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Beervana Brewin’ in Billtown
By CINDY DAVIS MEIXEL
A Naked Elf is having its way with me.
All right, to be honest, I’m under the influence of two Naked Elves and I’m not referring to the guys behind the bar at B21 Global Pub, just the happy hops they serve.
My husband and I have found our way to this cozy, smoke-free joint next to Papa John’s Pizza on Washington Boulevard in Williamsport. Opened on St. Patrick’s Day this year, B21 is yet another beacon on the booming craft beer radar in “Billtown.”
When I ask about the Naked Elf offered on the bar’s chalkboard, Chip Roush, B21’s general manager, explains that it’s a concoction of Troeg’s Brewery, in Harrisburg. Troeg’s has taken its popular holiday ale, Mad Elf, and stripped out the honey, cherries, and chocolate malt to create this “naked” variety. Sounds appealing.
Roush stands at our table for a short while, swirling a bottle of Celis White, a Belgian-style witbier (white beer), before pouring it into my husband’s glass. This light stirring will rouse the unfiltered brew’s yeast, Roush reasons, adding that unfiltered beers offer fuller flavor. He lauds the Celis White’s taste and rattles off a whir of enticing ingredients: raw winter wheat, coriander, and sour orange peel, like the kind that flavors curacao liqueurs. We’re told the beverage’s sweetness pairs well with spicy foods.
When did beer get to be so interesting, so exotic? I’m baffled. Amused. Oddly inspired. I’m also impressed by this unusual service—the swirling, the sharing. Roush’s enthusiasm for craft beer is infectious. And did I mention the fact that he wears a kilt? Equally inspiring.
Roush and B21’s beer consultant, Gary Shaw, also ruggedly kilt-clad, speak to us about “joining the revolution.” I envision Braveheart in Billtown.
Indeed, a “revolution” is brewing.
Crafty folks
It seems that “craft brewers”—the term that has now replaced “microbreweries”—are in the midst of an uprising. And they are winning. Sales for craft beers are growing while sales for mainstream beers are dropping. It seems consumers are increasingly willing to spend more money on higher quality beers, but, at the same time, savor those beers, while consuming less.
“It’s quality versus quantity,” Shaw states. “It’s the little guys versus ‘The Big Three’ (Anheuser-Busch, Coors, and Miller). Many people are leaving the old standbys behind. Those beers had their day, but now they are on the decline.
For the big industry giants, it’s all about volume, but the craft movement has a different focus.”
Shaw adds that the term “craft” is an “accurate reflection of the care, attention, aspirations, and passion of the brewer; craft beers are beers made by those who appreciate the craft.” He credits home brewers with starting the craft-beer trend by resurrecting obscure styles and creatively experimenting with new and eclectic techniques.
It all sounds so serious, but the B21 kilt clan assures us that we are not to be intimidated. “It shouldn’t be intimidating. It’s a fun, creative experience and we’re here to be your guides,” Shaw offers. “Everyone should try something new and embark on an exploration of their own tastes.”
Sure, beer is still down-to-earth, bawdy, and fun. With names like Naked Elf, Fat Dog, Golden Monkey, and Busted Lawnmower, it’s hard to take the beverage too seriously. It’s just that beer is getting a bit dressed up . . . like wine. A new phrase being bantered about is: “Beer is the new wine.” And, apparently, this trend has legs.
“Wine did a good job of updating its image and now it’s beer’s turn,” Shaw asserts. “Beer has more breadth than wine does in its spectrum of flavors. From the lightest to the darkest, the beer family offers more flavor possibilities.”
Restaurants are becoming more aware of beer’s potential. Upscale establishments are now hiring “beer sommeliers” to suggest appropriate complements to certain foods. Although more laid-back than upscale, B21 also serves “pub grub” sandwiches to balance the beers served.
“We are striving to create an environment that’s enhanced by the full appreciation of good beer and good food,” Shaw says, referring to craft beer consumers as “appreciative beer drinkers.”
Committed to the Brew Crew
Like other members of the craft-beer culture, B21 is also committed to supporting local brewers.
“We don’t make our own beer here,” explains Shaw, “but we believe in the quality of the product we sell and we’re definitely into supporting Pennsylvania businesses. We’re all on the same side. We’re all part of the revolution.”
Area brews featured on tap include those from Williamsport’s Bullfrog Brewery and Otto’s Brewery in State College. B21 is also an avid supporter of other Pennsylvania brewing companies including Stoudts, in Adamstown, Victory, in Downington, and Troeg’s. National craft beer stars glowing in the cooler include Samuel Adams, Dogfish Head, and Magic Hat. And, being a “global pub,” B21 stocks beers crafted in Belgium, Germany, Ireland, Poland, and Mexico, among others.
