brewing

Friday Happy Hour: Southern Tier Brewing Company

Southern Tier Brewing Company

Southern Tier Brewing Company

By Lindsey Wojcik

The dog days of summer are upon us, and there’s no better way to end a humid, sun-filled day with a cold beer in hand. Southern Tier Brewing Company understands this and touts its newest seasonal brew—fittingly named Farmer’s Tan—as the beer to grab at the beginning of a summer evening. Plus, Farmer’s Tan pairs well with traditional barbecue fare like hot dogs, burgers, and grilled foods. What could be better?

Phineas DeMink, founder, president and owner of Southern Tier, along with the company’s graphic designer, Nathan Arnone, takes Writer’s Bone on a tour of the brewery’s history and beers.

Cheers!

Lindsey Wojcik: Tell us about Southern Tier's history and how you started brewing.

Phineas DeMink: I first started home brewing while going to college. It quickly became an obsessive hobby for me. Every weekend, my roommate and I would make five-gallon batches of beer on our stove. Shortly after finishing school, I found a magazine article about a course you could take to become a professional brewer. At the time, it seemed like a great way to defer entering the workforce. I headed out to California to take the class. That's where I was able to network and get my first professional brewing job at the Ellicottville Brewing Company in New York.

While in Ellicottville, I met my business partner and wife, Sara, who was also working at the brewery. After four years at EBC, I decided to go back to school at the Seibel Institute of Technology to further my brewing education. Upon graduation, I took a job with the Goose Island Brewing Company. I worked there from 1998 to 2002. Sara and I decided to leave the Chicago area and head back to her hometown of Lakewood, N.Y., to start a business and family. In early 2003, the Southern Tier Brewing Company was born.

LW: Give us a quick tour of the different beers you offer. What brew would you recommend for a newbie?

PD: We make around 30 unique beers throughout the year. For those just starting out, I'd recommend our lightest and newest beer. Farmer's Tan is a session (low abv.) India Pale Ale. It's not high in alcohol, not too bitter, but it has enough of a hop bite for an initiation.

LW: I'd consider Pumking the king of pumpkin brews. What's the secret to this wildly popular brew?

PD: It's a secret, of course! Joking aside, it's a flavorful beer that is released for the fall season, so it is limited in availability. We've worked really hard to perfect the recipe to make beer taste like pumpkin pie, right down to the spices and crust flavor.

LW: What was your biggest mistake brewing? What lessons did you learn from a bad recipe or brewing mishap?

PD: Trial and error is not necessarily a mistake. Learning by doing is the only way to learn. Taking notes and remembering to refer back to those notes for next time is a lesson. But they have it right when they say "just do it."

LW: Your logo has four distinct symbols. What is the meaning behind each symbol and how does it convey Southern Tier's mission?

Nathan Arnore: The logo is made of several symbols, each with significance. At the top we have a hop cone, one of the essential ingredients in beer. Below this we have two pieces of brewing equipment, the mash paddle, or rake, and a shovel. Outside and around the logo are grains, another important ingredient, and between this and the equipment you'll notice a circle. This represents the brewing vessels, as well as the glass. The bottom-most piece is the brewer's star. This is an age-old symbol of brewing purity, originating in Germany in the 1500s. The six-pointed star represents pure ingredients; water, hops, grains, malting, yeast, and, of course, the brewer.

LW: Southern Tier is inching its way to become one of the top 25 craft brewing companies in the country, recently moving into the No. 31 slot, according to USA Today. What are your plans for growth and what does the future look like for Southern Tier?

NA: We are constantly making improvements to the brewery for a variety of reasons. First and foremost is to maintain high quality products. That is our number one goal. But we also have a need to increase capacity, but never to sacrifice the liquid. So most every addition to the brewery relates back to improving production and therefore improving the beer.

LW: If you were in Prohibition times, do you think you’d be bootleggers?

NA: Haha! Well, after all, beer is the drink of the people, is it not?

LW: If you were going to run one of your beers for President, which one would it be and what would your campaign slogan be?

NA: I'd run UnEarthly for President. It's an Imperial India Pale Ale. We'd use the campaign slogan "A Pint in Every Hand."

LW: Name one random fact about your company.

NA: We replanted more trees on our property than we removed to make room for our brewery.

To learn about Southern Tier Brewing Company, check out the brewery's official website, like its Facebook page, and follow it on Twitter @stbcbeer.

Happy Hour Archive

Friday Happy Hour: Smuttynose Brewing Company

By Sean Tuohy

The folks that reside in New England know two things: Freezing winters and how to brew quality craft beer. No one knows the latter better than New Hampshire-based Smuttynose Brewing Company.

Smuttynose is known for its "Old Brown Dog Ale" and "Robust Porter" and the time and effort the company's brewers put in to each beer.

