{"id":11287,"date":"2014-01-07T11:38:00","date_gmt":"2014-01-07T16:38:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/?p=11287"},"modified":"2014-01-25T14:21:21","modified_gmt":"2014-01-25T19:21:21","slug":"now-on-tap-yalobusha-brewing-company-interview-with-owner-master-brewers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/now-on-tap-yalobusha-brewing-company-interview-with-owner-master-brewers\/","title":{"rendered":"Now On Tap: Yalobusha Brewing Company – Interview with Owner & Master Brewers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Intro by Rebecca Long<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Interview (below) & photos by Newt Rayburn<\/strong> & Rebecca Long<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

–<\/p>\n

Yalobusha Brewing Company<\/b> is open for business on Main Street in Water Valley, Mississippi! They\u2019ve been brewing up beer since the beginning of October 2013. Recently Newt Rayburn<\/b> and I had the opportunity to take a thorough tour and to interview owner Andy O\u2019Bryan<\/b> and master brewers Tony Balzola<\/b> and Amos Harvey<\/b>.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Inside<\/a>The tour began with Harvey showing us through the brewing process, explaining the function of each machine and specifics on the methods they use for Yalobusha Brewing Company\u2019s suds selections. We were shown the mash tub first because that\u2019s where brewing begins \u2013 it mixes grain evenly with 172\u00b0 water and then the mixture goes through a steeping process called conversion for about 45 minutes to create simple sugars by pushing the starches out of the grain. After conversion the mixture is known as wort; valves are used to recirculate the wort through the grain bed \u2013 a process called vorlauf<\/i>, from its German roots. Vorlauf<\/i> is, Harvey says, \u201cTo clear up the beer and to make it kind of an even mash.\u201d The mixture is sent over to the kettle after it\u2019s been mixed for about 15 minutes, where steam jackets are used to heat it up. \u201cAbout thirty minutes before the end of the boil,\u201d Harvey explains, \u201cWe start adding more hops, and more hops. It boils for ninety minutes, and when you add the hops at the beginning, it\u2019s more for in-your-mouth bittering. And as the hops get added towards the end of the boil, it\u2019s more for aroma. So it doesn\u2019t end as bitter but when you put the beer to your nose \u2013 when you smell the hops in the beer \u2013 it\u2019s because we\u2019ve added them really close to the end of the boil.\u201d Once the beer is boiled for ninety minutes, it\u2019s whirlpooled for about twenty minutes with a set of valves to suck all the hops into a cone in the middle of the kettle. And then the wort is cooled before moving it to one of the fermentation tanks. It has to be cooled because, Harvey says, \u201cIf it\u2019s too hot it\u2019s going to burn the yeast, or mutate it and hurt it, so we need to have it at 70 degrees.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The fermentation tanks, of \"Fermentation<\/a>which Yalobusha has four currently, each hold about 900 gallons of brew. \u201cThat\u2019s 30 barrels, and the way we sell our kegs is by the sixth barrel, so that\u2019s close to 180 sixth barrels per 30 barrel batch,\u201d explains Harvey. It takes three to five days to ferment the beers they\u2019ve decided to brew. The tanks have a vapor lock; carbon dioxide bubbles out as the yeast eats simple sugars to produce this gas along with alcohol. \u201cIt\u2019s messy,\u201d says Harvey, \u201cbut we\u2019re happy when we see the mess because it means it\u2019s doing its thing.\u201d Towards the end of the fermentation process, when the bubbling calms down, they \u201cCap it off, close it, and then it starts creating its own pressure. Because the more natural CO2<\/sub> in the beer, the better and softer the carbonation is. And we\u2019ll start seeing the pressure build a little bit here (taps pressure gauge), and we\u2019ll cap it for about two days so it can kind of carbonate itself. We check it the next day and if there\u2019s no real change, we\u2019ll do what\u2019s called crashing it. These tanks are jacketed, and they can be cooled; we\u2019ll set the temperature down to like 35 degrees, and it helps all the yeast drop out of suspension, and that starts clearing up the beer, and it makes the yeast go dormant.\u201d After the beer has crashed for a few days, it\u2019s moved to a different tank without the yeast using carbon dioxide and gravity because, Harvey says, they \u201cdon\u2019t want to beat up the beer, run it through a pump or aerate it.\u201d After being moved to the break tank, they \u201cPut CO2<\/sub> on it, to finish out the carbonation, because you rarely get all your beer carbonated naturally.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

