Brewery Opening: Rotunda Brew Pub

Technically speaking, this isn’t a “brewery opening”, but it is a rebranding. Formerly (as of tomorrow officially, as of a week ago “Facebook official”) Irv’s Pub will now be a brew pub and a full legitimate second location for Rotunda Brewing Company and will be rebranded as Rotunda Brew Pub.

The Rotunda family has owned the Batdorf Restaurant, Rotunda Brewing Company, and Irv’s Pub. The Batdorf and the bottle shop next door slowly became Batdorf Restaurant and Rotunda Brewing Company over the past few years as the brewery took off and went from being a home brewery (basically) to a much larger system now. And now with the growing success of the brewery they have decided to rename Irv’s Pub and rebrand it as a Brew Pub, giving them a second location.

Which now means they’ll have a brewery / restaurant in Annville Pennsylvania and a Brew Pub / restaurant in Hershey Pennsylvania. The Batdorf and Rotunda Brewing location can be found at: 245 W. Main Street Annville, PA. Former Irv’s Pub and now Rotunda Brew Pub can be found at: 814 E. Chocolate Avenue, Hershey PA. Both locations are verified locations on Untappd. Rotunda Brew Pub: Rotunda Brew Pub on Untappd. The Batdorf Restaurant: Batdorf Restaurant on Untappd.

Irv’s Pub has been a staple of the Hershey night life for quite a few years now, with some of the most wonderful and delicious upscale meals found in the area. They also have had one of the best bars in the Hershey area as well, with a wonderful selection of craft beers, as well as wines and spirits. And over the recent years with the growing success of Rotunda Brewing Company more and more of the taplist has been dedicated to Rotunda’s own beers (to no one’s disappointment).

They currently have 17 taps at their bar, and offer a very wide selection in liquors, spirits, and wines. They are known for many varieties of cocktails as well especially with themes about the Hershey area. They also often sell cans of the latest Rotunda Beer as well as have a crowler machine on hand to crank out some crowlers of the local beer. They have from time to time even done specialty deals with regards to the crowler machine, making the Rotunda Brewing beer even cheaper and in larger quantities (if that’s not a win-win I don’t know what is).

Located on East Chocolate Avenue, leaving Hershey just before reaching Palmdale and into Palmyra Irv’s Pub is a beautiful building. It is kind of across from the ‘What If?’ Hershey restaurant / event building. They have a tremendous kitchen that has been highly celebrated for some of their delicious and wonderful meals; especially their dinners and some of their specialty multi-course meals and events.

But this is all the past now, starting tomorrow – October 19th, 2019 (Saturday), the old Irv’s Pub is gone and in its place will be the Rotunda Brew Pub. A second location for Rotunda Brewing Company. And they are throwing a big event to kick it off right!

Their event listing on Facebook reads:
” We’re very excited to announce we’re in the process of rebranding Irv’s Pub to Rotunda Brew Pub! For all our loyal Irv’s Pub customers, do not worry, we will still have the same great food and service, but with a little more emphasis on our brewery! For this great occasion we’re serving some of the most elite east coast breweries including: Dancing Gnome, Dewy Beer Company, Imprint and Burley Oak! Rotunda will also be releasing several beers that day exclusive to our Hershey location! We’ll have fresh Rotunda Brewing merchandise for sale AND we will be adding some new exciting beer inspired menu items too!“

So in addition to 6 new Rotunda Brewing beers, there will also be beers from Dancing Gnome, Dewey Beer, Imprint, and Burley Oak, as well as collaborations with some of these breweries (and Aslin as well). These are some of the heavy hitters of the East Coast, with some of the best breweries from PA (Dancing Gnome, Imprint, Rotunda), MD (Burley Oak), DE (Dewey Beer), and VA (Aslin). This is fantastic news not just for craft beer fans, not just for Rotunda fans, but for these breweries themselves to get noticed in this area which is such a fantastic craft beer market.

The event kicks off at 11AM and will run the rest of the day. They are also releasing a bunch of new merchandise, which can be found on the event page as well as both of their Facebook pages (Rotunda Brewing Company and Rotunda Brew Pub). There will be live music, tremendous food, awesome beers, and a fantastic atmosphere.

Three of the announced (of the six) Rotunda Brew Pub only beers will be snow cone variants. One of their popular series of beers. (Along with their sWheat Tart series, though no mention if any sWheat Tarts are planned for this release). As of writing, we don’t have any insider information on what the six beers will be other than what they’ve posted on their Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter feeds.

Their Rotunda Brewing location will be closed Saturday and only the Brew Pub will be open, so if you want can releases and want some fantastic Rotunda Beer you are going to have to come to the brew pub instead of their old location. (Don’t worry, this is just a one-time day-of closing of their old location. It’ll be back and ready to go after this event.)

Rotunda Brewing Company has been a growing success for the past few years, pumping out wonderful beer after wonderful beer and winning all kinds of awards, accolades, and tons of praise. They recently won the Kennett Square Brewfest Connoisseur beer award with their Peach Pie sWheat Tart at the brewfest. They are also one of the top 10 breweries of PA as ranked on Untappd, as detailed in this article from the Breweries in PA. They currently have 272 unique beers with a global rating of 3.98 (as of 10.18.19) on Untappd. Their page can be found here: Rotunda Brewing Company on Untappd. We have covered a few of their beers in beer reviews here on The Beer Thrillers, you can find them here:
* Mango Guyabano sWheat Tart: Rotunda’s Mango Guyabano sWheat Tart
* Juicy Fruit sWheat Tart: Rotunda’s Juicy Fruit sWheat Tart

I’m sure we’ll be reviewing plenty more of their beers in the future, so always be on the look out for that.

So make sure you stop in, it should be an absolutely fantastic time. Be on the look out, J. Doncevic as soon as the event kicks off (probably). I (B. Kline) will hopefully be making my appearance after I get out of work (8PM). So here’s to fingers crossed there’s still some good beers left! So save me some you savage animals!

Cheers, prost, and lets drink up celebrating the growth of a fantastic brewery! See you guys there, can’t wait to drink down some delicious RBC brews and hang with you guys!

Can’t wait to see you all out there!

And as noted, we recently opened our Facebook page, so please make sure to check us out there: The Beer Thrillers on FaceBook.

Just want to give a final congratulations to our friends at Rotunda Brewing for their growth, and a nod to the many future beers we know we’ll be having at the brew pub. Thanks for reading everyone and make sure you check out the Rotunda Brew Pub and Rotunda Brewing Company, as well as our pages. Like, follow, and subscribe as always.

Remember folks – you only need 10% of your liver for it to regenerate (in time) so drink up!

-B. Kline