Iceland Beer Saga: Borg Brugghus Interview Part 3 - Updated

Before we dive into the final part of the interview I want to take another moment to say thanks to Stulli and Valli for taking the time out of their busy schedules to talk to me and share some of their tasty beer. It was a privilege. Now onto the thrilling conclusion!

Part 1
Part 2

Part 3

What particular beer do you feel best represents what you are doing here at Borg? What has been your best success to date?

Valli: I think it is no question that it is Úlfur, the IPA, it put Borg on the map. 

Stulli: Yes, it is definitely best all around sales. It really surprised the marketing department. 

Valli: Ulfar is the first IPA in Iceland much to my dislike because I wanted to be the first one to bring it at Ölvisholt. 

Stulli: I had this goal, this dream for many years to produce the first IPA in Iceland. I had told you a couple of years before that I was going to bring it. (laughs)

Valli: It is the first IPA and it came out in 2010.

Stulli: Early 2010

Valli: It is the first American style IPA on the market in Iceland. We had a couple of imported English IPAs, more like bitter ales.

Stulli: And really beat up Liberty Ale. 

Valli: Yes, just a couple months ago some guys started importing BrewDog and Mikkeller and you can now get those down at Micro Bar. 

We talked a little bit about how you are walking that fine line between craft brewing and that you have an industrial brewery backing you. How do manage that and still be able to produce these diverse, for Iceland, brews? 

Valli: It has been a process really. 

Stulli: It has been a steep uphill battle and getting the right people in the right places has really helped. 

Valli: We have managed to build up a reputation and people have finally realized that it is best to allow us to do what we want. 

Stulli: What we want is to introduce consumers to the wonders of beer and what the top floor sees is that we are increasing the positive reputation of the company.

Valli: We are building up the name Egils and that is one of the many roles of Borg. For example we came out with a 12% imperial stout and it sold out in one day. 

Stulli: The beer culture being the state that it is, it is a prime opportunity to introduce to the people fresh beer in the style it is being approached in American and Europe. The small breweries, interesting styles, high gravity beers, and doing that in the best way possible so that the consumers get the best quality product as possible. 

How collegial is the craft beer community around here or are you all still just a small band of rebels?

Stulli: Uh, I don't know (laughs).

Valli: For example Einstok is actually not intended for the Icelandic market. It is actually a brand owned by Americans. So it is basically just contract brewed up north in Iceland...

Stulli: …and we are lucky enough to get some of it in the market here because it is brewed here.

Valli: There are four types of Einstok being made and we can't get one of them on a regular basis. 

Stulli: Yes, it is a contract brewing gig, Americans approached the people at Viking about contract brewing for them. 

Valli: But this actually also shows the quality of the brewmaster they have. He is working a very big system, well in comparison, and manages to pull out these beers with no experience producing anything like this before, so they can do it domestically if they want it. 

Stulli: Well they just marketed it in cans as their summer ale. 

Valli: Right, the white ale, he apparently made two different types of batches of it and the one that the Americans didn't pick Viking sold as their summer beer. 

This is where the magic happens!

What do you want people to know about Borg?

Valli: Basically that we are making different types of beer.

Stulli: We are trying to brew the best beer we can make, trying to make honest products, having fun.

Valli: The big goal is to introduce different types of flavors. Get people to try new stuff. Essentially the easiest thing in Iceland is to be on the forefront of this movement because no one has done anything.

Stulli: So it sort of makes it easy for us to introduce a lot of things because people just don't know any better, so when I say make things as honest as possible I mean we are trying to make proper styles, proper beers, proper flavors, and not necessarily to style but make interesting things and be honest about them. It's about quality. 

Iceland Beer Saga: Borg Brugghús interview part 2

Part 1

Part 2

How has the reception been for Borg?

Valli: Being part of a big company there is a tension between sales people and brewers. So basically we haven't really been able to keep up with demand. It's a good thing, but it does hold back our creative abilities. 

Stulli: This is to make the owners happy. When I was starting I had to make a compromise. I got to brew an IPA if I made something they would like. So what I was going for was a lager with a twist. What I was thinking at the time was a sort of blend of a Munich Helles beer and something Belgian. It is a full time production beer. 

They get bolder as you move from left to right. 

