By Alissa Novikova
At 9 a.m. on a crisp September morning, staff members at Triumph Brewing Company were already busy loading trucks with 14 kegs of their house-brewed beer and nearly 1,000 crab cakes, tacos and falafel sandwiches.
The refreshments were headed to Palmer Square for Princeton’s 23rd annual JazzFeast. For Triumph, it was the kickoff to a packed fall season.
Autumn is the busiest time of year for Triumph. With Princeton University back in session, football starting up and cooler weather rolling in, beer season will soon be in full swing. And of course, there is Oktoberfest.
To prepare for the annual beer festival, which originated in 19th century Bavaria, head brewer Matt Lally began creating their Oktoberfest lager back in July. Lagers, Lally explained, take longer to develop flavor than lighter ales, which only need two to three weeks to fully mature.
Triumph’s 2014 Oktoberfest lager was set to premier on Sept. 27, with Mayor Liz Lempert to be on hand to tap the first keg. The amber-colored brew, which sales manager Eric Nutt describes as “super easy to drink, very sweet and not hoppy,” will be available for two weeks and will be accompanied by a special menu including traditional German dishes Wiener Schniztel, Bratwurst and Sauerbraten. Special cured meats will be supplied by Schaller and Weber in New York and Riekers Prime Meats in Philadelphia.
While the Oktoberfest menu is limited-time only, German flavor is nothing new at Triumph. The brewpub has focused on German-style lagers since opening in 1995, and at any given time, has several German-influenced beers on tap.
All of the brews are crafted in-house, in massive steel tanks visible from behind Triumph’s polished wood bar. It is a gravity-fed system that starts at the top with raw grain and finishes below in a cold-room which feeds the ales and lagers directly into the tap.
The entire process is overseen by Lally, head brewer for Triumph’s Princeton location. Lally learned the trade as an apprentice in Triumph’s New Hope locale, fitting in shifts at the brewery between his 9-5 gig at the Camden Aquarium, where he often had to corral visitors who tried to get too hands-on with the sharks.
Today, Lally is hands-on with every step of beer production at Triumph. He equates the process to baking a cake, with each step and ingredient adding up to a superior product, “little bits and pieces make a large difference in the process,” he said.
The job means that Lally, who lives in South Jersey, must arrive at the Nassau Street location by 8 each morning to begin the labor-intensive production. On any given day, he may be shoveling raw grains into a huge steel cooker, called a mash tun, or moving batches of beer into the fermentation tanks.
It’s hard work, especially during the summer when the temperature in the brewing area can reach into the upper 90s. Despite the sweat that goes into his work, Lally wouldn’t trade it.
“It’s the most fulfilling job I ever had,” he said.
He is also humble about his role.
“I’m not really making the beer,” he said, “the yeast is making the beer, I’m just making the conditions just right.”
Still, Lally takes pride in his product and enjoys the waves and toasts he receives from patrons who spot him working among the tanks, from the bar below.
Those patrons have become more sophisticated customers in recent years, as craft beer has quickly caught up to wine as the drink of choice for connoisseurs. Triumph has even offered a beer and cheese sampler, with cheese pairings from Olsson’s Fine Foods in Palmer Square, which they hope to bring back to the menu soon.
Nutt says he has seen the tastes of their clientele evolve over the years as the most popular beer has shifted from light ales towards heartier amber ales or IPAs.
“You can tell the beer consumer is branching out,” he said.
As long as those consumers stay interested, Triumph will continue to keep up with their tastes. Last year, the Princeton location turned out 1,230 barrels of brew, and with the 180-seat bar and restaurant filling-up every weekend, it looks like the staff will be staying busy.
Triumph Brewing Company is located at 138 Nassau St. in Princeton. They are open Mon- Sat. from 11a.m.-midnight and Sunday from noon-midnight. On the Web: triumphbrewing.com.
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