Orlandini moved up to his newly created post at the Wilkes-Barre brewery at the beginning of this year and is now in charge of all aspects of plant operation including brewing, packaging and warehousing. Brandon Greenwood, formerly the brewer at Nodding Head Brewery & Restaurant in Philadelphia, succeeds him as brewmaster. Orlandini remains in the brewing department, reporting directly to CEO Chuck Lawson, and Greenwood reports to him.

In addition to those personnel moves, The Lion has added a new label to its in-house portfolio. Cincinnati entrepreneur Gregory Hardman, who bought the Christian Moerlein brand from Cleveland-based Snyder International Brewing Group last March and was contract brewing it, has joined the brewery and the brand is now part of the Lion's holdings.

"They are us," Orlandini laughed, "and we are them. I'm very excited about it. Greg Hardman is a dynamic guy and he knows his marketing. I like a lot of his ideas and I think he's really going to help the brewery."

The alignment with Moerlein will give The Lion the opportunity to spread its wings and move into some different beer styles, Orlandini said.  In fact, it's already happening. "We've brewed a very nice Double Bock we'll be bottling under the Moerlein label in a couple of weeks. It's close to 7% abv, malty and velvety smooth, a big beer for us. Then, in February, we'll be packaging a Christian Moerlein Dunkel that Brandon and I are collaborating on and we plan to bring out a Hefeweizen under that label in April."

There's excitement in the air, Orlandini added, because "we're spending a lot of money" on improvements to the plant and looking to upgrade the brewery's products. "Brandon and I will be examining all of our current beers to see what we can do to make them the best beers they can possibly be. We think they're good beers now, understand, but Brandon may have an idea, or I may have an idea, of how we could tweak them to make them even better and more appealing to the consumer. Whatever we can do, we will do."