Stulli: Our first beer was Brio, it was a 4.5 ABV German style pilsner, our second beer was a 4.5% brown ale [ed. note Austur] that I made for a bar downtown, the third was Úlfur which was the odd man out because I got to make it but it was a compromise because I would have wanted to make a 9% IPA. Then Bjartur a 5% lager like beer, a 4.5% amber lager, then when things changed you see Stekkjarstaur a 6% brown ale, Surtur, our imperial stout which is 12%, Benedikt, a belgian which is 7%, and so forth. 

Stulli: On Surtur, our imperial stout we ended up changing our final pretty drastically. 

Valli: It became a totally different beer. 

Stulli:  I had this goal, this dream for many years to produce the first IPA in Iceland. 

Valli: I was head brewer at Ölvisholt when it started, but because I live here in Reykjavik I basically couldn't afford to work there anymore. [ed. note Olvisholt is about an hour drive from Reykjavik and gas is very expensive on the island] So that is why I came over here. When we started at Ölvisholt I had promised to myself that I would never make a lager because that was all there was available in Iceland so I wanted to bring some change in. The only demand the owners had was to make a pale lager, but I made a steam beer so technically a lager. That was Skalftji. I didn't know I was making a steam beer, I had a lager but I wanted to brew it at a higher temperature to get more flavors to it and stuff. It wasn't when we started to export to Sweden that someone pointed out that this is steam beer then. It wasn't intentional, after that I tried to create beers that hadn't been produced in Iceland before which wasn't really hard though. All the things I made in Ölvisholt had never been produced here before. 

That is a cool opportunity to break new ground.

Valli: Well the brewers have actually been ahead of of the public. We are pushing out the new stuff, it is not because of the demand but because we want to do it. 

Stulli: Of course there is a small group of beer fanatic nerds, Haukur being one of them. The majority of people here just sort of tag along, they either love what we are doing, not necessarily every beer we make, but the creative things and new things at a small scale, or they hate it and just keep on drinking their regular beer. 

Valli: Well both groups keep on drinking their regular beer and that actually has been a problem. When Ölvisholt actually started we had a lot of good feedback to just bring something new and something different and we will pay whatever for it. We had huge amounts of people telling us that and we had great hopes and we were planning to expand the brewery before we even began brewing but when it came down to it people who had promised to buy nothing else didn't buy a single bottle of it. There is a lot of conservatism, people pick their brand, 'this is what I drink, this is my favorite.' People are starting to try different flavors and try different beers. 

Does that work in your favor when Icelanders go abroad? 

Valli: The thing is when Icelanders go abroad they go to a bar and ask for a cold beer. They get a Tuborg or a Heineken, and that is great for them because they are abroad, drinking, and that is enough. Although beer culture is better in most countries you still have to look for the quality and craft beers. 

Are you planning on exporting?

Stulli: Quality-wise, being Russian River alum, I'm not going to export anything I am worried about like my IPA. Don Feinberg has put in an order for our imperial stout which we are hoping to ship out to him, but we have to try and find time to produce it. 

What is the status of home brewing in Iceland?

Stulli: It is illegal in here, technically…

Valli: …you can't produce anything about 2.5%, that's the limit. 

How much of anything you brew is import? 

Valli: The raw materials? 

Stulli: Everything is imported.

Valli: Actually we are bringing out another beer, Snorri,  which we will bottle next week, [ed. note: this is now available at the duty free in Keflavik International Airport] made with Icelandic barley which is unmalted but with added enzyme. 

Stulli: It is no secret that the only way to make the raw barley usable is with added enzymes. It is just to get through the same process that is done in malting but in the kettle or mash tun. It is something we inherited from upstairs. 

Will there come a day when you can actually get malt? 

Stulli: In Iceland? 

Valli: I doubt it, just putting up a malting facility would be so expensive. 

Stulli: To make it profitable you would have to make so much malt and I doubt that enough malt is grown in Iceland. 

Valli: To make this beer a little more interesting we decided because it is so light to get some kick out of it we used english al and it's spiced with an Icelandic herb called arctic thyme. You can make it sound great, but then of course I think it is commercially acceptable. We run what we call beer school here and we had a trial version of it on tap and apparently the reception of the beer was very good. 

Stulli: We are going to bottle it unfiltered and try to make a new type of style, Icelandic barley beer. (laughs)

Valli: We boosted the spices in the next batch. 

Stulli: It is an exclusive beer for the duty free. 

It feels like you are doing research and development for Egils. Will something come out with their brand name on it that was your creation?

