Something’s A-Brewing in Quakertown

“I was getting bored with the beers I was drinking,” says Quakertown resident and self taught brewer David Johnson when asked how he got started in the brewery business.

David and his partner, Chris Vilardi, are on a mission to bring some great new beers to Quakertown soon with their business, the Great Swamp Brewing Company. David started brewing after his wife bought him a home beer brewing kit in 2005. After a job loss in 2011 he decided to turn lemons into lemonade, or better yet hops into amazing craft beers. “I turned into a little mad scientist trying to create flavors that no one else was trying. I made a milk chocolate stout, a honey infused IPA and a honey lager to start. After some time I was able to perfect the recipes into very drinkable, likeable beers.”

David, a native of Philadelphia originally but now a proud member of the Quakertown community, believes it is the perfect location for a restaurant to showcase his crafts. “With the daily traffic flow between the turnpike and Doylestown, this is the perfect place to do a brewpub. We need to give the people a reason to come here to stop, to shop and to enjoy.”

The name of his endeavor came to him while looking for a unique gift for his father-in-law. “We came across the Philadelphia Print Shop. My father-in-law was a photogrammatrist (a map maker) We didn't find anything for him but we found a map of Eastern Pa dated 1786 and scribed across our area of upper Bucks and Montgomery Counties was ‘Great Swamp' The name stuck with us.”

Bucks County is the home to many beer lovers, and David wants to make sure he keeps his brews close to home. “I really wanted to come up with ideas that were indigenous to our area. The Honey Lager became Lenape Honey Lager, Pioneer Chocolate Stout, John Fries Rebel Ale, Unami Creek IPA and so on.”

At this point the brewpub is still in the works, but David and Chris are working hard to make their dream a reality. In fact, they are currently in the running to appear on the reality TV show “Restaurant Startup” on CNBC Prime.

We hope to see Great Swamp Brewing Company become a reality (and reality show) soon.