Know the News - Local brewery trends in Northwest Arkansas

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Something is brewing in northwest Arkansas, and we're here to give you all the details. Welcome to this installment of know the news. I'm your host, Chris Swindle. I have with me Lydia Fletcher, reporter for the Northwest Arkansas Democrat Gazette. She's writing a story about brewery trends in northwest Arkansas and the river valley that is set to publish this weekend. Lydia, welcome. [00:00:30] Speaker B: Hi. Thanks for having me. [00:00:32] Speaker A: So can you walk us through the process you've taken trying to look into trends in local breweries and what that reporting process has just been like? [00:00:40] Speaker B: Yeah. So ironically enough, they put one of the reporters who, one, doesn't drink and two, is allergic to gluten on this story, and beer is essentially liquid gluten. So I did the majority of my research online, most of my interviews through phone calls, but, you know, got to visit a couple places, which was an interesting experience we can get into later. But I realized so many of my friends are, you know, going out to tap rooms, breweries, they talk about all these craft drinks, and I'm like, what are these? Why are you going to these places? And the more I looked, you know, the more I saw smaller towns in northwest Arkansas were getting breweries. You know, Elkins gravitational highful of all places. You know, there are barely any neighborhoods there, and they now have a brewery. And I thought that was really interesting because these are usually found in cities. So I just started doing some digging to seeing why this was happening. [00:01:36] Speaker A: What is your research thus far? And I realize that's not done, but thus far, as you're looking into these trends, what have you learned in terms of how many breweries we have and whether that number is great, growing, staying stagnant, or declining. [00:01:52] Speaker B: So Arkansas is kind of a bright spot. We actually had more beer produced in 2022, like per capita compared to a lot of other states in the US, which I thought was interesting. Arkansas alone has 66 registered breweries. Now, this isn't home breweries. This isn't someone making beer in their backyard. This is a business registered through the alcohol beverage control division, and 37 of those are within northwest Arkansas or the river valley. So we have over half of the number of breweries in Arkansas in a 12th county concentration, which I thought was really interesting. [00:02:29] Speaker A: With so much competition, the people you've spoken to, what have they said about how they're trying to make themselves stand out, really differentiate what they do from what other people do? [00:02:39] Speaker B: I think some of it goes into business philosophy. You know, some of them want to just slow down, have a rural community. You know, we went out to orthodox farmhouse brewing earlier today. And they definitely have more focus on the agrarian lifestyle, more knowing everything that's put into the drink, knowing where it came from. And others maybe want to be a little more trendy, maybe have, you know, a flashy ipa or, you know, kind of trendy drinks. And then overall, they wanted this family friendly, community driven atmosphere. That's something I've found. Every single brewery I've talked to, they have a section where kids can come play, or they welcome your kids to join you. Dogs on the patio, you know, very much a come out for the whole day. We have something for everyone. [00:03:32] Speaker A: I think a lot of these places, it seems like they're not geared towards come here and get hammered, get drunk beyond, you know, recognition, come out here, have a drink, and enjoy a little bit of community at the same time. [00:03:46] Speaker B: Absolutely. A lot of these places kind of have drifted away from the first trend that happened when breweries were opening, where they would have these beers with high alcohol contents. People are there to have a good time, maybe not remember the entire time, and move on. And now they're going for lower alcohol content, they're going for smoother drinks, less bitterness. You know, they're definitely changing how they brew based on the consumer. And so one of the breweries I talked to, Fayetteville Beerworks, their owner, used to own and operate a brewery in Colorado where a lot of the beer, like, boom happened in the early 2000 teens. And then he moved out here and he was like, yeah, the consumer completely changed, and the consumer grew up with the product, you know? Sure, they were in their thirties where having a higher beverage, alcohol content was something they wanted. Now they're in their forties, they want to date with their kids. [00:04:51] Speaker A: Yeah. The older you get, the more too many drinks can result in quite a