Sly Fox Pub

Sly Fox expanding, leaving Royersford

In case you didn’t know this, Sly Fox is upgrading, but leaving Royersford. Here’s the release from their wesite slyfoxbeer.com.

Sly Fox Brewing Managing Partners John and Peter Giannopoulos said today that the family-owned company, which opened its first brewpub in Phoenixville in December 1995, will open a large production brewery in Pottstown later this year.

As a first step, the company is selling the restaurant side of Sly Fox Brewery & Restaurant located at 312 N. Lewis Rd. in Royersford, which opened in November 2004, to a longtime employee and her husband.

The 30,000 sq. ft. new brewery, situated on six acres at 331 Circle of Progress in the Pottstown Airport Business Center, has housed the brewery’s executive offices and been serving as a warehouse since the beginning of this year when Sly Fox took possession. In addition to the new brewery, a tasting room/pub will eventually be added if a zoning variance is granted by the township.

The brewery will feature a fully automated 50-hectoliter BrauKon brewhouse from Germany which is expected to arrive by November and be up and running by the end of the year. Production capabilities will be tripled. Currently, Sly Fox can brew 25 hectoliters twice a day but will be able to brew 50 hectoliters three times a day at the Pottstown location. The company will purchase three new 150-hectoliter fermenters from JV Northwest and will move eleven 50-hectoliter fermenters from the Royersford location to the new plant.

“We’ve already raised the roof over a 1,000 sq. ft. section of the new building to accommodate the bigger tanks,” John Giannopoulos said. A 2,500 sq. ft. cold storage box is already in place.

Cime canning line from Italy will complete the Pottstown production facilities. That equipment, which will fill 60 cans per minute vs. the 28 cans per minute done by the existing line, will go on line in Royersford next month and then be moved to the new plant. The current brewhouse, several 25-hectoliter fermenters and the existing canning line will be sold.

Peter Giannopoulos said that the sale of the restaurant will enable the company to concentrate on its core business and take advantage of emerging opportunities.

“We have to be able to make more beer in order to meet the demand and we also want to grow the business in both our present markets and look to expand into some new markets. We want our focus to be entirely on beer going forward.

Foobooz Philadelphia » Sly Fox Tripling Capacity

Sly Fox Brewery is making a major expansion. The Phoenixville based brewery is selling its Royersford restaurant location and will begin brewing at a new 30,000 square foot facility in Pottstown.

The new brewery facility will provide Sly Fox with the ability to brew 150 hectoliters a day,  triple their current brewing capacity. A new canning line will increase the brewery’s canning capacity from 28 cans per minute to a speedy one per second.

The equipment is expected to arrive by November with the first batches being brewed before the year is out. If a zoning variance is received the brewery will have a tasting room/pub.

Sly Fox will continue to operate the Phoenixville brew pub. The Royersford location has been sold to long time Sly Fox employee and current general manager, Stacey Hebert .

We can only hope that this means our personal crusade of getting Sly Fox Helles in cans will be closer to reality.

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