Valli: That is one of the many parts of Borg, we are the research brewery for the big brewery.  In the long run the goal is to produce beers that can move over to the big brewery for mass production. What we produce is on such small scale that in sales for the company it really doesn't matter on the books. The value for them is more marketing than anything else. Of course we produce beers that I know will move over to the big brewery. 

What was your inspiration to come back to Iceland and brew beer?

Stulli:  Having an Icelandic wife, kids on the way. It is great to live here other than beer, but I came to try and change that. 

***

Come back tomorrow for the thrilling conclusion where Stulli and Valli discuss what's next for Borg, maintaining their creativity in the shadow of a giant, and what's been their best success to date. 

Iceland Beer Saga: Borg Brugghús interview part 1

One of the coolest things I was able to do while in Iceland was sit down with the brewers of Borg Brugghús , Sturlaugur Jón Björnsson and Valgeiri Valgeirssyni. They had a lot to say about Icelandic beer culture, the challenges and opportunities, and how they are brewing a craft beer revolution on the island. 

The interview doesn't follow the standard pattern, we started at the bottom, worked to the middle, went from the top and ended up off script. So while I could organize it a bit I chose not to and went with the conversation as it occurred over tastings of Borg's excellent brews.  

Part 1

Valgeiri Valgeirssyni (Valli)

and Sturlaugur Jón Björnsson (Stulli) are

brewing up an Icelandic beer revolution.

So let's talk about your beer, what is your current line up, what is the current production you have going?

Current production is Brio Beer #1, though it has been moved over to the big brewery to keep up with demand. It is a pilsner, what we are drinking now. 

You didn't go with a pale ale?

Stulli: I'm sure that you realize that the beer culture in Iceland is so young, so it is pretty understandable that people just don't know any better. What Valli started with Ölvisholt Brugghús and when I came home what we had on our agendas was to introduce what beer is about, more than what most people think it is.

Has the community been receptive to the new beers?

Stulli: Yes, I would say it has really been going well, a lot of young people of our generation are getting into smaller scale production things and actually wanting to know what they are drinking and thinking about what they are consuming. They are looking for more interesting flavors and stuff like that. 

Has the jump for beer and food really taken off here yet?

Stulli: It is something that we are working on. Valli was sort of the trailblazer for beer and food when he was working with a restaurant downtown where they offered a menu paired with beers. 

Valli: There has been a big rise in Scandinavia food culture, but the drinks have been a little bit slower taking off, but because there is a high demand for Icelandic food, specialized Icelandic food spiced with Icelandic herbs, naturally they wanted to have Icelandic beverages available with them. 

Was there an Icelandic beer before prohibition? 

Valli: People say there was a special type before what we call Jólabland. That is an Icelandic Christmas drink mixed with orange soda.

Stulli: I would say if there was it was the maltextrakt, similar to what they have in Germany. Other than that, farther back in the past there wasn't really much of a beer culture anyways. Being such an isolated country with trade routes that weren't very active, only the bare necessities made it here. There really wasn't much demand for the raw ingredients for beer making or for importing beer either. 

You can't grow hops here either can you?

Valli: No, and we are barely growing barley as well and that is just a recent thing as well. 

Stulli: So the drinking culture here for centuries has been mainly strong liquor when available. Thinking about economics it is much cheaper per alcoholic unit to ship in a barrel of gin or akvavit than a barrel of beer. It would be a waste of space in the ship for cargo. 

Prohibition is repealed in 1989, though restrictions on liquor and wine had been lifted much earlier. Why?

Stulli: That's a good question.

Valli: They forgot about it basically.

Stulli: No, I think it was stubbornness, like in politics. It is a serious problem here in Icelandic politics, always has been. Prohibition started in 1915 and a couple of years later because we were refusing to take wine in trade of salt cod the Spaniards and Portuguese said they won't trade with us anymore if you aren't going to be buying our wine. So they allowed the sale and consumption of wine, shortly thereafter because of all sorts of corruption issues with doctor and such they allowed spirits. Spirits were technically legal but you had to get a prescription. So they allowed strong liquor, but probably as a compromise within the Alþingi, the minority would allow that if they did not allow beer. Which is hard to imagine but very likely with how politics are here in Iceland. So it was a very hard stubborn issue of minority that the ban would not allow beer. There were brief discussions in the 80s and finally they allowed it. All of the beer knowledge that Icelanders knew back then was just from going abroad. That was a lot of students going to Denmark and sailors going to Germany. That was mainly what they knew of beer. Of course at the time light lagers where the norm everywhere. It was the high point of light lagers. 

