Rivertown hiring up to 70 for Monroe brewery, restaurant

Rivertown Brewing Company is hiring as many as 70 employees for its new location in Monroe, which is slated to open in early 2017.

Rivertown Brewery & Barrel House, a new 31,600-square-foot facility near the corner of Ohio 63 and Salzman Road, will be home to Rivertown’s 50-barrel brewhouse, including all of its major production, sour beer program, laboratory, business offices, barbecue restaurant and taproom, plus some free-play arcade games. It will have a 30-tap bar inside, as well as an outdoor patio with another 24-tap bar and, eventually, a two-acre beer garden.

“The Monroe facility is truly the realization of Rivertown’s dream,” said Abby Hofrichter, the company’s Creativity and Ideation Lead. “In this new production, taproom, restaurant and patio space, we will have the capability to grow our production well beyond 150,000 barrels a year, allowing us to better serve the seven states we are currently distributed in and look to future growth.”

Rivertown Brewing Co. was founded in 2009 by Jason Roeper and his former partner. During its first year of production, the company produced approximately 1,200 barrels of beer. Since that time, Roeper has become sole proprietor of Rivertown, which produces nearly 15,000 barrels of beer annually with nearly 30,000 projected in 2017.

It opened its Lockland taproom in 2012 and spent the last few years growing — and eventually outgrowing — its barrel house, home of Rivertown’s in-house barbecue restaurant, taproom and arcade.

Rivertown is distributed into seven states including Ohio, Kentucky, Florida, Indiana, Tennessee, Massachusetts and Georgia.

“We can’t wait to see what other regional markets our Monroe location allows us to look at while simultaneously building and strengthening our relationships at home,” Hofrichter said.

Rivertown Brewing employs about 30 team members between the office, Barrel House and production teams, she said.

“We expect that number to at least double, if not reach closer to a total of 100 team members, by the time we’re finished hiring in Monroe,” Hofrichter said.

The company is looking to hire anywhere from 40 to 70 new team members including hosts, servers, bartenders, cooks and dishwashers for the restaurant, as well as a number of positions for its brewery production team, she said.

“Full-time positions are available, but we are still in the process of determining what staffing for that production team will look like, as that side of the business will not move into Monroe until closer to February,” Hofrichter said. “Moving production requires a great deal of planning and logistics, as well as comprehensive training on any and all new brewing equipment, so the restaurant and taproom will be open and serving before we are able to brew in Monroe.”

Hiring for the restaurant and taproom has already begun and will continue through early 2017 until Rivertown’s team is complete, she said.

“We are looking to have our service team start training about a week or so prior to our soft opening,” she said. “Soft and grand opening dates are still to be determined, but we hope to open our doors in early 2017, with the second to third week of January being our goal.”

Hofrichter said Rivertown Brewing Co. loves “a good team player, dreamers and, of course, someone with a good sense of humor.” An interest or working knowledge of craft beer may be required for some positions, but not all.

“We’re happy to be a place of discovery and exploration of craft beer for all, including our team,” she said.

For more information, visit write to info@rivertownbrewery.com or call 513-827-9280.

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