About | Coastal

About Coastal Brew Works

Coastal Brew Works is a new Craft Beer Brewery that will be located in Monmouth County, New Jersey. Plans for opening the brewery commenced in 2021, and are currently moving along at a great pace.

We did not want to let the Summer Of '22 go by without getting you to enjoy some of our tasty beer, so we decided to get some of it out to you sooner. Our flagship brands started launching around New Jersey in May, and we hope all of you enjoy drinking them as much as we do! Please visit our "Beer" page for information on beer availability.

As we get closer to an opening date for our own facility, we will certainly let everyone know. Please follow all of our Social Media for up to the minute updates on all of our building progress.

We look forward to serving you great beer of all styles for many years to come!

Meet The Crew

MATT POTENSKI

Co-Owner / Head Brewer

Matt grew up in New Jersey and trained to be a marine biologist, focusing his research on the behavior, movements, and population demographics of sharks and stingrays. He spent over 12 years running around the world in a bathing suit, and lived in the Bahamas, Cayman Islands, and Tanzania. His love for nature and travel eventually fueled his hobby as a photographer to become a fulltime addiction and new career. Matt’s wildlife and underwater photography has won several international awards. He returned to New Jersey and started work in studio photography. About the same time, he took up homebrewing.

Matt had always appreciated good beer, and his science background made it easy for him to work through the beer-making process. By his third homebrew Matt was making a recipe from scratch. He was an active member in several homebrew clubs and served as the President of the Woodbridge Homebrewers Ale & Lager Enthusiast Society for a couple years. Over time he has made recipes that have been brewed at several New Jersey breweries. Most of his brewing and collaboration has been with Cypress Brewing in Edison, NJ – a brewery located on the same road as the commercial photo studio he ran.

Matt’s favorite beer styles are Belgian Trappist Ales and his first commercial beer was a Gingerbread Spiced Belgian Dubbel. His brewing philosophy is to create relatively simple beers from good ingredients to create clean flavor profiles. After being around the NJ craft beer scene for about a decade the pull to create a brewery finally culminated in Coastal Brew Works. CBW is a place where Matt can showcase his beer recipes and pay homage to his first love – marine biology.

JIM HEALEY

Co-Owner / CFO

Just like his business partners, Jim is also a New Jersey Native. Unlike his business partners, Jim is a former Marine and a Gulf War Veteran. He is the reason that CBW is a Veteran Owned Company. This is important not only for the obvious bravery connotations, but his attention to detail is second to none. It may have had something to do with his military training. Hmm...

While Jim may not have the lengthy craft beer resume like his counterparts do, what he brings to the table is just as important. His business operations background is a big benefit to CBW. Plus, he gets to do a lot of the not-so-fun office work, leaving Matt & John extra time to be more creative.

Jim was also a volunteer firefighter for many years, something he has in common with one of the two guys above. So if you happen to see Jim out and about at an event or anywhere, please thank him for his years of service. We do every day!

JOHN FLADUNG

Co-Owner / General Sales & Marketing Manager

John hails from Northern New Jersey, growing up about a stone’s throw from Giants Stadium in the Meadowlands (just outside of NYC). Many a Fall Sunday was spent watching the Giants play from Section 302, but that’s another story for another day. Those of you that are Facebook friends with John and haven’t removed him from your newsfeed yet know his weekly Sunday story very well! Suffice to say John is an avid sports fan. So much so that he co hosts the “Get On With It Sports Podcast” every Wednesday evening. He also co hosts “The Lager Room Guys Craft Beer Podcast” as well on Tuesdays.

John grew up in the foodservice industry, more specifically sales. He still uses that knowledge instilled in him by his father to this day. He decided to follow another path, though, and went to school for music and advertising. However, after several long stints of involvement with a few NYC metro area ad agencies, he found himself wanting to get back to having a direct connection with people. As a lover of craft beer for many years, he found himself getting involved in the New Jersey craft beer scene. He has worked with several NJ & NY breweries over the years, honing his sales & marketing skills while perfecting his craft beer knowledge.

John’s love of craft beer is only surpassed by his love of craft beer brewery merchandise (just take a look at his photo above!). When he’s not selling beer, designing graphics or working on any of his other CBW tasks, you could find him day tripping to local breweries, as well as taking longer trips around the country to visit many other breweries (and sports venues). Meeting people, including many brewery owners and staff and making new friends is what makes it all worth it, and what makes this industry so unique. It’s really one big family!

Up on the brewhouse at our first brew day - Building Sandcastles NEIPA!