Happy Valley Brewing Company Celebrates New Beginnings on Its 10th Anniversary

Something new is brewing inside the 200-year-old barn at 137 Elmwood Street near Lemont.

Happy Valley Brewing Company opened its doors there in the fall of 2013, and its 10th anniversary also marks something of a new beginning for the microbrewery and restaurant.

With a new brewer, new chef and new general manager, it’s a time of renewal at HVBC, enhancing what’s worked best with a new perspective and even bringing back an old favorite (pizza is returning at the end of June). There’s new beer, a fresh approach to the menu and an emphasis on fun for staff and patrons.

“It’s a new era,” Lisa McClain Wagner, general manager, said. “This management team, obviously we’re very excited about doing this. If we didn’t believe for this barn to be revitalized, we wouldn’t be here.”

McClain Wagner, who previously managed Doggie’s Pub in State College, came on board at HVBC in 2021. She first served as a bartender and assistant GM before recently taking on the GM role as the brewery’s fresh start began.

Since then, she’s brought on a pair of central Pennsylvania natives to oversee the brewery’s food and beer offerings: chef Rob Regan and brewer Nate Saar.

After HVBC’s last brewer left in February, the bar has only been able to offer guest taps for its beer selections. But in late May, Saar came on as brewer, and the first of his original beers will begin rolling out by the end of June.

Saar is an award-winning brewer who spent 12 years at the Bullfrog Brewery in Williamsport, followed by two years at Black Bear Brewing in Maine. He returned to Pennsylvania at a fortuitous time for HVBC.

“He’s bright and he has phenomenal ideas,” McClain Wagner said. “For us to be successful, we have to be new and fresh.”

Saar said his first beers, which will be released every few weeks, will include a pineapple hefeweizen, a dry-hopped session IPA brewed with tropical fruit puree, a stronger, higher gravity IPA, a coffee stout made with locally roasted beans, a chocolate mild ale aged with cocoa nibs and a pilsner.

“That’s the first round,” he said.

Over time, the bar will wean off the guest taps to have a fully original beer lineup again.

Fresh and local are the buzz words around the brewery and restaurant, evidenced in both Saar’s plans for the beer and Regan’s take on the menu.

Regan, a State High grad who was born and raised in State College, spent a few years working at high-end restaurants in Aspen, Colorado. He was back in Centre County for about two weeks this year when HVBC hired him as chef.

He is taking a seasonal approach to the menu that will evolve every few months while keeping many of the standards. (Don’t worry, the short rib nachos aren’t going anywhere.)

“A lot of the existing menu, the core of Happy Valley Brewery is going to remain the same,” Regan said. “We switched out some entrees, a few salads and a few appetizers to keep things fresher, more seasonal and more tailored to the idea of this place. Small changes every four months will reflect what I can buy from the farmers around here. We are trying to get as much local as we can… People who have ties to this town.”

The recently launched summer menu’s entrees include braised pork shank, chimi sirloin steak, three-cheese ravioli from Fasta Pasta in Pleasant Gap and fish and chips. The menu also includes a variety of handhelds, salads, small plates and apps. One new item Regan calls attention to is a lemon rosemary hummus with roasted red pepper and crudités— drop the crostini and it’s a vegan, gluten-free dish, he notes.

Regan and McClain Wagner are especially excited about the return of the once popular pizzas to the menu at the end of June.

“Back when pizzas were here, they were very popular,” McClain Wagner said. “It’s time for them to come back.”

During a reporter’s recent visit, Regan was curing the pizza stones. He said they will offer classic cheese, pepperoni and a vegetarian option.

The pub-style pizza, Regan added, is perfect for a date or one particularly hungry person.

“We’ve got a good combination of people on the project right now,” Regan said. “We don’t want to be a pizzeria. It’s not going to be Pizza Hut by any means, but we’re going to have a bar style personal pizza. They’re going to be fresh. The dough is going to be crispy and bendy. The ingredients will all be awesome, good ingredients. No cutting costs on the pizza because they are a pretty sweet deal when they come out of the oven.”

HVBC also is back to serving lunch on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays and plans to begin Sunday brunch in August. During the week, the restaurant has launched regular Taco Tuesdays and Wings and Whiskey Wednesdays. And as usual, there’s regular live music in the lower bar.

During Arts Festival Weekend, HVBC will kick off its 10th anniversary celebration with special features and entertainment.

As staff and customers get ready to celebrate the past 10 years, there’s excitement about the future.

“I really feel like we have a good team. We’re all positive and moving forward,” McClain Wagner said. “Everybody that works in these doors is making this. And we’re getting people that we’ve known coming back in here.”