“We work hard at finding beers nobody else has,” Shaw says, adding that if a distributor is reluctant to carry a certain beer, they’ll go directly to the brewery and encourage them to talk to the distributor. “We will not be denied. If it exists and it’s legal, we’ll get it. We are a force. This is the future. This is what sells.”
Another hallmark of craft-beer consumers (also known as “hop heads”) is their sense of brand exploration.
“We’re willing to experiment with trying new tastes rather than sticking with the same brand,” Shaw says. “It’s a passionate hobby and we’re always out searching.”
A Bustling Business
Thanks to all this experimenting and searching, the craft-beer business is burgeoning for sure. A Pennsylvania brewers’ map, published in Mid-Atlantic Brewing News, reveals the bulk of breweries and pubs in the Philadelphia area. The businesses spill northwestward but become sparse after the Harrisburg line. The highest two northwestern breweries in the state are the Bullfrog Brewery, in Williamsport’s downtown district, and Abbey Wright Brewing Company, located at The Valley Inn, in Duboistown, a suburb of South Williamsport.
America’s craft beer movement is only about a quarter-century old and didn’t begin to stir in Williamsport until 1996 when Steve Koch, a former Hughesville area resident, opened the Bullfrog along with his parents, Bob and Harriet Koch, and a childhood friend, Charlie Schnable, and his mother, Barbara Whipple.
Steve had been attending college near Seattle and had become indoctrinated in the Pacific Northwest’s craft-beer culture. “I thought, ‘If I move back to this area, there had to be some good beer here,’” Koch relates.
Since Schnable had been home brewing and was equally passionate about craft beer, the duo leaped together into the frothy fray. For its first couple of years, the Bullfrog operated without a liquor license while it gained its legs in brewing.
“We didn’t want just another bar; we wanted something unique,” Koch says. “We wanted to make our own beer and we wanted a town gathering spot like the old, town taverns used to be. We wanted a place where people could sit, sip, and appreciate, and we could steer people toward conversation.
“At the time when we came in, there wasn’t much craft beer to speak of, but we thrust this idea into the community and it has been fun to watch the town change, to watch the learning curve and see people’s sophistication evolve,” he continues. ”And, now, we’ve become a beer town.”
Billtown, Beertown
The main room at the Bullfrog restaurant features two copper-clad tanks: a boiler and mash tun. Behind the bar are five stainless-steel fermenters and four serving tanks. A grain room is in the basement.
The Bullfrog acquires some local hops as well as specialty, and occasionally organic, malts and hops from national and global sources. Brewmaster Terry Hawbaker is experimenting with a wild yeast strain originating from Belgium to create a concoction aptly called “Kegs Gone Wild.”
Standards on the beer menu at the popular watering hole include the Billtown Blonde, Susquehanna Stout, and Edgar IPA, an ode to Edgar Allan Poe and one of his final works, “Hop-Frog.”
Expanding on the energy that began with the Bullfrog and Selin’s Grove Brewery, in Selinsgrove, which also opened in 1996, other breweries are popping up in the area. In 2001, Schnable left the Bullfrog to open Otto’s Brewery in Centre County. Last year, Abbey Wright Brewing Company joined the Lycoming County scene and, by the end of this year, the field will grow to include the Bavarian
Barbarian Brewing Company, set to open on West Third Street in Williamsport.
Koch says, “It’s always exciting to welcome another brewery. It’s a tight-knit community I’ve grown to depend on. We call each other for advice or to borrow emergency equipment or supplies. There’s a family feel to it. We’re up against the big producers together and we’re slowly winning. We’re picking up ground as people’s tastes grow up and they begin to expect more from their beer.”
The Wright Way
When Valley Inn owners Jim and Ellen Wright decided to add onto their entertaining enterprise and open Abbey Wright, the Bullfrog stepped up to help out and lend advice.
“We all have the same mindset: the more breweries, the better,” says Jim Wright, who notes that the brewery gets its name from a combination of his wife’s maiden name and his.
“It’s a lot of work to establish a brewery, but it’s a lot of fun,” Wright adds. “When we built a banquet room onto the side of our building, I said, ‘Let’s just get into this brewing thing.’ We got into it for the fun of it and it has become self-sufficient. We’re having fun with it.”
Abbey Wright’s head brewer Bart Rieppel has proffered a variety of beers including Mosquito Wheat, named for the nearby Mosquito Valley, and Strawberry Weisse, for which he utilized 120 pounds of fresh strawberries.
When the Bavarian Barbarian opens its doors later this fall, it will be Williamsport’s first production brewery since Flock’s Brewery closed in the late 1940s. Mike Hiller, “Barbarian chief” and head brewer, plans to sell his beers to restaurants and bars and also offer sixty-four-ounce jugs, or “growlers,” to patrons. A tasting room, to be known as the “Horde Room,” will give visitors an opportunity to view the brewery’s operations while savoring samples.
