Yours for Good Fermentables ™: Beer dot AG in NC: demystifying beer
Sean Wilson —past coordinator of a successful effort to unlimit the allowable alcohol levels for beer in North Carolina, Pop the Cap— is preparing to open his own brewpub in North Carolina.At Full Steam, Sean and his team have done a lot of things right, and are doing many more in fascinating fashion. Such as:
We’re going with the fullsteam dot ag to help spread this message of beer-as-agriculture, particularly as we will rely heavily on local farms for flavoring components. Plus, the .ag is a little “out there” and unexpected.
As part of his mission at Full Steam, Sean wishes to help correct a beer/agricultural disconnection, an unknowing we have with much of our food chain. Here's how he puts it:
To many people, beer is some kind of mystery beverage produced in industrial vats. In fact, we’d argue that beer’s recent (past forty years) image problem is, in part, because people don’t understand how it’s made. Wine? That’s crushing grapes. Even neutral spirits like vodka…well, that’s potatoes (sometimes, not always…but that’s what people think).
Try this sometime. Pick someone randomly and ask them what beer is made from. Well, not too random…avoid asking anyone wearing a “support your local brewery” t-shirt, bearded men, microbiologists, and people who regularly swim in rivers.
Chances are that half of them won’t know the four primary ingredients in beer. Heck, some of you might not know. And that’s okay…as long as you leave with that information (barley, hops, yeast, water).
The brewery industry continues to struggle to get the word out that beer is an agricultural product, made from grains, a vine (technically bine) that produces flowers, water, and live yeast.
If we might think of Full Steam as one beer's analogue to The Omnivore's Dilemma, then we wait for Full Steam —intrigued and thirsty. Read more.
