Interview on KARN Today

Did a little chatting about Rebel Kettle, fall beers and the Arkansas beer scene in general this morning on KARN Newsradio. I didn't get much time to work in all the things I wanted to say, as usual (you know how I like to talk), but I got in a bit. 

 

I did screw up by not coming up with any central Arkansas pumpkin beers off the top of my head other than RedRumPum from Rebel Kettle as Stone's Throw has a Pumpkin Pie Porter coming out. I actually had it a few times last year even. Hey, live radio, no script.

Enjoy.

Interview With KARN About Central Arkansas Beer Scene

Here's a quick 5-minute interview I did on local newsradio KARN 102.9 this morning talking exclusively about the central Arkansas beer scene. I always sound so cool in my head then I playback the interview and sound like such a tool. *sigh* But alas, I did work in a lot of our breweries and get a few updates across. Short and sweet! Well, short at least.

Heh heh "guru"...

Quick National Beer Day Interview on KARN

Here's a short 3-minute interview I did on local newsradio KARN 102.9 for National Beer Day. The worst part of these interviews is just not getting everything in I wanted to talk about! If you know me, you know I can blab about local beer at the drop of the hat for 30 minutes. 3 minutes is a travesty! But alas, I did mention a new location for Leap of Faith, Lost Forty Love Honey Bock, new beers from Stone's Throw and Diamond Bear and something about the soon-to-be booming North Little Rock beer area. Enjoy.

A Visit With Flyway Brewing's Matt Foster

Flyway Brewing is a brewery here in Little Rock and if you've never visited their blog, I'd like to now suggest that you do that. I could go over how they got started and where their name came from and so-on-and-so-forth, but trust me, the blog is simply fantastic and full of great stories from their short history. Go ahead and read it (and bookmark it while you're there) and I'll wait here.

http://flywaybrewing.blogspot.com/

You're back? OK good. Then you now know that Matt Foster is the man behind Flyway, who is trying to get things up and running (or flying) while also balancing a full time job as a high school teacher (and husband, and father). He's a man with a passion for beer and a goal for making and sharing great beer. He's also just a genuinely nice guy.

The facility is a modest one, which doubles as the home of Little Rock's own fantastic Loblolly Creamery during the day. They share the kitchen and freezer and shelf space and Matt was kind enough to show me around and tell me a bit about his plans and what's coming up.

Arkansas Beer Scene: So what's the history of this place? A former bar?

Matt: This place was called The Flaming Arrow and it's an old restaurant apparently from the 70s and 80s. One of my good friends had her wedding reception here and a lot of big movers and shakers used to hang out down here, including Bill Clinton. Rumor has that this is where he met Gennifer Flowers and she might used to have lived in this building. Check on that one, but apparently some of the residents remember seeing him in the hallways.

ABS: Ole Slick Willy might have slept here? Great! Some history! Now you share this with Loblolly Creamery?

Matt: Yes. They've been extremely generous to me and made it possible for me to become a legal Arkansas native brewer.

ABS: And this building is where you plan on staying?

Matt: Yes, staying here indefinitely. I do have plans to move and get my own space in here in some business planning phases, working with the Arkansas Small Business Technology Development Center at UALR, something I can take to bankers and investors to get my own business loan and be able to get some more space and reasonable equipment.

ABS: What is your brewing capacity now?

Matt: It's the SABCO Brew Magic and it's a half-barrel brewing system. It's either a fancy home-brewing system or a great pilot brewing system, there are several ways of looking at it I guess. Maybe famous because Sam Calagione at Dogfish Head started on a Brew Magic as one of it's claims to fame. Piney River started on a Brew Magic too.

ABS: Piney is one of my favorites!

Matt: It's a long list actually. It's because it's affordable and allows you to control a lot of variables and create a really consistent and repeatable product. When somebody goes somewhere and gets your product you want it to all be the same.

ABS: Speaking of getting your product, where all are your beers now?

Matt: Since October I've had a permanent tap at South on Main, rolling out the Free Range Brown Ale. I've had a rotating tap at Superior Bathhouse in Hot Springs. The only other place, besides special events, so far was the collaboration with Rebel Kettle at Big Orange for Christmas.

ABS: Are you trying to expand to more right now?

Matt: No. That's a good question, but I'm pulled in so many directions and have turned my attention to more planning I'm actually going to scale back a little bit and brew less often with more variety. I feel like the Free Range Brown recipe is nailed down. I'll have it at Food and Foam Fest (April) and I think it's the best it's been. It's very approachable and it's a good gateway type beer.

ABS: It's very accessible and easy-to-drink for sure. Very sessionable. So this is your "staple" we'll say, or flagship at this point. What other beers do you have coming up?