So what is the state of beer in Iceland now?

Stulli: I would say, compared to how short of time it has been since beer has been allowed we have come a fairly decent way. 

Valli: Compared to that there was absolutely nothing.

It is fascinating that you are located in one of the major producers of beer on the island and they do all the soda.

Stulli: Actually this company was started as a brewery.

Valli: When they started they thought prohibition would go away sooner rather than later. They had two years to produce beer

Stulli: Yes, they then produced non-alcoholic or 'light' beer which is 2.5%ABV, and maltextrakt, and soda. Through various deals this company expanded around the year 2000 and got into wholesale and importing. 

It is fascinating that they have taken the chance with Borg to be creative and mad scientists.

Valli: It is a very big step when they decided to do that, personally I don't think they had any idea what they were really going into. 

Stulli: No, not at all. When I came here they didn't even know about the things I was talking about, that beer is available in different shades of color and there are different flavors of beer. I don't think that anybody here actually knew how diverse beer could be. 

You should have sent them on a field trip to Belgium.

Valli: They would have just drank Stella and found it amazing. 

What are your favorite styles? 

Valli: Well that varies of course. For me it is the more the merrier. At the moment imperial stouts and double IPAs. The beer geeks favorites.

Stulli: Yes, I really like pretty much everything if it is well done and conditioned. The right atmosphere and right people. If I sit down to enjoy a beer definitely reach for a nice sour Belgian. Back in the day Orval is what got me into loving beer and still is my favorite. 

***

Look for Part 2 tomorrow where Stulli and Valli talk about Borg's reception, if they will be exporting, and other challenges they face. 

SAVOR DC 2012: Beer puts on formalwear and steps out on the town.

These glasses await their destiny.

Brewers and beer lovers descended on the National Buidling Museum in Washington DC for a celebration of beer and food over the evenings of June 8-9. Welcome to SAVOR 2012. Under the Roman arches and Corinthian pillars in the Great Hall, craft brewers from across the United States served up top notch beer paired with a cornucopia of foods. Styles of beer ranged across the spectrum from Black IPA to Imperial Stout, Rye Saison to Berliner Weisse. Food pairings were just as diverse with small plates ranging from lobster pot stickers and braised goat to S'mores and cornbread cobbler. The name of the game for SAVOR DC is quality beer paired up with an assortment of small plates. All the beers were tied to a particular style of food meant to amplify each other and bring out the best of both. An example of this is would be an espresso stout paired with red velvet cake, or a porter paired with salt cod fritters.  It  is pretty safe to say there was something for everyone.

Beer and food, two
great things meant
for each other.

Much like the variety in the food and beer, the brewers also reflected the diversity of the craft beer community in the United States. Young and old, big and small, the breweries included such large stalwarts such as Sierra Nevada and Sam Adams ranging down to small brewpubs like Vintage 50 and Magnolia Gastropub. Representation came from across the country too such as Surly Brewing hailing from Minnesota or Uinta Brewing from Utah, to locals brewers from the DC metro region, like newcomers DC Brau and Port City. 

For all the brewers SAVOR DC is a chance to share their passion for making good beer with an appreciative audience. Tim Surprise, founder of Arcadia Ales, said, "I'd like people to be titillated enough that our beers began the journey for them to not only become a fan of our beer but to discover something that resonates their interest in beer and food for the long term. 

For other breweries SAVOR DC offered a chance to educate and inform the attendees that great beer can be found across the country. Paul Kavulak, founder of Nebraska Brewing Company, said, "We already have great beer in the Midwest, but Nebraska hasn't really been known as a great craft beer state, I'm hoping people leave understanding that good beer can come out of there too."

Kavulak brought his gold medal winning (and delicious) Melange A Trois chardonnay barrel aged Belgian strong ale to back up his statement. 

Building a better world,
one glass at a time.

While there was no official dress code, people dressed in what made them comfortable, ranging from suits and evening gowns to a few t-shirts and bluejeans. Overall though that really didn't matter. What was more important was to be part of veritable smorgasbord of delicious food and drink with like minded people. There was a very cordial atmosphere over the whole event with folks mingling with each other, writing up their own tasting notes, sharing recommendations and moving from station to station looking for their favorites brews or that next something special. 