When we asked about what the other tanks contained Harvey said, \u201cEverything\u2019s full. It\u2019s actually a pretty good feeling.\u201d As of the day we visited the brewery, River Ale was the only variety being offered, but they have an I.P.A. coming out next (as soon as they get green-lighted by the state), followed by an amber brew. They\u2019re also using their smaller \u201cpilot system\u201d to produce a milk stout at the moment \u2013 the first of many bourbon barrel aged brews to come.<\/span><\/p>\n

Right now, their distribution is limited to North Mississippi \u2013 including Oxford, Tupelo, West Point, Southaven, and Senatobia\u2026even Starkville. The next step is to get a distributor for central and Southern Mississippi. Harvey explains, \u201cNobody in Mississippi has a refrigerated truck.\u201d When asked why, his simple answer was, \u201cThey never had to.\u201d Lazy Magnolia was the first brewery to open in Mississippi \u2013 in 2003 \u2013 located in a town called Kiln in the southernmost part of the state. The Mississippi Brewers Guild recently produced a brochure illustrating all the breweries across the state \u2013 a total of eight locations now. But O\u2019Bryan explained that the \u201cestablished on\u201d dates on the remaining seven breweries are all in 2012 \u2013 they\u2019ve all begun in the last eighteen months.<\/span><\/p>\n

Tours will start soon (stay updated at facebook.com\/YalobushaBrewing), but with the current law Harvey says, \u201cWe can\u2019t sell beer here, at our place. Eventually we\u2019ll have a tap running, here in the central area. And when we do tours, you can have six 6oz. samplers, or one 36oz. sampler, or however you want to break it up. In most everybody\u2019s mind, the next logical step is, \u2018Hey, I\u2019d like to buy a couple of cases of beer. Thanks for the tour.\u2019\u201d He says Mississippi\u2019s Raise Your Pints<\/b> plans on \u201c<\/b>trying to make legislation to let breweries sell just a small amount [of beer], and all the distributors are going to lobby against it.\u201d The three-tier distribution system existing in most states is prohibitive in some ways, like disallowing family members of brewery owners from having retail or distribution licenses. But at the same time, O\u2019Bryan sees a lot of merit in the system \u2013 \u201cIt\u2019s not all bad. [Without the three-tier system] we\u2019d have a very small brewery with a very small service area. But because of the three-tier system I can build a brewery that\u2019s three times larger and we can focus 100% on making the best beer possible.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"We<\/a>When Newt mentioned out that Coca-Cola was first bottled in Vicksburg, Mississippi, Harvey pointed out that in the past there have been two bottling plants located in Water Valley. He said, \u201cThere was a Coca-Cola plant, and there was a Double Cola plant, right next to each other, right across from SprintMart. That\u2019s kind of neat, and we\u2019re kind of digging around, asking people if they have any old Double Cola memorabilia.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The place was spotless when we arrived but got a little messy by the time we were done. We commented on the amount of cleaning their crew has to do, and Harvey answered, \u201cBrewing is 99% sanitation, really. And when we do a batch, like when we did that amber, that\u2019s a fifteen barrel system, but our fermentation tanks are thirty barrels, so we basically have to brew twice to fill those up. So our brew day is 6 am to midnight. There\u2019s some monitoring in between, so it\u2019s not hard labor all that time, but we get done about 9:00, and it takes three hours to clean up.\u201d O\u2019Bryan said, \u201cWe\u2019ll eventually be milling our grain \u2013 we\u2019ve already got the mill, we just have to build another building out back. It\u2019s a factory, that\u2019s the bottom line. A lot of people don\u2019t realize it \u2013 when the tours start, people\u2019s minds will really be opened as far as how much work goes into it. A picture\u2019s worth a thousand words. Go back there and look \u2013 it\u2019s hard work. But at the end of the day, we\u2019re making beer, man! This is a good thing. All walks of life can get into it. It\u2019s very accessible, very affordable. It\u2019s not highbrow in the least \u2013 you can make it that way, and decide to be a beer collector, but even these products in the grand scheme of things when compared to wine bourbon, it\u2019s more of a blue-collar type of thing. It\u2019s like a Bruce Springsteen song down here in Water Valley.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"LineSimple_3pxby700px\"<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

