Three-year-old Matthew Bickert celebrates a strike in a game of ‘keg bowling’ at the Susquehanna Brewing Co. 10th anniversary celebration on Saturday.
Kevin Carroll | Times Leader
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Scranton Brewer’s Guild president Sean Wolfe (purple shirt) assists Matthew Bickert as he prepares for a round of keg bowling.
Kevin Carroll | Times Leader
Memorabilia on the shelf inside the SBC tasting room, including a t-shirt commemorating the brewery’s 10-year anniversary.
Kevin Carroll | Times Leader
The celebration featured live music from beginning until end; AD/HD took the stage at 2 p.m. to play a variety of classic favorites.
Kevin Carroll | Times Leader
PITTSTON — The party was on and the drinks were flowing at Susquehanna Brewing Co. on Saturday, as the popular local brewery celebrated a decade in business with a day-long celebration.
With live music under the tent, a number of fun games provided by representatives from the Scranton Brewers’ Guild and plenty of opportunities to sample the SBC family of beverages, the party was a fitting celebration for a brewery that has become a fixture in Northeastern Pennsylvania in its 10 years of operations.
“It’s funny, I really didn’t think about it until I was driving in,” said SBC owner Fred Maier. “All of a sudden, you think ‘10 years … that’s pretty impressive.’”
Formed and opened in 2012, the Susquehanna Brewing Co. is a family-owned and run operation. Brewing has been in the family for six generations, and SBC has turned out a number of popular beers since they opened their doors.
In fact, to celebrate the special occasion, the brewery put on tap a new brew — Ten Finger Ale.
“It’s a cold IPA, it’s really something,” Maier said of the new ale. “We wanted to make it a little lighter for the summer, so it’s a little lower ABV [alcohol by volume] than your typical IPA.”
Several customers could be seen sampling the Ten Finger Ale on Saturday; Maier said that the brew had been on tap for a little over a week by that point, simply because the brewery had run out of one of their other offerings on draft.
The anniversary celebration, kicking off at noon and running through 9 p.m., featured a number of musical acts playing underneath the tent, providing a perfect soundtrack to the day.
When the weather would cooperate, attendees were also invited over to the Scranton Brewers Guild setup in the parking lot, where the Guild members had games of pong and “keg bowling” set up for both adults and children, alike.
The Guild has long been partnering with SBC to provide entertainment for the brewery’s events, including Oktoberfest and many more yearly occasions.
“We’re a home brewers club,” said Guild president Sean Wolfe. “We look for events like this to attract people to craft brewing.”
Wolfe said that Susquehanna Brewing had supported the Guild many times in the past, and that he appreciated getting out and seeing people, something that Wolfe and the Guild were largely unable to do for the better part of the last two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It’s fantastic to be back, it’s nice to get out and share in the festivities,” Wolfe said.
The keg bowling proved to be quite the hit at the celebration, and with alcohol not being involved, a number of children were able to join in the fun, pushing an empty keg on a dolley into a stack of additional kegs.
Three-year-old Matthew Bickert, accompanied by his parents Matt and Kathy, made light work on the lanes, bowling three strikes in a row before he walked away.
“We love when they have events here for the whole family,” Kathy Bickert said, while her husband added that they “love to support a local brewery.”
Doubling as a kickoff to Memorial Day weekend and, in essence, the start of summer in the minds of a lot of people, Saturday’s celebration was the perfect way to ring in 10 years for SBC.
“Getting out and having a drink with friends and people you know, that’s the best part,” Maier said. “That’s what craft brewing is all about — being a part of the community.”