Brewing an ALL NC Beer!
Yes, we're brewing an All NC Beer!
The holidays remind us that North Carolina’s Christmas trees beat all others; in fact NC is ranked second in the nation in number of trees harvested. Our Christmas trees rule, but I’m here to talk about hops. You might not know that a sizable number of hops are being harvested right here in the Tar Heel State and hops make Santa happy. We all want that fine fellow Ho-Ho-Ho’ing, don’t we?
Well, Mother Earth Brewing is about to make good use of this little known (ever-increasing) NC crop- taking the ‘NC harvested’ initiative to a new echelon. That’s because this Friday Josh and crew are brewing a one barrel batch of “all-NC” beer. A pale ale made with Cascade hops from the sustainable oriented Echoview Farm of Weaverville and malt from Riverbend Malt House – located in Asheville. The crew will use Riverbend’s Heritage Malt, a 6-row malt that is produced from Thoroughbred barley grown near Salisbury, NC. This malt sports a mild flavor profile that “contributes a slight nutty flavor, but allows the specialty grains to take center stage” according to the experts at Riverbend. We’re pumped to say the least, so keep up with tweets and FB posts for the release date of this NC-grown brew.
While hops are still considered a “specialty crop” in NC- there’s nothing short of a hop movement going on in NC. Take a few minutes to visit the information found on Echoview Farm’s website; you’ll be amazed at all the hop activity. Locally, we’ve successfully grown hops on a farm in LaGrange, and outside the Mother Earth Brewing Taproom. Several months ago we even brewed a special batch of beer made with these ultra-local hops. Fresh, delicious, and homegrown- it was a winner all the way around.
This is probably a good time to brag about another fine NC fact:
According to the NC Brewers Guild, “North Carolina boasts more craft breweries than any state in the American South, with 21 brewpubs and 28 production breweries statewide. If you're in North Carolina, you're probably just a few miles from a great craft beer.”
So as you take down your tree this year, raise a pint to all those NC farmers who continually push themselves to keep NC agriculture on the map. Thanks for a giving us what we need to craft a killer NC brew.
Peace, Love and Beer…Trent