\"Amos<\/a><\/p>\n

Where did you learn to brew?<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Harvey:<\/b> In the mid-nineties I went out West, headed to Portland, Oregon, but found a job in Boise, Idaho brewing and started assistant brewing at a brewhouse there called Big Horn Brewing Company. And then I came back to Mississippi waiting for the law to change, with the knowledge to brew, and the law didn\u2019t change. So I went to Abita and brewed [there] for another year. Then I got sucked back up into the music industry for the last fifteen years.<\/span><\/p>\n

How long were you at Abita?<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Harvey:<\/b> A little over a year at each place, because I just kept waiting for the law to change. One year passed, time to vote, didn\u2019t go through, go off to Abita. Another year passed and the law didn\u2019t change, but I stayed at Abita for a little while, and Mac and Bruce signed with Epitaph during that time, and I got dragged away from [brewing].<\/span><\/p>\n

You help Amos come up with all the new recipes and with brewing?<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Balzola:<\/b> Yeah, we\u2019re a team. I\u2019m definitely more on the recipe design side and he\u2019s more on the brewery operation side, but we come together on everything. I\u2019ve got a little more experience designing recipes than he does.<\/span><\/p>\n

Where have you worked?<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Balzola:<\/b> All my brewing was done for this company called McMenamins in Portland, Oregon and they run a bunch of brewpubs \u2013 you won\u2019t find them in bottles unless you buy it at their locations. They have dozens of different small breweries that supply all their little places, and there\u2019s a lot of creative freedom to make your own recipes, and you\u2019re making twelve keg batches so it\u2019s a lot smaller in scale than this. I worked for them right out of college \u2013 I didn\u2019t start brewing for them until a few years in, but was with them for sixteen years when I left. They\u2019re a great company, but I\u2019d reached as far as I could go with them, just being a brewer.<\/span><\/p>\n

Why did you decide to open up a brewery?<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

O\u2019Bryan:<\/b> Well, I started looking at it a couple of years ago. I had a restaurant down in Carroll County, and then I started looking in Greenwood to build another restaurant, and I started looking up here to do one. I was wanting to do a brewpub, and I did all this research not even knowing that wasn\u2019t even possible. I just had to abandon all this research. But at the end of last year, I decided to pick up the research again but decided to just look at production breweries. I started traveling around, and \u2013 it sounds like a big number \u2013 I think it was either 41 or 42 breweries I went to in the last two years, but that\u2019s not 42 cities. I went to 20 breweries just in Chicago over a two week period. It was really incredible going to these places. Like, when I went to Revolution in Chicago \u2013 those guys don\u2019t know me \u2013 but I sent them an email with my name and told them I was researching to start a brewery in Mississippi and I wanted to pick their brains, and they said, \u201cOk, you\u2019re now an employee for a day \u2013 all access \u2013 what do you want?\u201d The industry as a whole is really incredible as far as sharing resources. It\u2019s a hundred billion dollar industry in the United States, and all of the craft breweries combined are only 8-9% of the hundred billion \u2013 all of them. So 91 billion dollars is Miller, Coors, and Budweiser, and they\u2019re all owned overseas now. And 3,000 craft breweries are the other 9%, so it is us against them. The American breweries are combining resources, basically, and helping each other out, and sharing grain orders, and the cost of glassware, so it\u2019s really amazing.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Outside<\/a>Why did you pick Water Valley rather than Oxford?<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

