JK: Heirloom beets, local cheeses, especially Jasper Hill Harbison. JK: Grapeseed oil, yogurt, eggs, ice cream. John Kimmich: We love Asian food-Vietnamese, Korean and Japanese.ĮGM: A few ingredients always in your fridge or pantry? That was fun and challenging but… I think we’ve shown that if you concentrate on making one product exceedingly well, you don’t need to make anything else.”Įdible Green Mountains: One cannot live on beer alone. Brewers feel they have to prove something. Back at the Waterbury pub, I was brewing 70 or 80 different styles. John added, “It’s amazing to be able to focus on just a couple of high-quality products. Barring any catastrophes, this new pub and brewery in Stowe will be there for another 400 years,” said Jen. “We’re building a pretty cool thing that has surpassed our expectations. Heady Topper will still be produced in Waterbury while Stowe will brew two additional flagship beers, Focal Banger and Holy Cow, as well as some seasonal offerings. This spring, The Alchemist will break ground for a brand new enterprise in Stowe which will contain a brewery, pub and retail space. “We were engaged within a month and married a year and half later. A year later, Noonan offered John the job as head brewer at the Vermont Pub and Brewery in Burlington. On his days off, he volunteered and worked with Greg Noonan, the owner and brewer. John began his career in 1994, waiting tables at a brew pub in West Lebanon, NH. “We deliver to 160 accounts and it’s a constant juggle of who gets how many cases.” “People hound us to distribute beyond our 25-mile range, but we just don’t have enough beer to expand,” explained John. They brew four days a week and can on three days. The Alchemist Brewery, which now lives high on a dry hillside, produces 9,000 barrels of Heady Topper each year compared to the 400 barrels John had brewed at the pub. Within days of the tropical storm, the first silver and black cans of Heady Topper rolled off the line and into the hands of lucky consumers.Īnd thus the craze began. Serendipitously, John and Jen Kimmich, co-owners of The Alchemist in Waterbury, already had Plan B under way. Although Irene shuttered the popular watering hole (gives new meaning to that term), The Alchemist revived itself. Within minutes, the floodwater was already a few inches deep on the first floor.īut brewers are a creative and determined lot. So the brewer headed to the taps and poured one last beer.Īs John drank it, he could feel tanks bobbing in the basement below his feet. Opening the door to the basement, he saw that water had risen nearly to the ceiling. When John Kimmich checked on his pub the evening of August 28, 2011, he had just enough time to turn off the pilots of the gas stoves.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |