Submitted by Melissa Howsam — Correspondent
Hopping to the head of the craft-brewer class, Fullsteam Brewery is the state’s newest pint-plowing pupil. Cultivating its first commercial batch this summer with a focus on farm-to-land (and till to tongue), the brewery began digging up a crop of daring drafty darlings and planting countryside in a cup with their Plow to Pint series in July — a little “Summer Basil” to be enjoyed on the average “Working Man’s Lunch.” And for the less adventurous, a few easy-drinking true-to-style session beers with the Workers’ Compensation series.
Crafted by founder Sean Lilly Wilson, the brewery popped the cap on their public house August 13, the un-coincidental five-year anniversary of the genesis of grassroots lobbying organization Pop the Cap. With Wilson serving as president, they were responsible for modernizing our state’s rather horse-and-buggy beer laws by lifting the 6 percent limit on the amount of alcohol allowed in beer brewed and sold in-state to 15 percent and effectively bringing the restrictive “Hogwash” to a halt.
Taking those grassroots initiatives full-steam ahead, the budding brewer isn’t so green when it comes to spicing up the status quo and revolutionizing the way we think of (and drink) beer — from brewing with basil and sweet potatoes, to packing the “Working Man’s Lunch” with a nostalgic nod to the Southern RC Cola and MoonPie snack.
We recently caught up with ale-aficionado Wilson to pick his brain on this crafty balancing act of harvesting not-so-garden-variety sips with staying power. And how with stout resolve and some goodness you can graze on, these heady homegrown brews are brimming with Southern charm — sowing savory, sustainable sips to the mouth of the south and putting North Carolina’s name on the craftiest of brew maps.
Q: What do you think has spurred the beer revolution that NC, and particularly the Triangle, has experienced in the last few years?
As the North Carolina Brewers Guild puts it, we are "the state of Southern beer." Why? Many reasons, but three main ones come to mind. One, a population that gets it. It's the "drink local/eat local" movement and a critical mass of people who like good beer. Two, good beer laws. Without the 6 percent ABV restriction, North Carolina is a great state to start a brewery. Breweries can self-distribute, serve beer on Sundays and sell beer on-site right at the brewery, and many Southern states don't have this freedom—which explains NC’s 24 breweries to Georgia’s four. Three, innovators and pioneers. North Carolina has had a strong beer culture for a number of years, with brewery leaders like Oscar Wong from Highland Brewing Company and UIi Bennewitz from Weeping Radish leading the charge decades ago. The Triangle is also home to “All About Beer Magazine” and the World Beer Festival. And we have great beer bars and restaurants, led by proprietors like Tyler Huntington (owner of Tyler's Taproom), who's had a decade-long commitment to craft beer.
Q: How does Fullsteam fit into the snowballing market for homegrown brews and still maintain a distinct identity?
North Carolina is home to 40 breweries and brewpubs; so founding brewer Chris Davis and I knew how important it'd be to not just be another "pale ale/porter/brown"-type brewery. We were really excited about what it meant to be a Southern brewery — posing the question, "In a parallel world, what if the South had a long and great history of beer-making? What would that look like?" In essence, what is Southern beer?
We've spent the last three years planning the brewery and making test batches to explore this concept. In that time, we've brewed beer with parsnips, basil, persimmons, scuppernong grapes, sweet potatoes, paw paws and corn grits—to name a few. We also make traditional beers like Rocket Science India Pale Ale and our flagship lager, Fullsteam Southern Lager. But I think we'll be known for our mad-science experimentation, which I'd like to think is a far cry from the traditional pale ale/porter/brown.
Q: Fullsteam's mission is to craft a Southern beer identity and style that celebrates the culinary and agricultural heritage of the South. How does that process work and how do the products reflect that?
We want to work with local ingredients. Barley and hops aren't grown here, though; at least not commercially for beer. Not yet. So, for now, we work a lot with adjuncts: fermentables other than barley that impart unique flavor components to our beer. Take, for example, our Carver Sweet Potato Lager. Each batch of Carver uses 500 pounds of North Carolina sweet potatoes — one-third of the base fermentables. That's 500 pounds we're not bringing in from Europe or the Great Northern Plains; it's farmed right here in North Carolina.