Barbarian beverages will include Hammerin’ Ale, Square Feet Wheat, and Weldspatter IPA (India Pale Ale), tributes to Hiller’s background in carpentry and welding. Hiller also holds a degree in acting and trained as a brewer in Richmond, Virginia, so the brewery will give him a new “stage” to blend all of his interests.
“My passion for brewing is a passion for creativity,” Hiller relates. “I enjoy sharing what I’ve created with my hands. Sharing is a big part of the attraction for me. The combination of sharing and creating a joyous occasion—that’s what does it for me—and I definitely get to play to an audience.”
A Kimball Wizard
Another player on the city craft-beer scene is Kimball’s Pub, located on Park Avenue, on the rim of the Pennsylvania College of Technology campus. Like B21, Kimball’s vigorously supports area brewers, offering its beers on tap, and also showcases a staggering selection of American craft-beer bottles.
Eric Filipkowski, Kimball’s co-owner and a former assistant brewer at the Bullfrog, says the craft beer movement is “a beer culture.”
“That’s why I like it so much. It’s not just a business; it’s a culture. We all want to help each other out. It’s not cutthroat,” Filipkowski explains, adding that another enlivening aspect of the culture is educating and enlightening others on the benefits of craft beer.
“When we educate the local community, they understand the higher prices and they understand the importance of supporting local brewers,” he says.
The Hops Movement
Like the “Buy Fresh, Buy Local” food movement, a “drink local” ‘philosophy is gaining ground, according to Filipkowski, who sees customers increasingly interested in supporting local brewers as a way of contributing to a strong local economy and enjoying fresher products.
Like Hiller and Koch, who became enthralled with the craft beer culture while living in other states, Filipkowski is also a “local boy” whose interest was piqued during his college years in Colorado and while living in Portland, Oregon, considered by many in the beer world to be America’s “Beervana.”
All three beer aficionados, like fellow brewmasters Hawbaker and Rieppel, are in their thirties and are home brewing devotees.
Rieppel believes their youthfulness reveals an age group whose tastes and interests have evolved from the existing norm.
“We’re a generation that isn’t satisfied with the traditional American beer,” Rieppel considers. “Once you realize there is more quality stuff out there, it becomes an obsession.”
Obsessive hop heads are once again stirring with glee at the onset of a new season, when brewers roll out their seasonal offerings. Autumn arrivals include hearty ales, smoked lagers, and experimentations with cider, honey, cinnamon, and pumpkin.
On my last visit to B21, the Naked Elf was nowhere in sight. It had skipped off with its summer friends. But, reliable Samuel Adams was there with its Oktoberfest in all of its amber-hued glory, imparting caramel and toffee tones.
Samuel Adams’ new slogan woos drinkers to consume responsibly while considering quality: “Take Pride In Your Beer.”
B21’s beer gurus believe the mantra is reflective of “the craft beer culture, philosophy and worldview.”
Shaw says, “The advertising of The Big Three presents beer as a silly product. They dumb down the beer consumer. But the craft beer industry is redefining the boundaries of beer. Beer is worthy of our respect.”
The revolution brews on.
Williamsport’s Brewing History: The Koch Connection
This isn’t the first time a Koch has been brewing beer in Lycoming County.
Steve Koch and his parents, Bob and Harriet Koch, recently celebrated the eleventh anniversary of their Williamsport business, the Bullfrog Brewery.
Nearly 150 years before the Bullfrog appeared on the local scene, Koch’s Brewery was operating “across the river” in South Williamsport.
August Koch, a builder of flour mills and breweries in Germany, came to the area in 1850. On land along Main Street in South Williamsport, he built a brewery that was operated by his family until Prohibition forced it to close in 1920. (Coincidentally, the brewery was located on land in the same block as the Dixie Card Shop, another business owned by Bob Koch.)
Steve’s family, which moved from Long Island to the Hughesville area in 1970 when he was just two years old, has no direct connection to the August Koch family, however, the modern-day Kochs are proud of the Koch connection in brewing. Steve says Koch is a prevalent name in beer making. (Probably the most well-known Koch in America’s brewing community is Jim Koch, a sixth-generation brewer and founder of The Boston Beer Company, producer of Samuel Adams beers.)
In addition to Koch’s Brewery, Flock’s Brewery operated in the area. The vision of Henry Flock, a stonemason from Germany, that brewery was located on Franklin Street in Williamsport from 1865 until the late 1940s. It escaped the fate of the Koch brewery by converting to dairy during the Prohibition. After Prohibition’s repeal, the brewery returned to its beer-making roots. In 1951, Lycoming College acquired the brewery’s buildings which were eventually razed.
Many in Williamsport today still fondly recall Flock’s Brewery and will soon witness the unveiling of the city’s next production brewery when the Bavarian Barbarian Brewing Company opens its doors later this fall.
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