Tap-It Brewery & Grill brings the heat with popular habanero beer

Mar. 5—It took Shane and Kari Hissem a couple of tries to get the heat index just right when they started brewing habanero beer at their Tap-It Brewery & Grill, near the Mt. Pleasant Township village of Norvelt.

"How much bite depends on how much habanero oil goes in," Shane Hissem said. "The first batch we ever made, our lips were burning, our eyes were running."

"It was a little too much," Kari Hissem said.

They solved the problem by cutting the amount in half.

"You get that fruity taste and then the kick at the end," Kari said.

"It hits you in the back of the throat with that little bit of spice," Shane added.

Their habanero brews are the consistent customer favorites. They say that, while jalapeno beers are fairly common, they don't know of anyone else in the area using the milder pepper's scorching sibling.

Tap-It currently has a cranberry habanero hefeweizen on tap. The Hissems have previously made the brew with blueberry, blackberry and black cherry.

"We like to flavor our beers with fresh fruit purees, so they're unique in that way," Shane said.

Though they have several house-brewed beers on tap, the Hissems think of their place primarily as a diner with a brewery attached.

"I want to serve great food and offer a couple house-brewed beers," Shane said. "So we're a brewery that sells breakfast and dinner Monday, Tuesday and Thursday and breakfast, lunch and dinner Friday through Sunday."

The restaurant opened in November 2021, and the Hissems started brewing in July 2022.

Tap-It opens for breakfast at 8 a.m. every day except Wednesday, offering staples such as eggs any style, omelets and oatmeal, along with pancakes, waffles and French toast with cheesecake and fruit fillings.

Buttermilk biscuits baked fresh daily are topped with Shane's "secret recipe sausage gravy." House-made corned beef goes into both a breakfast hash and a Reuben sandwich.

Entrees include home-style meals like sirloin steak, spaghetti and meatballs and fried fish and shrimp, along with weekly specials such as roast turkey with all the fixings and stuffed cabbage with mashed potatoes.

Along with hearty burgers and sandwiches, Tap-It gives a nod to pub grub with street tacos, hand-stuffed egg rolls and flatbread pizzas.

They also have a special Lenten menu, including fried cod sandwiches and meals, fried or peel-and-eat shrimp and traditional sides such as house-made haluski and white cheddar mac 'n cheese.

"Everything is homemade. We use the best of the best ingredients," Shane said.

Family affair

Having something to involve the whole family in was one reason for starting the business, said Shane, who does most of the cooking, using recipes he developed over the years since he started cooking with his mother at age 8.

"Craft breweries are popping up all over the place, and I was familiar with the business," he said, through his other company, Tap-It LLC, a draft beer cleaning service with clients throughout Westmoreland County.

Kari, who works full time as a project manager at EarthTech in Uniontown, pitches in wherever needed in the kitchen and the front of the house.

Their three daughters, ages 11, 14 and 15, do the same — although they end up washing more dishes than they would like, Kari said. They have about a dozen employees.

While Tap-It's dessert line is limited now to ice cream sundaes and egg rolls with various sweet fillings, they hope to expand it soon. Their oldest daughter, who is in the culinary program at Central Westmoreland Career and Technology Center, loves baking.

The Hissems learned about brewing through friends at other small local breweries and through their own experimentation.

Our brewery is very small because we have limited space," Shane said. "We have a fully automated SmartBrew system."

They create their own recipes, which are sent to a company that makes the wort — the unfermented beer starter comprised of malt extract and water.

"They create the wort, and we actually just ferment the beer here," Shane said.

Tap-It is housed in a building that locals know as the old Viking Drive-In that dated back at least 50 years. Before the Hissems moved in, it was a pizza shop.

Tap-It seats about 75, with additional outdoor seating in warm weather. The simple diner decor is spruced up with original artwork by the three Hissem girls.

They're working on building a website, Shane said. Menus, hours and information about specials are available at Tap-It Brewery & Grill on Facebook.

Shirley McMarlin is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Shirley by email at smcmarlin@triblive.com or via Twitter .