We’re also working with several farmers and researchers to test out local barley and hops. Our dream is that our flagship beer, Fullsteam, will someday be brewed with 100 percent local ingredients. Right now, it's 0 percent local. But with new strains and advances in farm science, we truly believe we can make excellent beer with local ingredients. Prior to Prohibition, North Carolina was a center of hops production. There's every reason in the world to believe commercial hops will return to North Carolina in my lifetime.
Q: Your venue is unique to a brewery concept in its emphasis on the barroom and live music. How did the company's mission factor into this venue concept?
Our event space is like an indoor beer garden and tavern. Someone told me last week that it felt like a basement rec room, which made me proud. We've got ping pong, a freakin' Baywatch pinball game, a stage with a '70s electric organ and picnic tables galore. Our Fullsteam R&D tavern has some neat elements, like the shadow boxes built into the bar that are all made with items from down-the-block neighbors The Scrap Exchange. I wanted to create a space that the community would call their own, for locals to gather and for groups to celebrate. We have music, of course, but we've also hosted everything from craft markets to bad movies, A/V Geeks films and the Durham Cinematheque; a vintage lingerie fashion show and vintage scooter rally; informal church gatherings; a moms night out and a dads-and-toddlers gathering; wedding receptions and neighborhood potlucks.
To borrow a phrase from a friend of mine, there's a "power to the public house" that we've somehow lost in modern America. The tavern is where revolutions begin; arguably, it's where and how our country was founded. I want Fullsteam to be a home for everyone — the revolutionists, and those who just want to relax.
Q: How would you define the inspiration behind and craft of your Plow to Pint series?
We have such great agricultural traditions here in North Carolina — why not celebrate what grows here? This verdant land produces a year's worth of sweet potatoes, seasonal fruits that are gone within a week and amazing heirloom grains. Historically, beer has been brewed with local ingredients honoring local traditions. It's only been within the past 60 years that beer has been seen as homogeneous in color and in taste. For the past three generations, the American understanding of "beer" has been defined and driven by corporations seeking efficiency through monotony. But that empire is crumbling. At Fullsteam, we want to push the envelope on what it means to brew locally. It's a bit of mad science that's not bound to tradition or style. Instead, we're creating a new tradition of brewing in the South. And when we brew with local goods, we're directly paying (and supporting) local farmers. That's a great feeling and an inspiration in and of itself.
Q: You make beer people should want to drink. And food that it pairs especially well with. Tell us a little about that.
That's a great point. It's one thing to be a mad scientist, but the real challenge is to make beer people want to drink regularly. That's why Carver (our sweet potato beer) doesn't taste like pie. It barely even tastes like sweet potatoes. There's no nutmeg or cinnamon or clove in the beer. It's just a solid, clean, easy-drinking lager that happens to be brewed with 500 pounds of local sweet potatoes per batch. I have no problem with the fact that you don't necessarily taste the sweet potatoes, because first and foremost, it tastes like beer. The fact that it's partially brewed with local ingredients is just a nice bonus. Now that's not always the case. We want you to taste the hickory-smoke in our Hogwash smoked porter, and the basil in our Summer Basil Farmhouse Ale. But Chris and Brooks, our brewers, are always striving for subtlety, nuance and balance. Quirky-yet-balanced. It'd be too easy for our venture to turn into a novelty act, like the Cracker Barrel of beer.
You may not like every beer Fullsteam makes. But beer isn't monolithic and one-dimensional. Because if you don't like a particular beer, it's almost certain that there's one for you. You might not care for the roasty-ness of Working Man's, but you dig the vibrant flavors of Summer Basil. Or, you might think all of this radical Southern Ag brewing is stupid, and you just want a "beer beer." Guess what? We've got that, too: our El Toro Cream Ale. Which just happens to be brewed with North Carolina corn grits.
Q: What harvests can we look forward to from Fullsteam?
We just finished brewing First Frost, a 9 percent ABV winter warmer brewed with 75 pounds of Chatham County persimmons. We're thrilled to serve First Frost at our Fearrington House beer dinner on February 20th. That's going to be an amazing evening.