bad headache the next day, and nobody wants that. So, speaking of Farmhouse brewery, orthodox farmhouse brewery, where we went to out here in Washington, rural County, they talked about leaning into the agrarian and community aspects, and we shot a little video out there. So take a look at what they had to say. [00:05:15] Speaker C: Hi, y'all. I'm out here with Ashlyn Ganyon of orthodox farmhouse brewery. She's gonna show us around this space. Just a quick question. So y'all have been out here about a year in April. And your husband Jesse, he has a background in brewing, correct? Can you explain a little bit about that? [00:05:36] Speaker D: Yeah. So Jesse's been brewing professionally for eleven years now. This, you know, our brewery is officially his fourth brewery that he's been at. But Ozark Beer company. He was the first brewer hired there alongside Andy and Lacy, and so he kind of got to help to bring that up. And then, you know, we skipped a couple years ahead, and here we are. [00:05:56] Speaker C: And he's a man of many talents. You said he also built all this by hand, all these structures out here. So in addition to brewing, we're building, too. I'm excited to take a look. The outside is amazing. So can we look inside? [00:06:09] Speaker D: Yeah, let's go inside. Come on in. Jesse is a craftsman of many talents, so he is both a craftsman in the beer arena and also has a lot of carpentry background and skills. His parents were main boat builders, and so he comes by it very naturally. So you can look around and see. We were talking about that barn out there. All of the Barnwood that you see in here is coming from that barn. And this is all, you know, Ozarks cedar, red cedar that we have along the sides. This was milled right here in Arkansas. Yeah. [00:06:48] Speaker C: And it's gorgeous. And you've got. So you have your merchandise over here. You sell some t shirts and hats, it looks like. [00:06:55] Speaker D: Yes, yes. [00:06:56] Speaker C: And then back here, you've got your setup where you have your various beers. How many beers do you tend to have on tap? [00:07:02] Speaker D: So we. It fluctuates every week. And so we have a seven barrel system. We have one person in production. And so you kind of never know what's going to happen week to week. But we try to keep anywhere between, like, five to eight on any time that you're out here. [00:07:15] Speaker C: And y'all are very adamant about changing it up, not sticking to one kind of beer. Right? [00:07:21] Speaker D: Yeah. So we, you know, part of that's just a part of necessity. It's our size. You know, we have belgian farmhouse style beers is a lot of our emphasis. So you'll taste several beers that are within that genre, but we're always rotating those. So we don't have any, like, flagships. These are here all the time. We're sending out thousands of cans. That's not our model at all. And so you're going to be always trying something new when you're out here. With the exception of orthodox white is one that we always have on. That's our belgian wit. And so if we did have a flagship, I suppose that's the one that would be considered that. [00:07:55] Speaker C: And was that the first beer that y'all crafted? [00:07:58] Speaker D: Yeah. So it wasn't. Yeah, it was one of the first beers that we brewed. We had it on an opening, but mostly it was kind of the beer that started Jesse's love of beer was a belgian wit. And so he tasted that beer, was inspired by it many, many, many years ago, and has known, you know, if ever he was opening his own brewery, he wanted to brew an excellent belgian wit. And so, yeah, it's important to us and sentimental in those ways, for sure. [00:08:25] Speaker C: I'd like to look around at some of the outside spaces, because a big part of what y'all do here, in addition to having this tasting room area and all the different kind of beers, is that you try to create a community space outside. Is that right? [00:08:37] Speaker D: Absolutely. Yeah. So we're on our taproom grounds. You know, we're on about two acres over here, and this is just a wonderful space for people, you know, throughout the weekends and all of our business hours, particularly when it's beautiful weather, this is just packed full of people enjoying the space, sitting under those big shade trees, looking out at the fields, watching gorgeous sunsets. And so this is a really important part of our space, for sure. [00:09:04] Speaker A: All right. [00:09:04] Speaker C: You want to walk out there and. [00:09:05] Speaker A: Take a look at it? [00:09:06] Speaker D: Yeah, let's take a look. Yeah. So this is our outdoor space. We have these beautiful, you know, we're surrounded by walnuts and maples and oak trees that provide much needed shade to these Arkansas summers. We have this kind of iconic windmill, which is a part of the property. You know, when we first