Saturday, June 30, 2012

"Burnette's Fresh Hop Beer Is Coming to Pisgah Brewing

Cascade hops
Not all of our hops were harvested last Monday, June 25, but enough were added along with my friend Josh of OB Joyful Farm Hops, who also added the last of his Chinook's to the boil. 

To form a "fresh hopped beer", or "wet hopped beer" the hops have to be harvested and added to the boil within 12 hours for optimum flavor. This is Pisgah Brewing's 3rd year of producing this beer, called "Burnettes Fresh Hop Beer", from my hops and, in the past two years a couple of other Western North Carolina hop growers have added to it.

Last year Blue Ridge Hops added their organic hops to the brew and it was a smashing success as Pisgah where they increased the addition of 5 more pounds of fresh hops.  This year, OB Joyful added their flavor of Chinooks to the boil. 
Nugget hops
 I sampled this beer yesterday from the fermentation tank and let me tell you---IT IS GOOD!  Hats off to their head brewer Ryan.  Next week or so it will be released.  Be there in line, it will not last more than two weeks!  No where else in the Asheville area will you be able to taste a "wet hopped" beer, except at Highlands Brewery where they are experimenting with their first batch of this one of a kind process.

Our annual Hop Harvest tour is tentatively scheduled for July 21 at 1pm.  Here you will be able to sample the beer from Pisgah and learn about growing hops.  Later, I will direct you to Pisgah Brewing Company to sample more of their products.

We are putting in another batch of fresh hops in about two weeks.  I will be adding Blue Ridge Hops and hops from the NCSU Experimental Research Station in Arden to Pisgah to put in their next batch of "Burnettes Fresh Hop Beer".

Be sure to keep up with all of the upcoming local hops additions to our vibrant Western North Carolina beer industry!

Sunday, June 24, 2012

Butterflies and Babes

Check out the facebook link to see what was happening today on the farm.  It was a quiet day, low physical, but lots of activity.
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.3237372212491.2126389.1212302890&type=1&l=e6f57fbb2c

Sunday, June 3, 2012

"Crafing A Nation" Documentary Film Crew Here

Courtney Cobb rigs up the mike on Van Burnette
It was a beautiful crisp spring day, just right for the film crew of Crafting A Nation to come out and interview me for their upcoming film about the economic impact of the craft beer industry in America.  The crew is currently in Asheville filming for a few days and came out to add a segment to the film about local hop production.

The film is directed by Tom Kolicko out of the Denver Colorado area where he has already produced a fine documentary called "Beer Culture The Movie".  You can get a look at their facebook page here http://www.facebook.com/craftinganation?ref=ts#!/beerculturemovie  also you can check out the progress of their new movie "Crafting A Nation" on Facebook as well.

After watching their first movie, I am proud to be a part their fine filming skills. These guys are also going to get this film into such venues as the Sundance Film Festival and the New York Film Festival as well as video markets such as NetFlix.  It will be great publicity regardless for our local beer industry and for our local grown farms movement.

The crew sets up their next scene
I presented a good plug to North Carolina State University Extension Service, ASAP, and to Pisgah Brewing Company during the interview as well as the research and work that we do on the farm. This film should give a great boost to publicizing all that is going on here in this part of North Carolina. Hopefully it will be a good shot for our tours on the farm also.

What did they ask?  Well, let me just say, you don't have to ask Van Burnette much to get him talking.  They soon realized that the most important thing to ask me is "When are you going to be shutup?"  All kidding aside, we talked mainly about creating a new crop that creates a symbiotic relationship with a new emerging industry here and nation wide.  It was a lot of fun and I wish much success for them.

My good friend Tony Mackley and volunteer Lee Snelgrove from Columbia, SC got up at 7 am. on Saturday to come out for the shoot.  They played the part that they do best, working behind the star.  Really though, they sure helped get the farm looking great and were in the background working as they filmed.

I will keep up to date as the year progresses on this project.  Meet the crew below.
Videographers Brendan Harris and Noa Mittman, Producer Courtney Cobb, Director, Writer, Producer Thomas Kolicko, Star Van Burnette, and Producer Deana Macdonald