Brewers took the time to talk with guests, explaining their beer and brewing techniques between keeping tasting glasses refreshed. Lines moved quickly at the various beer stations and food stations stayed pretty well stocked. Only once did I spy a station that ran empty, but that was remedied about a minute later. If there was a real wait is was for freshly shucked oysters but even there the folks many that both worked their knives with deft assurance. Overall the event was well run with excellent support from the wait staff, security, and the volunteers. 

As guests departed the event they were handed a bottle of Terra Incognita, a beer brewed specifically for SAVOR events, a collaboration between Sierra Nevada of California and Boulevard Brewing of Kansas City, MO. (Which for you fans of Boulevard it will be out here in the DC market starting next week! Huzzah!)

It almost seems peaceful
from up here.

So what to make of SAVOR? First off it really is a celebration of how far we have come with craft beer. An event like this, with it's diversity in styles and brewers, doesn't exist a decade ago. Now, not only does it exist but it sells out almost immediately. There is a clamor and demand from the beer drinking public to push the limits and explore the boundaries. The versatility of beer with food is an eye-opening experience, with pairings running the gamut from hors d'ovres  to dessert (in the case of Stone's Collaboration Highway 78, a nice cigar would have been excellent.)

There really is a beer for every time and place on the food spectrum. SAVOR stacks up the evidence and goes about the business of making believers out of anyone who would argue otherwise. While SAVOR could prove a bit challenging to a brand new explorer in the craft beer world it will be a revelation to folks who enjoy a good food and beer adventure. (On a side note while I believe beer with it's varieties will always have an edge in pairing versus wine I would like to know if there is a particular food where wine actually pairs better than beer…food for thought, if you have any ideas let us know in the comments.)

Events like SAVOR don't
happen without awesome
volunteers! Cheers to them!

Here is where I would interject a word of caution though, while SAVOR is a a worthy celebration of craft beer, we still need to continue to make beer approachable and enjoyable. In other words we don't walk down the path to beer snobbery and elitism because at the end of that is place where we will all lose. At the same time though a great counterpoint was made by Kristi Griner, head brewster at Vintage 50 stated it best, "We are still introducing a new crowd to the joy of craft beer and bringing them over to our side, while some of these beers may be unique to some people, for others these are their local breweries and are places they go to enjoy great beer." 

My mother hennish thoughts aside, SAVOR is an excellent and worthwhile event that any food or beer loving person should highly consider attending. You will not be disappointed.

Lucky Town Brewing Interview Part 2 - Redefining Mississippi Beer

Here is the second part of our interview with Chip and Lucas from Lucky Town Brewing. They discuss Lucky Town's beer line up, why they chose Kickstarter, and what you can expect from them in 2012. 

Need to get caught up? Part 1 can be found here. 

Be looking for this if you want
to find creative southern beer.

Let’s talk about your beer for a bit; I know that you have introduced four of them on your video (see below).  Tell us a bit about them?

Lucas: Absolutely, our first beer and our staple is our maple and brown sugar oatmeal stout. We thought of adding that in there one day and started playing with recipes and took it down and won a competition with it. It turned out to be a really good beer. You don’t get as much sweetness as people think when you say that because we actually put the maple and brown sugar in the bowl so most of it ferments out, so you get a little bit of sweetness but you get a lot of additional flavor out of it.

Chip: That one is the Flare Incident.

Lucas: On top of that we have our Ballistic Blonde which is a Belgian style blonde. It is a very simple beer but we stay slightly true to form with the Belgian style but we added more hops to it because we love hops and it was just not hoppy enough. It does have some fruity notes, the yeast gives off some nice esters. We have our Lizard Tail Pale Ale which was kind of an accident one day, but it turned out really well. It is dry hopped, again we love hops so we use them more than we should. Then there is our Hop Fiasco that has been evolving ever since we have started it. The reason we call it the Hop Fiasco is because we dumped over half a pound of hops in a five gallon batch. It was a little intense for what we wanted so we backed it off, we changed up the hop schedule a little bit, and it has gotten to be a really, really good beer.

What is on the tap for future styles?

Lucas: We are playing with a lot of things, of course seasonals, we have an Octoberfest, we have an amber that was designed by Brandon Blacklidge our R&D manager. It was his first designed beer and it came out extremely well. The boy has the best palette I have ever been around when it comes to beer tasting. He has come a long way with his recipe formulation. Saisons, I’ve got one sitting right now that we are messing with. That one is going to be something that will constantly change. Of course we eventually want to get in to doing sours and all the weird, funky stuff, because we love it and there is not one style that we all enjoy so much that we don’t want to drink anything else. So we want to play with everything.