came on the property, it was actually still attempting to pump that trough out. There has been filled in, and that's where a lot of we, you know, affectionately call that the dirt trough. It's where lots of children like to play, but that was an old watering trough. And then kind of the backdrop to our whole outdoor space is this beautiful barn. This is the Caldwell barn, and this is an incredibly old barn. She's been standing for over 100 years now. And we have kind of used this barn as a backdrop to this whole space and also kind of hearkening back to that acknowledgement of the rural ozarks. It'll be a very sad day when that barn comes down, but we hope to restore her and kind of build back in the footprint of that barn, using as much of the original materials as possible. [00:10:16] Speaker C: And you were saying that some of that material you've used already inside for, like, flight serving trays, things like that. [00:10:25] Speaker D: So if you have a flight in there to taste that your flight trays have been made from, you know, this is Ozarks white Oak that's been aged for 100 years. So you'll feel the heft of that. That is a heavy flight board, and that's not just because we're wanting you to flex your muscles as you're walking out with that. That's just Ozark's oak. It is heavy and comes straight from that barn. So a little piece of history you're holding in your hands while you're drinking that beer. [00:10:50] Speaker C: And you were saying that some of the wood out there was used to create a barrel that you used for a specific beer. You want to talk a little bit about that? [00:11:00] Speaker D: Yeah. So, for our one year anniversary, we did a really special beer that we called Colwell, and that was in reference to the Caldwell family. So it's kind of an interesting story. In the Goshen cemetery, the Methodist cemetery, there's, like, four different spellings of the name Caldwell. And that's because back then, you know, spelling and literacy were all very different. It was all the same family. But we named the beer Colwell because that was one of the representations made. And what it was was, you know, in traditional barrel aging, you have a barrel made out of oak that has had some sort of spirit inside of it. When that spirit, spirit is out, you're adding your beer to it and then letting that age and impart flavor over a certain amount of time. We kind of reverse engineered that. We went and we got Ozark's white oak from this barn. We took it down. We refined it down to kind of its original porous material. We hand toasted it, and then we soaked that in Bourbon, and then added those staves directly to our belgian triple, let that age. And then the resulting beer was a, you know, essentially Ozark's white oak barrel, aged only. It was, you know, a deconstructed barrel. [00:12:07] Speaker C: And such a unique beer like that is a one of a kind beer right there. I don't know of anywhere else you're going to find that beer. [00:12:15] Speaker D: Yes. Truly, when you talk about. People talk about terroir so much less in craft beer than they do in wine or in even spirits like scotch. But that is one of the most incredible examples of terroir in beer, in that this beer is entirely connected to this property, this place, and that barn is actually imparting flavor into our beer. It was incredible, and we're really excited to make more of it. [00:12:43] Speaker C: And on this space here, you know, you're talking about the community aspect of what you're doing here. You guys have a potluck here on Wednesdays, you do things with the farmers market. On Saturdays. I've seen from your instagram, you have people coming out here and playing music. You get food trucks out here sometimes. How important is it to have a communal aspect for what you're trying to do out here? [00:13:11] Speaker D: It is the most important thing to us. And so we did not want to come out here and just make beer. We are really passionate about beer and want to make the very best beer that we can. And also the connection and community and hospitality is just as important to our experience and our product, because this space and the people within it and the hospitality experience is the vessel in which people experience our beer. And so the community connection out here, through the farmers market, through musicians, through. We have a gravel cycling group that comes out here and rides once a week as well. And then just an entire group of regulars that are always out here enjoying this space. It's incredibly important, and it's a part of, I feel like, what taprooms and breweries have been doing for hundreds and hundreds of years. They connect people. [00:14:05] Speaker A: We're gonna take a quick break. Stay with us. [00:14:07] Speaker E: If you're enjoying this podcast, consider a newspaper subscription to the Northwest Arkansas Democrat Gazette or the River Valley Democrat Gazette. We have a special offer for our podcast listeners, so visit nwa online.com nwapodcast to get started. You can also click the subscribe button on our websites, nWA online.com and river valleydemocrategazette.com. or call us at 479-684-5509 and be sure to say that you're a podcast listener. Now back to the show. [00:14:38] Speaker A: Lydia, have you come across any information or concepts that you found surprising or just enlightening as you were doing these interviews and this research? [00:14:47] Speaker B: Yeah. So I think there are two. There is some with the brewing side of things. You know, I didn't know how long it can take. I didn't know how much equipment you need to make some of these large batches to distribute out. You know, Fossil Cove Brewery, very well known name around here, is a Fayetteville based brewery. They do frost fest every year. They only distribute in northwest Arkansas. So they don't have a distribution company. They only distribute as far as their drivers can go. And for us, Fossil Cove is like a very well known name. That's something at least I know as a non drinker. I was like, oh, yeah, Fossil Cove. That's a very well known brewery. Yet if you ask someone about it from outside of northwest Arkansas, they may look at you and be like, what's that? We've never heard of it. And I thought that was intriguing. Just because it is very well known to, like, the college age crowd. You know, I'm a recent grad, so that's kind of. People knew about Fossil Cove, at least. And then on a more personal side of things, I found out having a gluten allergy can definitely cause some hiccups in reporting. So I was at a local brewery, and I got a tour of the brewer side rather than the taproom side, and started having an allergic reaction about an hour afterwards. And it's not anaphylactic, so I have what's called celiac disease. It's the autoimmune version of a gluten allergy. So instead of your typical anaphylaxis hives, I have brain fog, dizziness, temperature, dysregulation issues. Pretty much every type of symptom where you just want to curl up in bed and not move. And so after the interview, I noticed I wasn't feeling too well. Called Lisa, our editor in chief, and I was like, you know, is there any way I can work from home? Because there's definitely a reaction. And she allowed me to, and I definitely was not feeling well for about three or four days. But, you know, we've bounced back, and I made all my interviews remote and explained to my sources. I was like, I'm so sorry. You know, I'm not willing to, but we're gonna get someone out there who can. And so that's why we sent Chris to orthodox farmhouse to do the interior tour, while I could see the outside and everything. And I didn't know you could have airborne reactions like that with celiac. I've only had one other in my life. My uncle was frying chicken in the same kitchen I was in, and the flour aerosolized. But I thought, okay, yeah, you know, I'm in such close contact with loose flour, rather than being in a big brewery room. But malt, barley, wheat, spelt, pretty much all the things you put in beer all contained gluten. So I just didn't think it through, and we made it work. [00:17:34] Speaker A: I think it shows you were willing to get the job done no matter what you had to do. But I'm glad we got you out of that situation. As soon as we realized it was going to be a problem, we didn't plan this, but you gave me the perfect segue here. So one thing that I found surprising was that when we were there at orthodox farmhouse, they let me try a flight of their beers, and one of them was a trapelle. I've had trapels in the past. I've never been particularly blown away by them. This was a delicious drink. So check it out. [00:18:09] Speaker C: All right, so we're going to try some of the orthodox farmhouse brewery beers here. I have a white, a trapel, a worst day, and a stout. And I appreciate the name of wash day, because that's how my mother says wash. [00:18:26] Speaker D: Yes. Yes, we named. That's how my grandparents say wash. And so that is a nice, light german hellas. It is meant to be used in drank throughout any time of day. So we always said that'll help you get through your chores. [00:18:40] Speaker C: All right, so I'll start over here at the white, and we'll just go across. And this was the first one that y'all made. And this is. If you had a flagship, this would be it. [00:18:50] Speaker D: Yeah. So this is a belgian whit. So this is a belgian wheat beer that is brewed with bitter orange and coriander. So it is light. It is really refreshing. It has a little bit of that citrus in it. And then you are probably going to be tasting a lot of that. Some of that belgian yeast strain, which some people will say is going to taste a little bit clovey. Definitely some subtle spice in there. And