Bill Covaleski and Ron Barchet met each other as they boarded a bus on their first day of school as fifth graders in 1973, and became fast friends. After college, Covaleski became an accomplished homebrewer, and, with a homebrewing Christmas gift to Barchet, turned his friend on to the practice as well. That was all it took for Barchet, who left his job as a financial analyst to apprentice at the Baltimore Brewing Company (BBC). Within a year he was studying at the Technical University of Munich at Weihenstaphan. Covaleski soon followed, first to BBC, then to Germany’s Doemens Institute.
The two looked toward their Pennsylvania roots to establish their own brewery. On Feb. 15, 1996, they opened Victory Brewing Co. in an old Pepperidge Farm factory in Downingtown, Pa., with a 142-seat restaurant, 70-foot-long bar and full-scale brewery.
Today, Victory brews about a dozen year-round beers, including their highly rated, award-winning HopDevil Ale (American IPA) and Hop Wallop (Double/Imperial IPA). Hop Wallop, at 9.5 percent ABV, does indeed pack a wallop of hop character, thanks to the brewers’ painstaking selection of the best hops from the annual harvest. Both Victory IPAs represent the top echelon of the American IPA genre.
Other Victory selections include Victory Lager (Munich Helles Lager), Prima Pils (German Pilsner), Golden Monkey (Belgian-style Tripel), Headwaters Pale Ale, Storm King Stout, Donnybrook Stout and V-12 (Belgian-style Quadrupel). Their seasonal beers round out a top-notch list of selections, and the list continues to grow.
Since opening in 1996, Victory has increased its restaurant size, expanded its original brewery and built a second brewery in Parkesburg, Pa., with the goal of increasing overall production to some 500,000 barrels of beer annually. A second Victory brewpub operates in Kennett Square, Pa.
Source: Victory Brewing Co.