Matt: I have another recipe for a "drinker" I'll call it. If Free Range is approachable then Migrate Ale I want to be known as "drinkable". It's a pale ale. I use some two-row barley malts, a little bit of wheat and some Northern Brewer and locally grown Dunbar Cascade hops. I'm proud to say that every batch of beer I've made and served in public has used some locally grown hops. We've gone out and hand-picked the hops ourselves, someone from Dunbar or one of us. I've got a freezer full of them. I may not always be able to do that but because of the size so far I can. I want to source more and more ingredients from Arkansas.

ABS: I saw on your website a Shadow Hands Stout coming up?

Matt: Yeah, definitely, that's part of the plan where I'm going to stop making as much Free Range. South On Main alone keeps me brewing that as I can make just enough Free Range to keep that tap up. That's a good problem to have. The Shadow Hands I have been working on for a while, it's inspired by coffee cake, sort of a coffee cake stout. I have a good brewing buddy that came up with it with me.

ABS: So where might we see these?

Matt: Migrate Ale will be at Food and Foam Fest. I'm going to start rotating a lot more often after that. South On Main has agreed to rotate so they'll have more variety too.

ABS: I love the Shadow Hands Stout label for the record.

Matt: A girl named Jennifer Perren, who graduated from Central High here, she's a senior art major at UALR and just the most talented artist. The original is actually an etching. She did the Free Range label too. She's so talented. There's no label for the Migrate Ale yet but I have tattoo artist here in town working on that one as we speak.

ABS: I hear you talk a lot about organic, you're big on that.

Matt: I feel strongly about organic and I really believe in organic farming practices, I'm not a fan of industrial farming. I'm a proud environmentalist. If I'm going to be making large quantities of beer I want to support things I believe in, you know? I think organic farming is cleaner. I think I'll have a line of beers that are organic, may have to be a little more expensive, and then a line of beers that aren't all organic. I also want to support the Arkansas Native Beer Project, it's something I'm probably the most excited about. It's something we conceived of a while back (ed. note: read the blog!). As recent as the late 50s barley was the number 2 or 3 cash crop in Arkansas. It was grown mainly as a feed crop for livestock. I wanted to grow it here. Now we've got barley growing at Dunbar Community Garden on Chester. We have other varieties growing at Victory Garden, 12th and Oak Street Garden, Laughing Stock Farm, and on research land at the U of A Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service. We hope to harvest a couple of tons of barley, and when we do we'll malt it and make the first Arkansas Native Beer. An acre of barley will yield like 2 to 4 tons if I remember correctly. We planted about 150 lbs. so we're talking like 6 tons of barley. That's a lot of barley. I'm going to play around with malting the barley, mash it, boil it, brew it, hop it, ferment it, carbonate it, keg it... the first Arkansas native beer.

ABS: I love it!

Matt: It's going to be a long process, it's going to take years. But so worth it.

ABS: So where do you see yourself in a year from now with Flyway Brewing?

Matt: I'm learning so much. I'm still making mistakes, but I'm learning a lot about brewing and business. It's paying for itself, but I'm not making a living with it. But if going to do this I feel I need to set myself to be successful with my equipment and location. Get a storefront that will enrich my community, put in a brewpub and brewhouse. Be able to make a modest living. Everybody isn't going to be Founders or Dogfish Head you know, but you can make a living doing it the right way. The next year is going to be big. I'm going to try to do it the right way. I'd really like a larger brewing system that can support the business, but on a reasonable scale. I think I see exciting things happening in the next year. I think the scene here is right, in Little Rock and South Main.

ABS: I'll sure be pulling for you. Thanks so much for your time Matt!

Interview: Rebel Kettle Brewing

After a solid showing at several beer events around central Arkansas recently, aspiring brewery Rebel Kettle Brewing is starting to create a bit of buzz (pun intended). I get asked a lot about the status of them so I thought I'd sit down with the guys and throw some questions at them about the current and future state of their brew and brewery. Run by 2 friends in the Little Rock area, Tommy McGhee and John Lee, their motto is "Rebel at heart, Rebel in hand."

Here's a bit more from their Facebook page to get you acquainted:

"Rebel Kettle Brewing is an aspiring brewery that holds true to an underground, rebellious style. We are currently not a licensed brewery and do not sell or distribute. We brew on a half-barrel system and share the spoils with family and friends. Our goal is to brew bold, bad-ass beers that defy style guidelines. We stand in rebellion against the idea that all beer must fit within a category. Rebel Kettle Brewing vows to break down the barriers of beer stereotypes and push the boundaries of craft brewing. We are proud supporters of the craft beer revolution and urge people to try something different. Support the revolution, JOIN THE REBELLION!"

Arkansas Beer Scene (ABS): So what made you guys want to open a brewery in the first place?

John Lee: Tommy and I work together and we've been talking about opening a brewery for about 5 or 6 years. Initially it was "let's do like a brewpub" but we realized we don't know anything about the restaurant business. We know beer. This is what we do. So we decided we could take what we know and open a small brewery and bring our craft to Little Rock.

