About us
Our Story
Cartel Brewing & Blending Is A Nano Brewery And Beer Café Located In Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Our Focus Is Quality Small Batch Beers That Express A Blend Of Timeless Traditional BeerS Along With PROGRESSIVE STYLES AND FLAVOR EXPLORATION. OUR BIGGEST PASSION, THOUGH NOT AS OFTEN FEATURED ARE OUR LONGER BARREL AGED BARLEYWINE AND IMPERIAL STOUT VARIETIES.
Cartel Opened Its Doors In March 2021 At 928 North Prince Street In Downtown Lancaster, But Quickly Outgrew The Space. In November 2023, Cartel Moved To Its New And Current Location At 920 Landis Avenue In The Lancaster West End.
“With our new location we’ve added a full service kitchen and bar, but it’s also allowed us to expand the brewery, giving us flexibility and the freedom to create MORE OF the inspired, unique beers that we love.”
– Adam chamberland, Brewer & Founder
Brewing
Our brewing philosophy is one that appreciates and pays homage to the traditional as well as the modern when it comes to beer styles, while still exploring and innovating new ways to enjoy craft beer. Our current brewing process is primarily manual vs automated, allowing us to focus on every step with attention to detail.
All of our offerings are produced, packaged and sold at our location along with a small list of local bars and restaurants who we partner with.
Blending
We didn’t invent the term ‘blending’, we are merely expanding its definition within craft beer. Blending is traditionally a term used to describe the process of combining the contents of multiple oak barrels to create a finished product (whisky, beer, cider, wine, etc.)
At Cartel, there are 3 ways we practice blending
In the Fermenter
Some of our beers, like those in our Geometric Fruit series, are blended with fresh pressed fruits into our tanks for a secondary fermentation process, which results in a balanced and stable infusion throughout the entire batch.
In the Keg
Blending at kegging allows us to explore multiple ways to enjoy a single batch of beer without committing the entire volume to one variation. Our Maiden Porter was brewed as a single batch of beer but released as Regular, Coconut Coffee, and Black Walnut. OUR Cream Ale is served regular and infused at kegging with fresh LOCAL Amish Farm Root Beer.
At the Taps
Some of the beers we design are also complementary to each other when blended at the taps, while other blends are sometimes invented by our customers. We’ve blended sours and IPAs to create Tart IPAs, Barleywine and Cream Ale to create an American Strong Ale, and many other variations. It allows us to maximize variety as well as a degree of personalization or a ‘made to order’ pour.
Barrel Aging
Some of Adam’s most popular and award winning beers in the past were barrel aged Stouts, Barleywine, Belgian Quads, etc. So naturally, a passion of ours is the process of designing beers that will age well in a variety of spirit barrels. These beers are generally stronger and more robust beer styles that develop over time as they blend with the character and complexity of the oak as well as whatever spirit was previously aged in that barrel. We are excited to continue developing and growing this program