O\u2019Bryan:<\/b> This building. Period. This building doesn\u2019t exist in Oxford.<\/span><\/p>\n

Harvey:<\/b> This could have been a warehouse on the side of the highway, in Oxford. It would have been a metal building and a slab and no character.<\/span><\/p>\n

O\u2019Bryan:<\/b> The building was perfect.<\/span><\/p>\n

Harvey:<\/b> It was made for this. When I moved here in 2004 and took a turn up this hill to go look at a house, I saw this building and knew I wanted to brew here someday.<\/span><\/p>\n

What was this building before?<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Harvey:<\/strong> It was Hendricks Machine Shop and Foundry, at first, in the late 1800s. You\u2019ll see around town some of the manholes \u2013 they made those. They worked on tractors and train parts and things, and in the 40s is when they brought this part of the building over, I think this was from Camp Shelby. I think they turned this into a Ford dealership, so they used to work on cars back here.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Amos<\/a>How and when did y\u2019all meet?<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

O\u2019Bryan:<\/b> In March \u2013 our friend told me [Amos] worked at Abita; I asked what he did there and he told me he was a brewer. I thought he was completely messing with me. And I said, \u201cWell, do you have his number?\u201d And he said, \u201cHe runs Lamar Lounge<\/b>.\u201d And he described him and I recognized the description. So my wife and I went and sat at the bar and ordered some food, and I motioned and told Amos I wanted to holler at him; he went and checked on something and came over there, and I introduced myself and I said, \u201cI\u2019m going to tell you something that three people know besides me. I\u2019m trying to keep it quiet but I\u2019m going to tell you about it.\u201d And he\u2019s thinking: \u2018There\u2019s this completely random guy who\u2019s come in my bar, kissing my earlobe, telling me a secret \u2013 who is this freak?\u2019 And I said, \u201cI\u2019m about to open a brewery in Oxford, Mississippi.\u201d And his whole demeanor just changed. I just went over there to talk to him, I had no idea he would have left what he was doing to come work with me. But obviously that was his passion, that\u2019s what he wanted to do, and it was just perfect timing. Once we got to speed and we realized we wanted to work together he said, \u201cDon\u2019t buy a building in Oxford before you see this building in Water Valley.\u201d A couple of weeks later we got down here and we realized very quickly that this is a special building. What we didn\u2019t know at the time was what we had to do to the building to make it ready. And what really interested us, sold us, as far as buying the building was we found that the only thing we had to do was cut new floor drains \u2013 that\u2019s it. Otherwise, we\u2019ve done nothing to the building. And don\u2019t have any plans to change the building, which was really important to us \u2013 to not go in and bastardize the place, and turn it into something it isn\u2019t. All of this wood, the skylight and all this stuff is original architecture \u2013 they just replaced rotten boards with new boards, but it wasn\u2019t changed at all. It was built in 1860, so there\u2019s plenty of light \u2013 even on an overcast day like today you could work in here. It was designed like that. Every corner of the building has a roll-top door and a ramp \u2013 no matter where you are, you can get in and out of the building with a forklift.<\/span><\/p>\n