that you will also probably pick up some of that in the triple as well as that's another belgian beer. [00:19:18] Speaker C: It is really light. I could see drinking this hot summer day outside. This would be a great beer, a great beer to have if you were out fishing on a boat, anything like that. It does have a little bit of that spice to it that I associate with. I mean, I don't want to compare it to too many big name brands or anything, anything like that. But I guess similar to, like, what people might find in a blue moon or something like that. Yeah, blue moon or a shock top. But this, there's a difference here. It's not so heavy on the orange, I think. [00:19:49] Speaker D: Yeah. If someone walks in, they're completely unfamiliar with craft beer. And I'm trying to describe, what is this beer like? I'll ask, have you ever had a blue moon? Almost everyone will say yes. And I'll say, okay, that's a belgian wit. So you're familiar with the style. You're just gonna try it, you know, made little differently. [00:20:05] Speaker C: All right, I'm going to move on and try out the triple. I've had trapels before, but I'm not super. I can't really remember what it was like. I'm not super familiar with them. So what am I getting into here? [00:20:19] Speaker D: Yeah, so the belgian triple is definitely going to be a little. It's going to be higher alcohol. It's going to be a bigger beer. It means it's going to have kind of more in the mouth feel. You're going to be tasting some of that sweetness. You're gonna obviously be tasting that higher alcohol content. It's gonna be a little maltier, but you're also gonna have some really interesting, you know, you can smell and taste aromas of fruit, of spice, and that is definitely coming through with some of that belgian yeast as well, but totally different drinking experience than the white. [00:20:49] Speaker C: Oh, that's delicious. Yes, that's delicious. That's, like, fruity and malty at the same time. That is the perfect combination. [00:20:57] Speaker D: Yeah. So you're getting some of that sweetness. So for people who are like, listen, I drink fruit beer, but if I didn't have one of my fruited beers on that day, I would say, let's try the belgian triple, just because it has so much of that natural kind of stone fruit coming out and characteristic that often people are really, really interested in it. [00:21:15] Speaker C: What is the fruit that goes into this? [00:21:17] Speaker D: So there is no fruit in it. So this is just imparted from the. The yeast and the malt. You're getting some of that. It's that sweetness that's coming through from the malt. [00:21:27] Speaker C: That is amazing. Yeah, that is amazing, because I would swear that there was a fruit in there. [00:21:31] Speaker D: Yes, that's that good. [00:21:33] Speaker C: It's almost like berry. [00:21:34] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:21:38] Speaker C: Oh, that's dangerous. [00:21:40] Speaker D: I could get in trouble with that. It could get you in trouble. [00:21:43] Speaker C: I can get in trouble with that. [00:21:45] Speaker A: All right. [00:21:46] Speaker C: To change it up here, the wash. [00:21:48] Speaker D: Day, the worst day. So this is our lager. So, you know, lagers ferment at a lower temperature. And so that means that this is gonna be fermenting in our tanks at a lower temperature for at least a month, if not more, from the time that we brew. And so it's gonna be incredibly smooth. It's got some of that multi sweetness. We say hellas is a beer drinkers beer. And so, yeah, see what you think. [00:22:16] Speaker C: That is very smooth. It's almost like drinking water. [00:22:19] Speaker D: Yeah, it's too smooth. It's too smooth. [00:22:24] Speaker C: Not really. I mean, either one of these would be amazing on a hot day for a refreshing drink when you're wanting something that provides kind of that sense of relief from the heat. [00:22:39] Speaker D: Absolutely. [00:22:39] Speaker C: And rehydrating like that. That's the drink. [00:22:43] Speaker D: The worst day is what I'm drinking now as well. And that hellas is it's just phenomenal. It's such a good summer beer. It's what we also use in our radler, which is a traditional german cycling beer. And so it is half hellas lager. It is half lemonade, and we are putting that on next week. But it is an incredibly refreshing, slightly sweet, lemony beer. Lower alcohol content, obviously. [00:23:08] Speaker C: I could see this. I have some friends who are very into craft beers and some friends who are not so much into craft beers. Yeah, they want their basic american style lager. [00:23:18] Speaker D: Yes. [00:23:19] Speaker C: I can see them enjoying this, even though it is not just a basic american style lager. There's more going on here than just that because I do taste the malt, and there's something else happening