Cache & Suds Traditional Cache

The building that the Brewery is housed in has quite a history.  The land was purchased and developed by the DuPont's in 1915.  It was incorporated as The Delaware Chemical Engineering Company and run by Francis Irenee du Pont.  It was a research laboratory that focused on the effects of strong electromagnets on partially ionized gases, and the development of smokeless gun powder among other things.  In 1917 du Pont also incorporated a new branch called the Ball Grain Explosives Company which made bomb fuses that were used by the Allies in World War I.  du Pont owned the research laboratory until it was sold to Harry S. Theil in 1946.  It then became the Harper-Theil Electroplating Company. Electroplating is the term for depositing a metallic coating onto an object by putting a negative charge onto the object and immersing it into a solution which contians a salt of the metal to be deposited.  The purpose of electroplating is to finish the metal by changing it's appearance, protecting from degeneration, or altering the surface engineering or mechanical properties. Harper-Theil Electroplating closed in 2000 and the building sat unused until the brewery took it over and renovated it.  As you can imagine there was a lot of restoration and cleanup that needed to occur before the building and property were habitable.  The Brewery was able to use most of the original buildings and they have done an excellent job of restoring them!