Harvey:<\/b> And luckily, it\u2019s been refurbished. In 2007, I tried to buy it and I got reneged on. I was pissed but it was a blessing in disguise because this whole portion of the building where the two buildings meet was rotten \u2013 water was coming off one building, rotting the other building. And I would never have been able to pay for that, but stars aligned later and here we are. We\u2019re lucky \u2013 I met Tony out West when I was on the road. This guy in Portland, Oregon was buying an old building an making it a brewpub-restaurant-B&B and I was out there with Hot Chip, and walked past Tony\u2019s door where he was brewing \u2013 didn\u2019t know Tony from Adam \u2013 and after the band started loading in I went back there and introduced myself, and he immediately started showing me what he was doing and and offered me a sample. We started talking about styles of beer and how it\u2019s fun to play in between those, like our River Ale plays between extra pale and a pilsner slant. By the end of the day I\u2019d been around him for eight hours, and I told him, \u201cI\u2019m going to brew beer in Mississippi at some point. If I got your number or your email address, would you be up for consulting at some point?\u201d And he said, \u201cSure.\u201d And he might have thought I was as crazy as when Andy and I met. But I kept in touch with him \u2013 we talked a few times \u2013 and six or eight months ago I called him up and I said, \u201cAlright, this is it. Can you and your wife fly out here and check out Water Valley, Mississippi?\u201d And he came down a month later.<\/span><\/p>\n

O\u2019Bryan:<\/b> I told Amos, \u201cTell him I\u2019ll fly he and his wife down here and I\u2019ll put them up for a week \u2013 they won\u2019t have to pay for anything.\u201d Amos and I conned him \u2013 we got a house, like he would live here. We didn\u2019t put him in a hotel room. And that was his idea [motioning at Amos]. He left here on Sunday, and Monday night he texted me to tell me he was going to turn in his notice.<\/span><\/p>\n

When did you move in here?<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

O\u2019Bryan:<\/b> May. The construction \u2013 just the floor drains \u2013 took almost two months, and we couldn\u2019t do anything during that time. The glycol line was a two month process. There was a little bit of overlap of time with the floor drains because they\u2019re up high. But actually building this stuff out is very precise \u2013 we were in here just slaving away. Any of these machines, you can look at, and there\u2019s just so much going on, so many parts. So technically speaking, yes we opened very quickly, but we got a lot done and most breweries do not open this fast. I had people who knew what they were doing on their side that I didn\u2019t have to train. I hired him, pointed in the direction of the brewery and that was it, basically. The installers we hired, they were professional installers of brewery equipment. The people from whom we got our equipment \u2013 that\u2019s all they do, is make brewery equipment. The stars aligned on that for us to find these people and for them to be available when we called them.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Awesome<\/a>It seems like you got your licensing incredibly fast \u2013 can you tell us about that process?<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

O\u2019Bryan:<\/b> A big part of it\u2019s having the money to do it. A lot of people \u2013 like Oxford Brewing Company \u2013 are doing contract brewing because they [don\u2019t] have the money to go out and buy a building and to buy the tanks. The only reason [to contract brew] is because you don\u2019t have the money to buy a facility. Nobody chooses it because they want to do it that way. When you contract brew, you\u2019ve got somebody in another state who\u2019s got a brewery, who\u2019s making their own products, and then you\u2019re paying them to brew your product. You\u2019re having to charge the consumer more for your product because you\u2019re basically a kickstarter for a brewery \u2013 you\u2019re raising money through the consumer so you can buy a building. The guy who owns Dogfish Head \u2013 one of the premier breweries in the country \u2013 said contract brewing could potentially hurt the craft beer industry because the whole point of the craft beer revolution in the United States is that people are thinking local again. And if it\u2019s not brewed locally, and you\u2019re not hiring locally, and you can\u2019t drive down the street and find these guys and see it with your own eyes, then you\u2019re completely undermining all the work these pioneer craft brewers like Sam Adams and Sierra have worked for. It\u2019s something that Mac and I never considered. We said if we were going to do it, we were going to buy a building, and have new equipment made for us. The used tank industry is awful; a scratch on the inside of one of those tanks can hold bacteria that completely infects a batch. If we were going to do it, we were going to do it the right way. Contract brewing is a hard thing to try to pull off.<\/span><\/p>\n

Did the State of Mississippi welcome you?<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