Tommy McGhee: John is actually the one that got me involved in actual craft beer. We went to a lot of festivals and things together, we started home brewing together (although John had been home brewing for years himself) and we just always talked about how doing a brewery would be great. So we basically just one day finally said "let's do it." We just decided why not try it?

ABS: How long ago was that?

John: That was last March (2013). When we first starting talking about it, 5 years ago, there weren't that many breweries in Arkansas. Now that's changed. Hopefully we can get there too.

ABS: To go a little further on that, with all the new breweries in the area, do you really feel there's room for more?

John: Absolutely. There's room for a lot more. The one thing we actually looked forward to was helping create a beer community here in Little Rock and all of Arkansas as well. We're still pretty small as far as breweries per capita here in the state. We want to help make Little Rock and Arkansas a beer destination. We love what Fayetteville is doing with the Ale Trail and would love to see something like that here in Little Rock. Right now we're up to 6 or 7 breweries in the area and we'd love to be a part of that. Each one of these breweries is putting their stamp on their style and beer in general and we want to bring what we like to do to that, which may be a little different. But everybody is bringing something a little different.

ABS: So you don't feel like you're competing as much as just "let's all do this together" sort of thing?

John: It is a family thing. Everybody we've talked to in the beer community here has been really supportive. We've needed a lot of help getting started and it seems like everybody bands together. We've meet some really great people.

ABS: So I love the original old-school artwork. What's the deal with it and who came up with it?

Tommy: I came up with the artwork when we started coming up with this whole idea of a brewery. Pretty much the first thing we did was try to come up with a name and logo and we kicked around lots of different names and John came up with this big list and one that he really liked was Rebel Kettle. I thought it was great too and stood for our general style in music and beer.

I went home and kicked it around and my wife Belle is big into the 40s pin-up stuff and she was saying we should do something rockabilly-ish and one of my favorite bands is actually Social Distortion so it kind of kicked it off for me, sort of a skeleton with a pompadour holding a beer glass with a leather jacket. I sketched it up and sent it to John and he thought it was awesome so we tweaked it a bit from there. Actually the first picture I sent is it. It just fit.

ABS: So does the guy have a name?

Tommy: We came up with Johnny Two-Pints.

ABS: That's awesome. Alright, now a few quick questions for you guys. First, what craft beer was your "gateway" to craft brews, or introduction?

John: Sam Adams Boston Lager, circa 1992.

Tommy: I'll go with Sierra Nevada Celebration.

ABS: What are some of your current favorite breweries?

John: If I had to pick a few.... Sierra Nevada, Cigar City, I'm really liking Jester King and probably my favorite is Crooked Stave.

Tommy: I agree with Sierra Nevada and Cigar City, I love Funky Budha, I like Firestone Walker.

ABS: OK, what are just some of you favorite styles you most like to drink, overall, I know a lot depends on the season.

John: I gravitate towards drinkability. I love saisons, they can be high alcohol beers and still be very drinkable. I love pilsners... I like maltier stuff as well, swartzbiers are great beers, they kind of give you the best of both worlds. The same goes for IPAs, you don't want a heavy IPA, you want something you can drink. That's what it comes down to for me.

Tommy: Some of my favorites are more on the maltier side... browns, porters, stouts. I pretty much go for the darker side.

ABS: OK, now just a few of your favorite current beers, just off the top of your head.

Tommy: At Christmas I had a lot of the 1809 Berliner Weisse, I'm just getting into sours. Also Jester King's Boxer's Revenge, another sour. And Firestone Walker Union Jack IPA.

John: The one recently I can't put down is Crooked Stave Hop Savant, 100 percent brett beer. It's put me in a whole new state of where I want to take Rebel Kettle, changed my perception of beer. It's something new, for me.

ABS: Last question, so what exactly is happening with you guys now? Where does the business stand, when can we expect beer?

John: Right now we're working our business plan, trying to get settled financially. We're looking for a location, hopefully to have one by mid-year.

ABS: Are you talking about a brewing location or like a brewpub sort of thing?

John: Just a small brewery, with a taproom. Initially starting with a pilot system, then the timeline is within 6 months being able to open. We've heard generally it's 6-8 months. Hopefully by the end of the year we'd be looking at opening.

ABS: Do you have a specific area you're looking at?

John: We're gravitating towards North Little Rock, considering where we live. We're certainly not opposed to downtown Little Rock either. We'll open small, hopefully have about 8 taps. Maybe running a session IPA, a cream stout, Dirtbag Brown, maybe another IPA.

Tommy: We want to have a few "always there beers" but we also want to be ever-changing and never settle. We want to be a brewery for beer drinkers, to try things.

John: The goal is a new beer every week. We want staples, but the ultimate goal is variety. Give people something new and different.

ABS: Thanks for your time guys and good luck on your goals!

Follow Rebel Kettle on Twitter: https://twitter.com/RebelKettle