Front Street Brewery

I trust everyone had a nice weekend, although it was a bit chilly. It seems to me that this was the first weekend in a long time that I was not out of town. I was kind of nice to actually sleep past 8 AM.

Last week I was introduced to a nice gentleman while I was enjoying a pint at Cape Fear Wine and Beer. We got to talking and he brought up that his two sons run a hop farm in western North Carolina. I was intrigued immediately. Typically hops in the U.S. are primarily grown in Oregon, Washington and Idaho. So the thought of North Carolina hops made me smile from ear to ear. Most Brewer’s that I know have the idea that local is better. If we plan to do a one off specialty beer with some weird ingredient, we would much rather get it from a local business rather than have it shipped from across the the country. When I did my Coffee Stout I was sure to work with a local Coffee shop to help me choose the right coffee beans and have it ready for me when I needed it. Unfortunately malted barley and hops typically have to be shipped in from the other end of the country or sometimes shipped from another country altogether. With that said a 6 hour drive to Western NC doesn’t seem that bad.

So we came up with the idea of possibly doing a fresh hop beer in the future. A fresh hop beer is as fresh as it comes. Basically the long and short of it is that a fresh hop beer uses hops that were picked just hours before being added to the Kettle. Think of it as adding fresh herbs that were picked from your garden rather than using dried oregano. For a lot of breweries having the chance to do a fresh hop beer is either non-existent or extremely expensive due to having fresh hops shipped overnight. I spoke with Rick and have since spoken with his sons through email a few times. I plan on going to visit the farm within the next month or so to check out what’s happening. Depending on the weather the harvest could vary quite a bit so I will keep you all updated on any progress we have with the fresh hop beer, although it may be a bit later in the year.

Also I would like to wish my former assistant brewer Brian good luck in his future endeavors. His last day at FSB was on Friday. He’ll be taking an assistant brewing position at Blacksburg Brewing Company. He’ll be working under my old boss and colleague John where he will surely learn a lot. Good luck to you Brian. You’ll be missed.

As for some other brewery news. The Chocolate Porter and Irish Red are selling extremely well so far. I have an American Amber that should be on tap by the weekend. It’s got a great hop profile that any hophead will surely enjoy.

Cheers,

Kevin