O\u2019Bryan:<\/b> Absolutely. We have had the most fantastic rollout. I didn\u2019t come to you [The Local Voice<\/i>] and say, \u201cI want to open a brewery.\u201d I went to [the state} and said, \u201cHey, nobody knows about this but I want to know what I need to do, what the guidelines are.\u201d Closed-door meetings, very quiet operation on getting started. The problem that you get into when you\u2019re starting something like this is that people want to do advanced promotion for it and it just gives people time and opportunity to convene and be opposed you and speak at city council meetings, and it just takes longer. The only people who knew I was doing this, basically, was the people we had hired and our families, until we had our licenses in place, which was pretty hard to accomplish. Water Valley is a town that really understands factories \u2013 they\u2019ve got the poultry plant, Borg-Warner, Valley Tool, and Windsor Foods over in Oakland isn\u2019t in Water Valley but it\u2019s close enough that it\u2019s got some ties. I told them, \u201cWe\u2019re not making beer, I\u2019m bringing a factory to your town and I\u2019m going to be hiring your townspeople. Forget about what I\u2019m making.\u201d That\u2019s how I pitched it to them, and they accepted it. Zero opposition. Unanimous. The board approval took two days \u2013 and Lucky Town has been working for about two years on their deal in Jackson.<\/span><\/p>\n

What did they have to approve?<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

O\u2019Bryan:<\/b> Mainly, having a factory in downtown. They wanted to know the emissions and sounds and anything that could be offensive or hurt the downtown corridor. We already had data in hand when they asked for it. The national brewers\u2019 association we\u2019re all a part of was helped me a lot in getting that information together, and it was just perfect. They were happy that somebody was coming into a building that\u2019s been sitting here empty for almost a decade.<\/span><\/p>\n

It sounds like everything\u2019s growing pretty fast.<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Balzola:<\/b> We haven\u2019t quite reached that yet \u2013 but our capacity would be 540 kegs a week \u2013 if we\u2019re running on all cylinders, get the fermentations all where they need to be. That\u2019s 540 sixth barrels, so it\u2019s roughly 900 gallons per brew \u2013 2,700 to 3,000 gallons a week can be made here.<\/span><\/p>\n

O\u2019Bryan:<\/b> And we\u2019re adding to that. We\u2019re going to double that.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Kegs<\/a>In what timeframe?<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

O\u2019Bryan:<\/b> I need to do it immediately, but the supply chain for stainless steel tanks is not one of these where you can snap your fingers and order them. There are so many breweries opening in the United States every week, you just can\u2019t do that. My goal is, in the next four to six months, to double the capacity we have today; I think that is a realistic possibility. The first week, we rolled out 70 kegs, and now we\u2019re rolling out almost 200, so we\u2019ve increased a good bit already. But now we\u2019re getting to the point where we\u2019re going to have to start ordering those tanks.<\/span><\/p>\n

Balzola:<\/b> If this IPA got approved this week, we\u2019d have sent out about 350 kegs. But we\u2019ve got some more red tape sending it off and getting the ABV, and sending that to the state.<\/span><\/p>\n

O\u2019Bryan:<\/b> We do our own lab testing and we know between a very tight range of where they\u2019re going to land before we send it off, but the state requires independent lab results on all the products before we send them out to make sure we\u2019re within the law on ABV range. So there are only a few labs that do that, and then the state only takes it from a few of those.<\/span><\/p>\n

Do you have to send off each beer?<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Harvey:<\/b> Each style. We don\u2019t have to do it every time we brew, but the first time, we have to send off a sample for lab analysis. And they\u2019ll tell us the alcohol by volume, they\u2019ll tell you the IBUs \u2013 bitterness units, and that\u2019s basically what the government needs to see.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Tony<\/a>What are y\u2019all hoping to do here, now?<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Balzola:<\/b> We\u2019re going to try to be unique but not too crazy at first. Hopefully the sky\u2019s the limit from there. And we want our IPA to be unique, but it\u2019s going to be an IPA at the end of the day. And we just brewed an amber ale \u2013 my recipe was designed as an American amber ale but I\u2019m hoping when it comes out it\u2019s going to be a little bit different, a little more unique than other amber ales. Right now we\u2019re doing a milk stout on that pilot system. We\u2019re not sure yet until we get the final readings but hopefully it\u2019ll be about 8%. And we\u2019ll find a couple of bars in Oxford that are more beer-centric that we\u2019ll send a couple of kegs to. We\u2019ll get these whiskey barrels filled.<\/span><\/p>\n

