of beers available at all times, including a hard seltzer, and ensure that his beers are fitting representations of their styles.

D’Angelo’s trail to beer began nine years ago when a friend asked him if he wanted to try homebrewing. He did – and enjoyed it so much that he headed to a Niagara College to get a degree in brewing.

After receiving his diploma and returning to New Jersey, D’Angelo worked at Kean Brewing in Ocean. Last year, Twelve Percent Beer Project began scaling up Esker Hart’s recipes and selling its beers in stores throughout the country. Which left Esker Hart with beer, but without a home.

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Until now.

“This is a small community and I really like that,” said D’Angelo. “I didn’t want to be in a busy area but here, I can get foot traffic — but I’m still out in the woodlands.”

Go: 20 Main St., High Bridge; opening early 2024; eskerhart.com.

Contact: JIntersimone@MyCentralJersey.com

Jenna Intersimone has been a staff member at the USA TODAY NETWORK New Jersey since 2014, after becoming a blogger-turned-reporter following the creation of her award-winning travel blog. To get unlimited access to her stories about food, drink and fun, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.

This article originally appeared on MyCentralJersey.com: NJ brewers: Esker Hart Artisan Ales to open in 2024 in High Bridge