there, definitely, when you drink it. But I could see them still enjoying it that it probably wouldn't have that with ipas, for instance, you know, just super sour. And I think for people who aren't used to drinking craft beers, they get something like that and they just don't know what to do with it. Too much. [00:23:44] Speaker D: Too much. [00:23:45] Speaker C: Yeah, this would be an easy drink. [00:23:47] Speaker D: Yeah, ipas definitely have more of that bitterness from the hops. And, you know, lagers are going to definitely have that smooth characteristic. And if somebody came in and, like I said, unfamiliar with craft beer, a lot of people say, what's the lightest thing you've got? This would be a really good beer to introduce them to and say, why don't you try a german hellas and see what you think about that? And suddenly they're really enjoying a craft beer that they may not have ever known before. And so that's really a cool experience. [00:24:14] Speaker C: All right. And then I think you did this because I told you beforehand, I do tend to trend towards the maltier beers, the richer beers. And so I got a stout here. [00:24:24] Speaker D: Yes. So this is just a nice american stout. So unlike, you know, a lot of stouts that you may experience in craft beer, this is not a big, heavy, you know, boozy stout. Hello, Jasper, our brewery. [00:24:39] Speaker C: Hi, there. You are. Welcome. You're absolutely welcome to come join us. [00:24:44] Speaker D: You can set him down. He is the official mouser of the brewery, but he likes to come visit people as well. [00:24:50] Speaker C: I would not put down this adorable cat. [00:24:52] Speaker D: I mean, we can. So it's really fine. [00:24:55] Speaker C: No, no. [00:24:56] Speaker D: I don't know how that goes across. [00:24:57] Speaker C: I love cats. All right, so, yeah, I was smelling it, and so this is like, almost like coffee. [00:25:04] Speaker D: Yeah. So coffee, chocolatey, roasty, but it's not super heavy. And so you're gonna be able to drink this all year round. We have people that want this stout in the summer as much as they do in the winter. It's just nice and light on the palate while still having that stout gear. [00:25:17] Speaker C: I see what you mean. Yeah, it does. It does go down really smooth. It's not. It's not syrupy. [00:25:24] Speaker A: It's not. [00:25:25] Speaker D: Yeah, it's not like thick, like milkshake y in your mouth. You know, this doesn't have lactose in it. So a lot of people are doing milk stouts. This is just a traditional stout. And so again, you're not getting some of that. Yeah. Milky milkshakey that you would get if we added lactose to that. [00:25:39] Speaker C: It is. It is smooth, it's easy to drink, and it's got that. That maltiness that I really like in a beer. Just toasty. [00:25:48] Speaker D: Yeah. Yeah. Warm you up. [00:25:50] Speaker A: Lydia, do you have any final thoughts before we cut this off and preview our upcoming work for the week? [00:25:55] Speaker B: You know, I think there was something so interesting about all of these businesses advocating for supporting local, you know, they all talked about where, whether you're a tourist coming in or you're someone who lives in this community, that by supporting local breweries, you can try really interesting drinks, you know, maybe break some of your preconceived notions and just help kind of grow the local economy, especially in some of these, like, smaller developing communities. [00:26:24] Speaker A: Well, thank you so much for your time. I can't wait to read your article. [00:26:27] Speaker B: Thank you. [00:26:28] Speaker A: In other news coming soon, Stacy Ryburn looks at student housing options and upcoming developments in Fayetteville. Thomas Sicente tells us about the impacts of recent storms on outdoor facilities in Bentonville. Tracy Neal looks at the way those same storms affected hunger relief organizations in northwest Arkansas. Campbell Roper will write about a survey tool that was developed in the wake of the storms to help the city of Rogers assess storm impacts in the river valley. Sadie Lacicero tells us about a woman who is painting portraits of dogs available for adoption to help animal shelters dealing with overcrowding. Monica Brick previews the upcoming food truck festival in Fort Smith. In what's Up, Becca Martin Brown writes about the upcoming Arkansas Philharmonic swing classics performance and Monica Hooper interviews a personal favorite, Ray Wiley Hubbard, while also previewing live music coming up in the region. All this and more is available in our print and replica editions and online at NWA online.com and rivervalleydemocratgazette.com Dot know the news is a weekly podcast of the Northwest Arkansas Democrat Gazette and the River Valley Democrat Gazette. Thank you for supporting local journalism, and as always, we'll see you next time.