How many different types of beers are you hoping to brew?<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

O\u2019Bryan:<\/b> Six to eight, the same ones year round. We\u2019ll have four to six other ones throughout the year that will be limited. Most of those will be barrel-aged editions.<\/span><\/p>\n

Where did thes\"Whiskey<\/a>e whiskey barrels come from?<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

O\u2019Bryan:<\/b> These are from Black Maple Hills. The next batch will come from Four Roses.<\/span><\/p>\n

What does aging in these barrels do to the taste of the beer?<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

O\u2019Bryan:<\/b> Each style you do will react differently, but a milk stout is going to be the first one. A milk stout on its own has a sweet, malty taste to it, almost akin to a chocolate milkshake; you put it in bourbon barrels and all of the sudden it\u2019s almost like it\u2019s got vanilla in it. I don\u2019t tell [Amos and Tony] what to do \u2013 they can do whatever they want. They have complete artistic control, but I pulled the owner card on this one; I told them the only thing I wanted them to do was to make a milk stout, and that I was ordering a bunch of bourbon barrels.<\/span><\/p>\n

What are you going to call it?<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

O\u2019Bryan:<\/b> I don\u2019t tell anybody our beer names until they\u2019re released. I will tell you what we\u2019re going to call the I.P.A. \u2013 it\u2019s going to be M.I.S.S.I.S.S.I.P.A. and it will be out next week. We\u2019re going to do another I.P.A., too. The one that\u2019s being introduced next week is incredibly balanced. I hope people will try it and give I.P.A.s another chance because a lot of I.P.A.s are just so bitter they kick you in the teeth, and they\u2019re just over the top. So this is a really balanced, low I.B.U. (International bitterness unit) beer \u2013 I think it came back at 78 I.B.U., and we\u2019re going to do another one that\u2019s more of the beer geek extreme-I.P.A. variety, which will be closer to the 90-100 I.B.U. level. The key to it is Tony\u2019s experience. We\u2019re leaning on him big time.<\/span><\/p>\n

Harvey:<\/b> The lab results [on the I.P.A.] say it\u2019s 6.05% alcohol by volume. It kind of finishes dry, as well. We\u2019re not looking to knock people\u2019s taste buds out or scare them away. We wanted something drinkable where you want to take another swig. It\u2019s like our River Ale, we wanted crisp and clean. We wanted something to be refreshing, not a huge beer that overpowers you or has too much flavor. It\u2019s a good mix of hops \u2013 German, English, and American mixture in there, but we paid specific attention to the malt balance. It\u2019s pretty balanced, and that\u2019s what we were going for. You can drink some beers, and they\u2019re all hops. The River Ale we brew tastes more refreshing than a regular big ale and it\u2019s because we brew it at a really low temperature, like a lager or a pilsner. We don\u2019t go that low, though \u2013 lagers and pilsners are at fifty degrees, and we do ours at about 65, or 64. It just makes it a drier finish and a cleaner beer. A big fat ale \u2013 and by that I mean that it lingers in your mouth and has a lot of flavors, a lot of malt \u2013 that you would do at like 72 degrees. It\u2019s just the nature of yeast, you can kind of train the yeast to ferment at a lower temperature and that\u2019s what we\u2019ve been doing.<\/span><\/p>\n