I chatted with David Yarrington, Smuttynose's director of brewing operations, to learn more about the company and its future.

Cheers!

Sean Tuohy: Give us a little background on your history and how you started brewing.

David Yarrington: I studied chemistry at Colby College in the late 1980s/early 1990s. While I enjoyed my studies, it was fairly clear that I wan't going to be a chemist so I started looking for other opportunities. I spent the summer of my junior year traveling out west and was able to visit several of the small breweries that were just starting to open. I became intrigued with the idea of leaning this craft and have pursued it since.

ST: For a newbie what beer would you recommend them to start with from Smuttynose?

DY: If you're new to Smuttynose (but not craft beer in general) start with the FinestKind IPA. It's what we're most known for and there's a good reason for that. Beautiful beer.

ST: What was your biggest mistake brewing?

DY: Someone convinced us to add rhubarb to our Strawberry Short Weiss. Totally ruined a great beer. Not that I mind rhubarb, it just didn't work in this case.

ST: What is the process of making a new beer? Take us through the steps from the time the idea light bulb goes off till its bottled.

DY: Most new beers come from wanting to explore certain styles, or enjoying flavors in various foods that I'd like to see manifested in a beer. Once I know which ingredients I'm looking to use, I start to consider how best to balance them within the malt and hop profile. I like balanced beers, but don't mind pushing the envelope in certain directions.

ST: Could you describe your beer in one sentence?

DY: Wabi Sabi

ST: If you were in Prohibition times, do you think you’d be bootleggers?

DY: I don't know if I would have been a bootlegger, but I certainly would have found a way to enjoy a few drinks. The idea of legislating morality is so obviously counterproductive. I don't mind sensible regulation to keep people safe, but advocating abstinence just seems very naive.

ST: What does the future hold for Smuttynose? Will we be able to find Smuttynose around the world?

DY: With our new brewery online, the future is very bright indeed. We're opening some new markets here in the United States and will start shipping to Europe and Asia later this year. Could be time for a road trip.

ST: If you were stuck on a deserted island with just one case of one of your beers, which one would it be and why?

DY: I'd have to go with our Vunderbar Pilsner. So tasty, yet light enough to drink all day long.

To learn more about Smuttynose Brewing Company, check out the company's official website, like the brewery's Facebook page, or follow it on Twitter @smuttynosebeer.

Happy Hour Archive

Friday Happy Hour With Cigar City Brewing in Tampa, Fla.

By Sean Tuohy and Daniel Ford

I always knew cigars and scotch were a great combination, but wasn’t too sure about cigars and beer.

Thanks to Tampa Bay’s Cigar City Brewing—whose beers include “Wandering Pelican,” “Jai Alai,” “Florida Cracker,” and “Puppy’s Breath”—I’m pretty sure all my reservations about the pair are eliminated.

Sean Tuohy sat down with the brewery’s owner and founder Joey Redner to find out more about the company and its history.

Cheers!

Sean Tuohy: Give us a little background on your history and how you started brewing.

Joey Redner: Cigar City brewing grew primarily out of my desire to have a packaging craft brewery in Tampa and basically being tired of waiting for someone else to start one.

ST: For someone not from Florida, why did you pick Cigar City as the name of the brewery?

JR: Tampa was the cigar capital of the world for a century. At peak production more than 50 million cigars were rolled, by hand, every year.

ST: For a newbie what beer would you recommend them to start with from Cigar City?

JR: Invasion Pale Ale.

Yeah, we'd drink this on a deserted island.

Yeah, we'd drink this on a deserted island.

ST: What was your biggest mistake brewing?

JR: We once had a batch of beer that just did not attenuate properly and we thought it would finish conditioning in the bottle. It didn't. And it was not yummy.

ST: What is the process of making a new beer? Take us through the steps from the time the idea light bulb goes off until it’s bottled.

JR: It usually starts with the spark of a putting a twist on something classic or traditional style wise or looking to a culinary inspiration. From there the ingredients are discussed and debated to try to get the end result inspired by the original idea. It is often a multi-step feeling out process to get it just right.

ST: Could you describe your beer in one sentence?

JR: We brew beer we like to drink.

ST: If you were in Prohibition times, do you think you’d be bootleggers?

JR: Absolutely. No doubt about it.

The sweet smell of Puppy's Breath...wait, what?

The sweet smell of Puppy's Breath...wait, what?

 

ST: What does the future hold for Cigar City? Will we be able to find Cigar City around the world?

JR: Probably not around the world, but hopefully around the Southeast.

ST: If you were stuck on a deserted island with just one case of one of your beers, which one would it be and why?

JR: Invasion Pale Ale. It is just a great all around drinking beer.

To learn more about Cigar City Brewing, check out the brewery’s official website, like its Facebook page, or follow the company on Twitter @CigarCityBeer.

Happy Hour Archive