Jun 13, 2017 2 min read

CHARLEROI – The new owners of a time-tested beer in the Mon Valley are ready to roll out their first barrels next month, using the original recipe dating to 1907.

Charleroi businessman John LaCarte and his business partner, Jon King, have rebranded Stoney’s Beer and are hoping its new “retro” labels and taste will appeal to millennials.

“It’s very smooth,” King said Tuesday after he and LaCarte spoke about their endeavor at a meeting of Mon Valley Regional Chamber of Commerce.

“This new pursuit is a little bit about fun,” said LaCarte during the presentation in Charleroi Elks Club.

The two men announced their purchase of the brewery in early April, noting King’s great-grandfather William B. “Stoney” Jones founded the company in Smithton, a borough in Westmoreland County. King also is a cousin of Oscar-winning actress Shirley Jones, who was raised in Smithton and is considering appearing at a “Roll Out the Stoney’s” event Aug. 17 at The Meadows Casino in North Strabane Township, King said.

Legend has it Stoney Jones won the Eureka Gold Crown Brewery in a card game and then renamed the beer after his nickname, LaCarte said.

There is evidence in family files Jones continued to brew and sell the beer illegally during the Prohibition era from 1920 to 1933, LaCarte said. The company was run by various members of the family after Jones died in 1936, until 1988 when it was purchased by the Podlucky family.

“Getting a brewery up and running is a Herculean task,” LaCarte said.

While the headquarters is in Charleroi, the beer is brewed at the former Latrobe Brewery Co., which produced the Rolling Rock label.

The 1907 Stoney’s recipe doesn’t have an aftertaste, and sugar is not one of its ingredients. The American lager will initially sell as Stoney’s Premium and Stoney’s Light, with the first products expected to pour at bars as early as July 3, King said.

The company also expects to brew 5,000 barrels of beer this year.