Shooting Creek Brewery

BLOOD, SWEAT AND BEERS:

According to local gossip…..

• Shooting Creek Farm Brewery, a rural artisanal farm brewery, will be ready to open its doors officially in June in Floyd County. The brewery will be a part of progressive tasting and food-pairing event co-sponsored by surrounding wineries, a cider house and a meadery at www.blueridgewinetrail.com. The event will be held June 14, and 15th, as well as August 2 and 3rd, 2008.

• Brett and Ray have been working on the brewery project and researching the drinks industry for over three years. Brett, an organic farmer and agronomist, is originally from Maine and Ray, who is a artist and educator, is from Texas. We came from opposite ends of the country and met in the middle, Floyd naturally, and the opportunity presented itself. We initially had big ideas like most of us, but we settled on starting out small on a shoestring budget for a fraction of what the big boys do. The brewery concept has taken on a life of it’s own –everything is coming together organically and the community is very supportive, it’s infectious, and folks want to be part of it.

• They will be featuring a product line of Handmade American Farmhouse Beer and American Farmhouse Gourmet Sodas. The brew recipes are made from scratch and much of the operation will be similar to what was done over a hundred years ago in the industry-very traditional and authentic.

• We orginally started out brewing our recipes on a 10- gallon pilot system in Brett’s Barn and giving away batches to friends and neighbors – there were some cold days in the wintertime when we brewed our test batches.

• It will be first farm brewery to open in Southwest Virginia – they would hope to encourage more microbreweries around the region to open –it’s about brewer’s brotherhood. We like to call it “beer terroir”.

• We are probably the smallest microbrewery in Virginia, if not the United States; We like to call ourselves a “mini-micro” brewery.

• The building structure and brewery were handbuilt by family and friends – “much like a barn raising” -equipment consists of used dairy equipment coming from local farmers.

• It’s a humble operation, “mom and pop outfit”, we didn’t outsource our business to outside investors, microbrewery consultants, corporate marketeers, paid focus groups, or big companies – everything about the brewery, we did ourselves.

• It has a tasting room and there will be tours of the modest brewhouse.
• According to historical records, we will be one of the first “legal” manufacturers of grain alcohol in Floyd County history.

• And in closing, Some locals have said that we fell off the wagon and ended up opening up a brewery just to keep our own personal supplies stocked.

• How does the sweet nectar taste? Come find out in June….

Welcome folks to our brewsblog here at the brewery. We will be talking a little bit about our brewery and products that we are making on the farm. We will also feature and talk with different folks around our community in Southwest Virginia. So sit back, relax and have a brew…