I remember when y\u2019all first opened, there was a ginger beer. Is that something you\u2019re continuing to do?<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Harvey:<\/b> We did a root beer for the Watermelon Carnival, and we were planning to do a ginger beer. But we\u2019ve had to put that on hold for right now to focus mainly on production. The Health Department wants to come in and control non-alcoholic beverages, and they don\u2019t belong in breweries; it\u2019s not their territory. I still make it at home, and I love it, and I want to figure out a way to do it, but unfortunately that\u2019s on the back burner for right now. What I want to do is ferment it, like for beer, but only for a short period of time \u2013 that way, you get the natural carbonation, but then you shut it off so you don\u2019t get the alcohol. But it may have a trace amount of alcohol in it \u2013 and that\u2019s where I want to go to the Health Department and say, \u201cThis is actually alcoholic, so you don\u2019t regulate us.\u201d But, again, there\u2019s so much focus on getting the beer out…<\/span><\/p>\n

O\u2019Bryan:<\/b> At the end of the day, our licenses give us the ability to make something not everybody can make; there\u2019s a lot of other [people] who can go out and make a root beer or a ginger beer, or a cream soda without the specifications we\u2019ve got. So why waste out time and licensing, our authority to do something like that.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"YaloBrew's<\/a>When are you thinking about starting to bottle your beer?<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Harvey:<\/b> We have a bottling line that was a Coca-Cola bottling line from the 50s. It was used by the Four Horsemen Brewing Company up until about two years ago, so it was their bottling line. But this needs a lot of love, there\u2019s a lot of pieces. So, I hope sooner than we thought, but not on this bottling line. There\u2019s actually a company out of Huntsville that\u2019s a mobile bottling unit; [other places] are way ahead of us on that. They basically drive up to you in a box truck, put their bottling machine in your facility, and bottle your beer and label it for you. It has yet to be negotiated, but we have found the guy who does it, and we just need to work out a deal. That would get us in gas stations and grocery stores, and other bars and restaurants that don\u2019t have drafts. And they have canning lines. I really want to can. Because you can take cans a lot more places, you can recycle them, and they stay colder. And the beer stays better longer because no light comes in. I know in some people\u2019s minds craft beer needs to be drunk out of glass, and I feel that way a little bit, too. But we\u2019ve got to grow out of that mindset. I\u2019d love to have a mobile canner. You\u2019re not supposed to take glass to swim in pools and stuff like that. And our cans and these other people\u2019s cans won\u2019t look like Budweiser.<\/span><\/p>\n

Every time we\u2019ve been into a bar to order River Ale, they\u2019re sold out. <\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Harvey:<\/b> Yeah. It\u2019s a great problem to have.<\/span><\/p>\n

O\u2019Bryan:<\/b> I hate disappointing people \u2013 I don\u2019t want somebody to drive all the way to town and go to their favorite spot, and them be out. We\u2019ve increased capacity already \u2013 we doubled capacity in our third week, and still sold out. So we\u2019re adding tanks aggressively, and the brewing schedule is putting a lot of pressure on these guys. But we\u2019re hiring people to help these guys out.<\/span><\/p>\n

Balzola:<\/b> If he could legally do it, he\u2019d drive kegs out to all the places that ran out that morning, but he can\u2019t do that.<\/span><\/p>\n

Anything you want t\"Close-up<\/a>o say to folks carrying your beer?<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

O\u2019Bryan:<\/b> Oxford\u2019s been great. There are so many brands out there they can choose from, but they obviously want to push Mississippi local product. What will really be interesting is when we roll out the I.P.A., how many people will pick up two? A lot of places are small and only have enough taps for one of each style, or one [from each brewery], or whatever. So I\u2019m really hoping that in our own backyard people will pick up and have multiple styles from us.<\/span><\/p>\n

Do you think there\u2019s room for more breweries?<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

O\u2019Bryan:<\/b> Absolutely. I\u2019d love for another one to open, and I will do everything I can to help them \u2013 pay it forward. I\u2019ve had all these people helping me, to give me my start here, [helping me learn] how to run it, who to deal with in the industry. And not just the Mississippi guys \u2013Linus Hall who owns Yazoo Brewing Company has been an incredible help.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"LineSimple_3pxby700px\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Click thumbnail below to view a PDF of the “Mississippi Beer Trail” Brochure.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Miss<\/a><\/p>\n

\"LineSimple_3pxby700px\"<\/a><\/p>\n