Chip: We also did some experimenting with the holiday porter which had…

Lucas: ...vanilla, fig, cinnamon, nutmeg, clove, it was a smorgasbord of holiday spices.

How has the reception been with people in the area in regards to the beer?

Lucas: Very positive. As a brewer it makes you feel better than nothing else when you see somebody and you know by looking at them that they have never tried anything unique and they drink it and they love it. We had such a good reception for that stout because most people down here when they think of stout they only think of Guinness at best. Guinness is just not for everybody, so when they drink ours they are really surprised and you can see it in their face. They are not used to something like that so we have had an extremely good reception and I hope it keeps up that way.

Any particular style a favorite of yours?

Lucas: I’m typically a stout guy, I love oatmeal stouts , that is why we have one on there, but I don’t stick to one thing on any evening so that is kind of hard to say. I just love beer.

Chip: I tend to go either one of two ways, I like hops a lot so I like stong pale ales and hoppy IPAs, but also there are times that I prefer a smooth creamy porter or stout. It kind of depends on what mood I am in.

Tell us a bit about why you chose Kickstarter for the Lucky Town Brewery project?

Chip: We didn’t know about Kickstarter for awhile until after we started the business. We actually saw another brewery that was starting up use it which was Wilderness Brewing, which is Mike and Nate out of Kansas City, Missouri, so I gave them a call and we talked and about what our goals were and what we were trying to do. I asked him how was it and how was the reception because they were successful in their Kickstarter project. I brought it to the team and said that I think this would be a really good idea for us to get people involved not only on the startup side of it, from the ground up, but also because it attracts people that want to be involved but they don’t have the means to drop a big investment in a new company. It kind of gives them a little bit of pride and passion, especially for local people.

Lucas: It gets our name out there and like Chip said, it allows people to be a part of something for very little investment. It helps us in several ways, for the first phase of our business plan it allows us to get a little starter with minimal capital risk on our part. It will jump start us, I guess kickstart just like the website is called. It helps us get involved with people that want to be involved with the brewery. We have met so many people that want to be supportive of this since we have started so from every aspect this has been helpful to us.

What do you see as your projected output?

Lucas: We would like to start, and this is part of the plan now, we are projecting to start with a 15 barrel system. That allows us to not be too big starting off, but we can also add larger fermenters and upscale our output without completely changing the brewhouse size. We don’t want to go any smaller than that because we feel that with the market we are sitting in we will overrun the system very quickly. It may be a little larger, but I doubt it. I think 15 barrels is our target size to start off with.

Will you be distributing in bottles, cans?

Chip: Starting out we will be on draft and only on tap. It will be distributed throughout the central Mississippi region. In Mississippi, the law requires that all manufactured beer from a production brewery must be distributed by a distributor so we won’t be able to self-distribute anything and we also cannot have a taproom right now.

Lucas: Yes, that is another thing that hasn’t even attempted to be changed yet, but we would like to make a good business case to some of the legislature around here to see if we can’t do something about that. No one has tried to change that because we only have one brewery and they are kind of located out in the country so a taproom is really not that enticing for them, but we have gone places, I have personally visited Yazoo Brewing in Nashville and you can sit on their front porch and drink in the afternoon and take a tour which is just awesome. It is a great part of the community, so through this year we are going to see if we can get the legislature on our side to change that law for next year hopefully, or at least get it brought up because that will influence us when we go straight to brick and mortar on where we put the brewery. There is no sense in getting in the middle of Jackson if we can’t have a taproom. It is not going to be that conducive to us.

What can folks expect from Lucky Town Brewing in 2012?

Chip: Beer.

Lucas: We should have two styles flowing by the end of this year.

Do you plan on having a grand opening, or is that too far down the road?

Lucas: We will when we get to that point.

                                                                  ********

That wraps up our interview with Lucky Town Brewing. A big thanks to Chip and Lucas for taking the time to talk with us.

Check out their Kickstarter project and chip in a few bucks to help make a better beer world.

For more information on Lucky Town Brewing check out their website, facebook page, follow them on twitter or see what they are enjoying on Untappd. 

Want to help change the beer laws in Mississippi? Go check out the efforts of Raise Your Pints, or if you are in Mississippi contact your local state representatives and state senators.